Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, Senator Shoebridge. How does anybody think that the bungling we've seen by the Albanese government shows any capacity to improve communication, coordination and collaboration or to strengthen oversight and accountability, when they have dragged veterans through this very sorry saga in relation to the IGADF report?

Ultimately these issues must be bigger than politics. There are difficult issues here and there will be difficult questions in responding to all 122 recommendations. There may well be times when the parties of government will find that some of those recommendations might require honest discussions with the veteran community about whether all aspects of all of them are actually possible. So I hope that, despite the bungling and the difficulties of this episode, we can find a way now to put it behind us, to put veterans first and to actually ensure that the confidence and trust that has been undermined through this saga is re-established through a proper process to deliver on as many of those recommendations as is absolutely possible by government and to do so as quickly as possible to give veterans the support, the respect and the services they need and deserve.