Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ator DAVEY (—) (): I rise to speak on the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill 2022. I want to point out that the opposition will be supporting this bill, because this bill, in fact, mirrors a coalition initiative announced in our 2022-23 federal budget, which we titled Maintaining Incapacity Payments for Veterans Studying. I'm pleased to see that the government has effectively picked up our policy and will now deliver on it.

This policy is very important because it supports veterans in their rehabilitation, particularly those veterans who are studying, ensuring that they don't lose funding, or that their funding is maintained for longer. We established a trial for this program, which was to expire on 30 June 2022. Our policy was to extend the trial for a further 12 months, which we fully funded in our last budget, to the tune of $7.1 million, extending it to 30 June 2023. This bill effectively matches our commitments. Prior to the trial, eligible veterans had their pre-injury earnings reduced to 75 per cent after undertaking 45 weeks of study. This bill will effectively provide extra financial support to allow those veterans to continue taking their further study. It's estimated that this bill will benefit 600 veterans once it's passed. I acknowledge that it also has a backdating mechanism so that veterans who've been on the trial, which expired at the end of June this year, won't be worse off and won't be out of pocket.

Each year about 6,000 service men and women leave the defence forces to return to civilian life. Many of them have an opportunity for a long career ahead of them, and a lot of them undertake further study in this transition to better prepare for civilian life. We know that we need to support our veterans in this transition to ensure that they have the best chance possible for a successful transition to civilian life. We also know that vocational rehabilitation equips veterans with the support and the resources that they need for the most successful transition, and we want to make it as simple as possible.

We will not be standing in the way of this bill, because support for veterans is not a political game and should not be a partisan game. We really need to ensure that we support those who have sacrificed so much and dedicated their time to ensuring the safety and security of our nation.

When we were in government, the Liberals and the Nationals invested over $11.5 billion each year to support the wellbeing of around 340,000 veterans and their families, and we want to ensure that this support continues and is improved on, because we recognise that we can always make improvements. We understand that the royal commission into veteran suicides is ongoing. We know that those veterans who successfully transition to a civilian career go on to make vital contributions to our society. So we thank the government for bringing forward this bill, and we will be supporting it.

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

I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate we will be supporting the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill. The purpose of this bill is to make amendments to the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 as well as the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988.

There was a trial which ran up until 1 July 2022—indeed, it ended on 30 June 2022—which provided that the calculation of incapacity payments would be based on 100 per cent of normal weekly earnings for veterans engaged in approved full-time study under a DVA funded return to work rehabilitation program. As you would be aware, Deputy President, incapacity payments are compensation payments available under that 2004 compensation act as well as the defence claims act of 1988 for a loss of earnings incurred as a result of a service related physical or mental health condition. Many veterans who weren't part of this trial were literally making a choice between study and payments. Incapacity payment recipients are, in fact, required to participate in a DVA rehabilitation program wherever they have the capacity to do so. This bill proposes to extend what has been a four-year trial which was first implemented in the 2018-19 budget and which actually removed the longstanding step-down for incapacity payments for veterans who were undertaking approved study. Unfortunately, that trial ended on 30 June 2022.

For many veterans, being able to undertake further study to obtain qualifications to further their steps towards a career post defence is perhaps one of the most critical measures that they can take to get their life back on track and to get their career back on track. Of course, these are veterans who have suffered an injury. We've seen the scale of the injuries suffered by veterans too often. There are psychological injuries caused by some of the brutal conditions under which they served—some of them unnecessarily brutal, caused by the culture and nature of the Defence Force.

Application provisions in the bill will ensure that student veterans who should have been eligible to continue to receive the higher rate of payment from 1 July 2022, and those who received reduced payments after that date, will now be eligible to receive back payments to cover the period from 1 July 2022 until today. So one of the reasons the Greens have supported this bill moving as rapidly as possible through the parliament is that we've now had a number of these veterans engaged in study who haven't been receiving the full payment. That's tough, and the information that my officers heard from veterans organisations is that these veterans need this support now.

I do want to acknowledge the ongoing work of my colleague Senator Steele-John in relation to his support for veterans. When I took over the portfolio, he raised this issue directly with me and said that we need to do whatever we can to maintain those payments and to support the passage of this bill as rapidly as possible. I acknowledge his work and the connections that he's made to many veterans and veterans organisations in supporting their right for fair compensation and decency.

We support this bill. We support the bill rapidly passing through the Senate and we support the urgent restoration of these benefits to veterans.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senators who have contributed to today's discussion on the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment (Incapacity Payments) Bill 2022. I note that both senators observed the urgency of the passage of this bill. It's regrettable that the measures in this bill were not enacted in the last parliament. It has, as Senator Shoebridge observed, created the circumstances where people are presently not receiving payments who would otherwise be entitled to them. I do wish to highlight to the Senate that one consequence of this bill will be to backdate payments for those veterans.

Again, I acknowledge the significance of supporting our service personnel, veterans and families. I thank those people who contributed to the development of this legislation and who are participating in these activities, particularly those who contributed to this debate who have served in our defence forces. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.