David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support the Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 2) Bill 2023. I will just deal briefly with the four schedules. Schedule 1 is the firefighter's alignment provision. It will amend the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to reduce the qualifying period of employment for Australian Defence Force firefighters in relation to compensation for primary site oesophageal cancer from 25 years to 15 years. It will also change the requirement for firefighting to have been a 'substantial proportion' of their duties to a 'not insubstantial proportion of their duties'. This aligns the entitlements of defence firefighters with the entitlements of other firefighters under Commonwealth legislation. I want to note the consistent work of my colleague Adam Bandt for Victorian firefighters that led to this presumption, which I'm glad to see has also found its way into the Commonwealth more broadly. This, the Greens hope, will finally bring that last tranche of Commonwealth firefighters—being ADF firefighters—within the presumption and provide them the protection they deserve for the work they've done for the people of Australia.

Schedule 2 is the employment program. That amends the VEA to allow for a determination to be made so that amounts received from specified Commonwealth, state and territory programs are not considered as income for income support means-testing purposes. There are some technical amendments to the Social Security Act to enable that to happen. This is an important provision which will allow for veterans not to have their Commonwealth payments docked because they are receiving often very modest payments at a state level. We support that amendment.

Schedule 3 of the bill amends the VEA to include a permanent discretion to provide Commonwealth rental assistance beyond 26 weeks for eligible recipients who are temporarily absent from Australia and unable to return due to what's called a prescribed event occurring. This is one of those provisions that will stop veterans returning and potentially being homeless. We support the amendment, and we appreciate the minister bringing it forward.

Schedule 4 amends the VEA, DRCA and the MRCA to extend eligibility for the defence, veterans and families acute support package to grandparents who are full-time carers of the children of a veteran. Existing provisions within these acts can be utilised for some grandparents, and this bill adds additional provisions to ensure that further grandparents may be eligible and have access to the acute support package. I note that this is implementing a commitment made in the budget where the government committed to providing half a million dollars over four years, commencing next financial year, and then $0.2 million per year ongoing to expand the support under the defence, veterans and families acute support package to grandparents who are full-time carers of grandchildren who are children of a veteran. This extension of benefits is a matter that my office advocated to the minister on. We heard from a number of veterans that often the only real care they can get is from their parents looking after their kids, picking them up after school and being there when they can't be there, often because the veterans are attending medical appointments or otherwise are unable to attend. Without these amendments there would be no way of fairly compensating those grandparents for often quite substantial travel costs and other out-of-pocket expenses. I want to put on record our gratitude to the minister for listening to calls from veterans and those submissions from our office, and actually responding. While we think that the numbers could be bigger, and we hope that, as the benefits of this small extension become apparent, those numbers can grow over time, it is an example of the minister listening and responding to calls from veterans and their supporters in this place.

Finally, while it is not specifically attached to this bill, I do want to note the good work of Wounded Heroes Australia and the positive engagement they have had with the minister. We made two separate submissions to the minister for that really important organisation to be funded, and the good news is that it is in the early stages of moving through a positive funding result with the department. Again, I commend the minister for good-faith engagement. For those who don't know, Wounded Heroes Australia provides essential short-term cash payments for veterans who are homeless or facing homelessness, the $500 that means that they can keep their rental rather than losing their home, the $300 or $400 that means they and their families can stay in a motel for a couple of nights so that they're not thrown out on the streets. Wounded Heroes Australia has been self-funded and doing all of this work up to now. It is an extraordinary performance, and, with a bit of additional government support to get them security going forward, we really hope that the grant process comes through, and that Wounded Heroes Australia get the support to do the work they do for veterans.