Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Bureau of Statistics, after six agonising minutes, has just announced that Australia has voted 'yes' for same-sex marriage, at 61.6 per cent. No offence to veterans but this is the first time a statistician has stopped the nation; it was announced literally seconds before I popped up, so I just wanted to get that off my chest.

The Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Omnibus) Bill 2017 will be supported by the Greens. It makes a series of minor changes to the veterans compensation law across several acts. According to the minister, it implements several small but necessary amendments to veterans legislation to clarify, improve or streamline the operation of the law. We all accept in here that the veterans' entitlements system is a mess. All sides of politics agree that the entitlement system, including access to compensation, needs to be fixed. This existing compensation and rehabilitation legislation is a burden on veterans, advocates and even the Department of Veterans' Affairs itself.

I initiated an inquiry a couple of years ago into veterans' suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder—and you, Acting Deputy President Gallacher, may well have been there for that, as was Senator Fawcett. We went around the country taking evidence. Some of it was absolutely heartbreaking stuff. We heard that when our Defence personnel leave the ADF or the Department of Defence and go out into the world, they feel like they fall off a cliff, especially those who may be suffering trauma and haven't necessarily registered that. And there are good reasons why a number of both serving Defence personnel and ex-Defence personnel don't talk about this issue: there's a stigma attached to mental health issues associated with their time in the Defence department and their service. And it's not always those who have been frontline troops and have seen action; often, post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health issues that lead to suicide come from other aspects of defence such as training exercises. No two people's symptoms are the same. We heard that Defence personnel often feel like they fall off a cliff when they go into civilian life. They often feel dislocated. They're suffering and often don't speak out on it. So just getting them to speak is an absolutely critical thing.

What was absolutely 100 per cent clear to the committee was that attempting to navigate the veterans' entitlement system was a key part of the problem, and that we needed to do whatever we could to make it a lot easier to access advice, to get advocates to work for them and to get the right kind of help that they need. Sometimes compensation isn't necessarily the solution to a problem if you're a veteran and you're suffering mental health illnesses or physical disabilities; there are other things that are quite important to veterans as well.

We've also heard recent evidence in another suicide inquiry—the recent inquiry into veterans' suicide that Senator Lambie came to the Greens to enlist our help on. Senator Lambie participated in my inquiry as well. We heard more evidence from countless witnesses that the current system is contributing to mental health problems and suicide amongst the Defence and veterans community. For example, we heard evidence from Colonel David Jamison, formerly from the Alliance of Defence Service Organisations. He told the committee:

… we believe a significant factor contributing to the problem lies in the legislative framework on which support to veterans is based.

…   …   …

It is abundantly clear from social media groups that veterans from the more recent conflicts feel alienated and see the system as biased against them.

The problems for veterans aren't just limited to compensation, as I mentioned. We heard, during the inquiry into the digital readiness bill earlier this year, that veterans face unreasonably long wait periods to be reimbursed for the costs of any claims. On top of this, rates of entitlement are inconsistent and arbitrary, and the application and assessment processes are labyrinth and circuitous. For many veterans the bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans' Affairs is a barrier to getting what they believe they're entitled to. They see the system as combative and hostile, but whether that is or is not the case is not necessarily the issue here; it's the very firm perception amongst many of the witnesses that the inquiry heard that this is the case.

It's incumbent on all political parties of all colours to work together with the veterans community to create a better system for those who do serve our country. Many of the issues that we uncovered in the Greens-initiated Senate inquiry into PTSD and suicide are also very common issues with first responders—with police—and with other professions in this country.

What will the Greens do? In response to this mess—and it's been like this for a large number of years—we've consistently said we would like to undertake a root-and-branch review of the veterans' entitlement system. I know Senator Lambie went much further by calling for a royal commission. She kept her call up for a royal commission into the Department of Veterans' Affairs while she was here. We believe a root-and-branch review is absolutely essential. We have had many, many reviews over a number of years now, and the direct feedback that I've had from the veterans community is: no more reviews, just get on with it. Just get on with, for example, the many recommendations that have been made by numerous Senate inquiries over time. Get on with it and fix the system. Certainly, from the inquiry that I was involved in that the Greens initiated, there are a large number of recommendations that we're continuing to monitor and that still haven't been implemented, even though they have been recommended by all political parties in the Senate.

In the review, in particular, we want to focus on current entitlements—about whether they're sufficient and whether the current eligibility criteria are fair for veterans, including access to health cards, disability pensions, housing and superannuation arrangements. One of the key issues the inquiry into veteran PTSD and suicide looked at was veteran homelessness. Back then there was a lot of buck-passing—that this is an issue for the states—but the Senate recommended that this is something the federal government should step into. There are a lot of veterans who are suffering from relationship breakdown, alcohol and drug abuse and mental health issues who are sleeping rough. I also acknowledge, in relation to the access to health cards, the great work of my previous colleague in this place, Senator Ludlam, who, although he was the first to resign on the basis of a section 44 constitutional issue, also did great work for veterans over a large number of years, as did Senator Lambie, including being a key instigator in getting the nuclear-testing veterans, finally, after nearly 20 years of fighting, access to their gold card.

We need to get on with recommendations that redesign the entitlements process to make it more legible and accessible, and we recommend an overhaul of the delivery of support services. Complaints about DVA are still on the rise, after all these inquiries, which is an indicator that the system is still failing our veterans. The review of service delivery should consider assigning each veteran a liaison officer—in fact, this was one of the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into PTSD and veteran suicide and homelessness—to act as a single point of contact to help navigate the system. I know advocates do a good job in some respects, and I've spoken to advocates, including in my home town of Launceston, who work with veterans, but, nevertheless, I understand that that still is not a formal policy yet. We support the veterans suicide inquiry's recommendation that the government make a reference to the Productivity Commission to simplify the legislative framework of compensation and rehabilitation for service members and veterans, and we are pleased that the government has accepted this recommendation.

So we'll be supporting this bill today, but, in the meantime, the Greens have been working with all parties to incrementally improve the system, most recently with the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Defence Force) Bill 2016, and now with this omnibus bill. We are pleased that the government has taken on board the legitimate concerns of stakeholders, the Greens and the crossbench, and removed the provision which would have allowed the principal member of the Veterans' Review Board the power to dismiss applications for review if they are deemed frivolous, vexatious, lacking in substance or as having no reasonable prospect of success. As the RSL put it:

To allow one member to decide on the prospect of success of an Appeal is likely to reduce the belief of veterans that they have access to justice in the way they do now.

In conclusion, the Greens are fully supportive of positive steps to make life easier for veterans. We support reform to simplify and clarify different legislation for ADF members and veterans, whilst also respecting the complexity of this system and the unintended consequences of not thinking through changes properly and thoroughly. Many of the times that I've looked at different changes in legislation before us, I've been inundated by a number of stakeholders getting in touch with my office, making me and my staff aware of just how complicated this system is. There are a number of people with expertise in this area who have been dealing with veterans for many years, and we always endeavour to listen to as many stakeholders as possible.

I come from a family of veterans. My father is a Vietnam veteran. My godfather is a Vietnam veteran. Most of my grandfathers and great-grandfathers were war veterans as well. I appreciate the importance of helping our veterans and our ex-serving personnel. As a Green, I always say in this chamber, whenever we talk about veterans issues, that my party, being a party of humanity and justice, wants to see everybody treated with fairness and equality. But, in relation to the price that defence veterans pay for service, especially going into conflict zones, often on behalf of an executive government that makes a decision to send them into conflict zones—whether we're talking about the Great War or the Second World War or the Vietnam War or recent conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq; and, of course, we've recently deployed ADF personnel to places like the Philippines and participated in war games off South Korea—we need to be aware that the price that these veterans pay sometimes is not just the loss of their lives, or their limbs, or other physical injuries. Often they pay a much more complex price, such as mental health issues and ongoing issues around post-traumatic stress disorder.

So I think it's really important to say that there often is a hidden cost for Defence service, and, as I mentioned earlier, it doesn't just come from active service; it can come from training and the high-stress environment that ADF personnel find themselves in. Of course, Senator Fawcett, who's in the chamber here, and I share many things in common, but one thing is that we've both been through military college. I have a number of friends who are still in the services, and I believe this is a very serious issue. So the Greens are happy to support this legislation. We look forward to further discussions about how we can improve the entitlement systems for veterans.

I already said some words about Senator Lambie yesterday, but I just want to reiterate that, although we often disagreed on some pretty major things—for example, issues around climate change, asylum seekers coming to this country et cetera—I have to pay her full respect in that she came to parliament on a very active ticket, and that was to try and change the Defence veterans entitlement system. She campaigned for that 100 per cent, and I believe that one of the reasons we're processing this bill today—and other legislation—is that she made this an issue politically. That is to her credit, and that is an important part of her legacy.