Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Burston for that question. Our government are committed to our serving and former serving men and women and their families. We are very proud to have delivered the single largest additional allocation of funding—$350 million—to the veterans portfolio for many years in the last budget.

This funding is being used to expand early access to mental health treatment to address concerns from the ex-service community about the backlog of claims and the time taken to process those claims. It is also being used to modernise the Department of Veterans' Affairs' antiquated computer systems and administrative processes and to implement the first stage of the Veteran Centric Reform program. Importantly, this funding is ensuring that all veterans can access free and immediate treatment for any mental health condition without having to prove that the condition is related to their service. It has also enabled access to the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service to be extended to partners, dependants and immediate family members.

Further, legislation is being introduced this week to implement two additional measures announced as part of the government's response to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report titled The constant battle: suicide by veterans, tabled on 24 October last year.

The ANAO audit has commenced, in line with recommendation 13 of the Senate inquiry report, although final details of the audit scope are being still being settled by the ANAO. The report is due to be tabled in June 2018. Obviously it's hard to respond in relation to a report that is yet to be finalised.