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

Our veterans are important. Their service was important, and parliamentarians in both houses in this place and on both sides recognise the contribution they have made. That is why the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2022 is important and that is why the opposition will be supporting this bill.

This bill provides an increase to the totally and permanently incapacitated payment that is given to our veterans by $38.46, which will increase it to $1,595.66 per fortnight. That provides an annual increase of around $1,000, which is not much in the scheme of things and not much when you consider the service our veterans have provided. The bill achieves this by amending the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 to increase the rate of pension payable to TPI veterans. It will make the payment comparable to the national minimum wage and make it only just greater than the after-tax payment of the minimum wage that an earner would receive.

As we know, the TPI is a payment that is provided to veterans for life, unless their circumstances are deemed to have changed. It is not taxable and it is not included in a means test for other income support payments. It was formally called the disability compensation payment at the special rate and is offered when a veteran's injuries from war or service are assessed under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 as preventing them from having a normal work life. And it's the least we can afford these people, who put their hand up to serve in the defence of our nation and our way of life. It is paid to those who have been injured through that service, and, as I said, it's the least we can do.

When you consider an extra $1,000 a year, given the current cost-of-living increases and the pressures that people are facing, the rises in grocery bills, rents, mortgages and, as we have all seen, power prices—and the absolute disbandment of the new government to deliver on their $275 decrease to those power bills. As soon as they got into government, they ran away from that as fast as Usain Bolt runs. They disbanded that promise and walked away from it.

So this $1,000 increase to the TPI payments will barely touch the sides. Hopefully it will help our veterans meet rising daily living costs. TPI veterans also receive the veteran gold card, which provides cover for all their clinically required treatment of medical conditions, and this increase to the TPI payments will not impact on that at all. While we know that the wheels of government can turn slowly, I thank the government for bringing this bill into this place in time so that the legislation can be enacted to start the payments from 1 January 2023. It is an important process.

There are around 27,000 TPI recipients across Australia. While we're moving this bill today, we know there is so much more we can and need to do to assist our whole veteran community. Over the years there have been many inquiries and reports. Most recently, we've had the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and they recently delivered an interim report which went through all of those past inquiries. They noted the considerable number of reports and the multiple recommendations that have been made across several governments—from both sides. The commissioners identified over 50 reports, with more than 750 recommendations. While they acknowledge that many of the reports and inquiries were about discreet topics, they were dismayed to learn the limited ways that governments from all sides have responded to the recommendations of these inquiries. So we know we have to do better, and, when the veterans royal commission currently underway reports, I hope that all sides look at those recommendations very seriously to consider how best to implement the recommendations to ensure we do better by our veterans.

We know that when our veterans transition out of the Defence Force they often feel isolated. They often feel that they've lost their purpose. There are bodies and agencies out there for support—the Returned & Services League and Soldier On, amongst others—and I met with another organisation the other day, which is quite a young organisation in the scheme of things: Disaster Relief Australia, founded in 2016. It's very topical at this point in time as we're seeing such devastating flood crises across the eastern seaboard, particularly in New South Wales. Disaster Relief Australia works with veterans who volunteer their time to be deployed, to use the military term, into a disaster-hit area, where they use the skills that they learnt through the Defence Force and help coordinate relief and response, working with communities, bringing everyone together and managing logistics.

Disaster Relief Australia have found that, for many of the veterans they work with, this is giving them back that sense of purpose. It is having a really good outcome amongst the veteran population that they work with, not because they're going out and saying to veterans, 'How can we help you?' but because they're going to veterans and saying, 'How can you help others?' That is what our Defence Force personnel are so good at doing. They sign up not to get something for themselves but to do something for others. That is why it is such an important thing. And we need to look at other ways we can support our veterans to give them back that sense of purpose and to give them back that sense of community that we provide.

We know that veterans who've been medically discharged, who've been found to be totally and permanently incapacitated, often struggle the most because they entered the Defence Force fit, healthy and robust—you've got to pass a medical the enter the Defence Force—and they came out the other side with a TPI label. For many of them, that's devastating. Many of them depend on these payments to put food on the table and to meet the costs of their daily living expenses. We do need to ensure that those payments keep up with the cost of living. We need to ensure that our TPI veterans are not left behind and that they know that we in this parliament and in this chamber value their service. On average one Australian veteran commits suicide every two weeks, and that is a statistic that should not be happening in a country that claims to value the contribution and sacrifice made by defence members and veterans and the sacrifice their families have made.

As I said, this bill will deliver an annual $1,000 extra to our TPI recipients, but that is only a tiny gesture in recognition of the value of those veterans. It is a small step in showing that they are valued and that they will not be forgotten. The opposition supported this bill through the House of Representatives and we support it in this chamber. I thank the government for ensuring this bill will be passed in time to start these payments from January 2023 to give our TPI veterans recognition and some financial security and certainty moving forward.

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

I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate that we'll be supporting the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2022. But we do so with significant reservations. This bill will introduce amendments to the Veterans' Entitlements Act to implement what the government said they would do with disability compensation payments. The government made an election commitment for a modest increase in TPIs, and I'd have to say that this is largely fulfilling the modest nature of that commitment. This bill will increase the rate of the disability compensation payment at the special rate, often referred to as the TPI or totally and permanently incapacitated payment, payable under the Veterans' Entitlements Act. Because those payments are legislatively linked, the amendments to the Veterans' Entitlements Act provisions will also increase the temporary special rate under that act and the special rate disability pension payable under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act.

What is that increase going to be? Well, the increase that the government has committed to is a total payment of $1,000 over the year, which equates to $38.46 a fortnight, or, to really understand how modest this payment is, it equates to a bit less than $2.75 a day—not even a cup of coffee. That's the commitment that the government has brought to this chamber. We know that there are approximately 27,000 veterans who are struggling on the TPI payment. When you look at the entire TPI payment, plus all the very modest additional payments for energy supplements and the like, veterans who have been totally and permanently incapacitated because of injuries received during their service for the country are being asked to survive on less than $1,600 a fortnight, so less than $800 a week. With this payment, it will just touch $800 a week. For most veterans, given the cost of living in Australia, that is effectively a lifetime of poverty. That's what veterans get under the TPI: effectively a lifetime of poverty.

When the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee looked into this in 2021, they got submission after submission from veterans saying: 'Hang on! We served for the country. We put ourselves out to serve for the country, sometimes for decades, and we've been thrown on the scrapheap, with a TPI payment that barely keeps a roof above our heads, let alone keeping the power on or giving us access to the internet.' Although the quantum wasn't agreed, in 2021 the recommendation was that the government consider increasing the TPI payment. There wasn't agreement among the committee about how much that should be, but I'm pretty sure that if we went back and looked at the submissions and read the evidence, and if we spoke to veterans, we could all agree in this chamber that $2.75 a day is not enough; that committing veterans to a lifetime of poverty is the wrong policy call from this government. I know that there are competing priorities for government expenditure, but this total package is probably $20 million or less this year—maybe a little bit more next year. We're talking tiny amounts of money in the government's budget.

We see how veterans are valued in the priorities of this government and the priorities of the previous government. I want to make this clear: we're six months into this government, and at least we're getting an increase in the TPI. It's not much of an increase, it's embarrassingly small, but at least it's happening. So I'm going to give the minister and his office credit for achieving that. If you have a look at what happens to veterans on TPI, you'll see they are pretty much the only recipients of benefits that have gone backwards over the last seven years. They have fallen below the cost of living over the last seven years. They went backwards under the coalition government.

Often you see the coalition wanting to wrap themselves in khaki and say how much they care about the military and how much they love the defence forces. Let's have a look at what they delivered. They delivered to veterans falling real TPI benefits—less at the end of the coalition's term than they were at the beginning of the coalition's term. So let's have a look at all of those pictures of Dutton and others wrapped in khaki, standing beside the ADF—

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Shoebridge, if you're going to refer to someone from the other chamber, please use their appropriate title.

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

Let's have a look at the former coalition leadership team wrapped in khaki, sitting on tanks, hanging around with Defence Force personnel and saying how much they care about the military, and then let's look at what they provided for veterans: falling payments and endemic poverty.

At least we've got some movement from this government, and I'm going to give the minister and his office credit for that. But you couldn't have a better definition of 'modest' than $2.75 a day. That is like the Oxford dictionary definition of 'bugger all'. That's what this bill delivers.

The inquiry said: increase the payment. The problem, of course, is that the inquiry was in 2021. We've had more than a year of veterans struggling to get by on a payment that pretty much the entire committee recognised was inadequate in 2021, and now the increase is only $2.75 a day. And that's being generous—that's rounding it up, by the way. That's the increase they get from the government. I can understand why veterans are saying: 'What about us? When is our turn really going to come?'

We saw the federal government, under the coalition's watch, spend $4 billion not getting French submarines. In the military space, the ADF space, the former coalition government spent $4,000 million to not get French submarines, and then 27,000 veterans on TPI got nothing—not one red cent. I think that really shows the priorities of the former coalition government.

What veterans get under the new Albanese Labor government is nothing like $4 billion; it may be $20 million a year for the next four years. They get $2.75 a day. They know, because they've seen it, that the same Commonwealth government has dropped $4 billion not getting French submarines, and they say: 'Hang on. Where's the priorities? Do we matter?'

We think that veterans should matter and we think that they should get a payment that is substantially more. I want to credit the veterans who have contacted my office and pointed out how they deserve better. In particular, communications with my office from the TPI Federation of Australia have shown us clearly how there has been that real decline in veterans' payments—over decades in fact. I will just quote from the correspondence that our office got: 'Recent increases of 30 per cent for petrol, 30 per cent for food, 38 per cent for insurance—house and car—will be greatly addressed by the two per cent this bill offers to TPIs. There are many TPIs who must now decide whether to buy their medication or food. If they choose their medication, they need to approach community food pantries to obtain their meagre food supplies.' That's what we're saying to veterans: choose food or medication.

This bill is not going to fix that choice. I know that veterans wanted us to move amendments to double it, and we were close to moving amendments to double it. But we were advised by the government that if we did that it would basically kill the bill, and veterans would have got nothing. Veterans should get at least double, but the reason we're going to support this bill is so that they end this year knowing they're going to get a tiny, modest increase starting on 1 January. We want that to happen and we're not going to delay that. But let's commit collectively to coming back next year and start by doubling it, and then to having a really serious look at the level of payment that veterans deserve and need in order not to have that lifetime of poverty. They served the country and it's about time that we returned that service with respect.

Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not often in this chamber that you have a National Party member endorse virtually everything a Greens member says, but I was ticking off my talking points through Senator Shoebridge's speech and shortening my speech on this Veteran's Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2022.

As Senator Shoebridge said, there are roughly 27,000 Australians on the TPI, and they have given their all. They have given their health as well as giving their service. They have always deserved better and they will always deserve better. The reasons for not moving that amendment are understandable. We saw a previous vote in this place—on seniors being able to double their allowance for work without penalty—it got referred to the other place, came back and, to pass it, it had to be walked back on. So it's a good thing that this gets through now; it gives them something. But it is not enough. We saw under the last government a National Party minister effectively having to grandstand for $94 million to try to help veterans' processing. One thing this government has done is to resource this quite well, to try to reduce the backlog. Senator Shoebridge and I were talking with DVA—with Liz Cosson AM, the secretary of that department—about the process. We were talking about backlogs and all those sort of things, and about reducing to zero the overdue dates—there are massive, massive claims by veterans going back. We have to do more.

Why have these people not gotten what they deserve? It's because they're the quiet people. They served this country with pride, they're used to a chain of command and they don't want to be upset at what's going on so they effectively suffer in silence. It's a good thing this money is here. I note that the Tune report, which was referred to by Senator Shoebridge, put four options forward. Option 1 was no change to the TPI level and classification—it's great that wasn't taken up; that's gone. Option 2 was a one-off increase in the TPI payment, while maintaining non-economic-loss status. And there were other, bigger options.

I'm small fry on our side—I'm not in government—but I heartily endorse Senator Shoebridge's contribution. When we come back, let's look at what we can give these people to go on. As Senator Davey said in her speech, every two weeks a veteran commits suicide. This is a cohort of people who worked together as a team, and they still have a great sense of loyalty to each other. They trusted their lives in other people's hands. Through their entire career, we picked them up and moved them on postings, and they did this without concern. They lost family, they lost their contacts and they lost friends—and they lost everything if they lost their health and qualified for a TPI pension. If we aren't giving them the basics to survive then we need to look at ourselves as a country.

What happens when a person gets to the end? I have a constituent who has been contacting me over some time, and their situation is not a fault of the minister or the previous minister—it's because of the process. They are now at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on a claim that was initially approved and then taken back. When you talk to the people at DVA you see that they care, that they get it and that they want to do the right thing. This person has medical bills and they have had to hire someone at $100,000 a year to perform their role in their business. They are paying not only to get their health fixed but also for someone to do the job they could do.

We look at this $2.75, which is what I think you calculated. Why is it important to the Nats so much? Because the military is overrepresented by people who come from the regions, just like it was in the call-up for the wars. People from the regions are overrepresented in the military. They are willing and happy to do their work. The analysis of the Tune report showed that TPI veterans within the broader TPI veteran cohort may have less financial security because of their individual circumstances, and that other changes to the TPI payment would be beneficial.

We need to look after these people who have finished their career, have bad health and, honestly, have no future career prospects. They have sacrificed so much and are left with very little. We need to give them hope, if nothing else. This $2.75, or $1,000, is something. I thank the government. We will be supporting this going forward.

In everything we do let's always think of these people. We celebrate so many people in this country, but not this cohort of people who get on, do the right thing, stay quiet and don't protest. We don't get clicktivism or noise from them. They're not out the front of Parliament House, but they are there and they are deserving of this. I wholly support this bill.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to add my comments on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2022. As others in this chamber have mentioned today, this bill sees the government implement the election commitment to increase the TPI payment and responds to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report that recommended an increase in this payment. The TPI is paid to severely disabled veterans who are unable to work and support themselves because of permanent injuries that resulted, as other senators in this place have mentioned, from their selfless service for this country. It is financial support that we provide to severely incapacitated veterans. It's the minimum that we in this place should do.

It's a modest increase. As my colleagues Senator Shoebridge and Senator Cadell referred to, it works out to be $2.75 a day. Veterans will get that increase in their pension. They have been struggling for a long time and are feeling cost-of-living pressures here in Australia, like everybody else right now. We will give them that modest increase of $2.75. I, on behalf of the Australian Greens—as Senator Shoebridge already said—congratulate the government, but it's not enough and we should be doing more.

My electorate office in Western Australia is contacted all of the time by Western Australian veterans, including some First Nations veterans as well. They call my office and they send me emails. They tell me in their emails and phone calls about their struggles with rising energy costs, expensive medical bills, lack of accessibility to mental health services and just having enough money, as Senator Shoebridge already said, so that they don't have to make a choice between medication and food. This is their story—feeding their families, paying their rent, getting from A to B, and putting petrol in the tank.

Also, during my time in WA Police, I heard stories from ex ADF personnel who had joined the local police force—and I worked beside them—about the compounding trauma that they experienced during their time serving this country and the compounding trauma that stays with them still. I also watch and observe the Soldiers & Sirens Facebook page and others where I still see stories. I see the lack of accessibility to the front-line support that we provide to our veterans.

Our veterans have been reaching out to politicians for years, in this country, and talking about the suffering that's happened to them, and their mates, and how nothing ever changes, no-one ever listens, and how this culture of turning a blind eye results in poorer mental health outcomes. As Senator Davey mentioned, it results, unfortunately, in suicides.

This bill provides that modest additional financial support in TPI for veterans and their families who already receive this payment and for other eligible veterans of the future. The increase to this payment means it will be comparable with the national minimum wage and more than the after-tax national minimum wage a wage-earner would receive. Do the Greens support this? Yes, we do. Do the Greens think it's enough? No, we don't. I'd like to see the representatives in this place who have no military experience live off a modest pension such as this and make some of those choices that our veterans are making today.

The sacrifices these veterans have made for us during their Defence Force service are worth more than the minimum wage in this country. These veterans and their families live with their sacrifices every single day. We can do more in this place. We can start by sharing the dark stories of war—sad and horrifying realities that veterans have faced in battles on foreign shores—the truth-telling about the torment of these experiences that veterans live with every single day.

My people are also part of this story. They served in wars for this country and were denied some of the fundamental human rights and basic decency and respect, in relation to their identity. They served in the Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War all before they were recognised as citizens in this country. Let's not forget that their lives were also lost in the frontier wars that raged across this country. That's not the definition of 'veteran', unfortunately, so we barely acknowledge that. I have spoken directly to Assistant Minister Keogh, in the other place, and I want to congratulate him for some of his recent commitments, in relation to his work on this bill, in making sure that the wrongs of the past are righted. But we have a long way to go. We have a lot of work to do.

I want to say to ageing veterans: you are not forgotten. We are not going to forget that you deserve the recognition, the support, that we as politicians have the power to provide through change. For our current service men and women, we must show them that we can do better, when it comes to veterans' issues, and we must give them the platform for their voices to heard.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian community has a clear expectation that defence personnel and veterans and their families are well looked after. This is an important task and responsibility of government, and a solemn commitment.

In summing up the debate on this Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill 2022, I would like to thank the opposition and all of the others in this place for their support of it. This legislation demonstrates the Albanese Labor government's commitment to delivering a better future for our veterans and their families. It addresses the adequacy of support for totally and permanently incapacitated veterans—often referred to as TPI veterans and their families—and provides them greater financial support, to ultimately deliver a better future for them.

In April, the federal Labor team announced that the Labor government, if elected, would act on the recommendation of the Senate inquiry to increase the TPI payment by $1,000 a year. This bill today implements Labor's commitment by increasing the special rate of disability compensation payments for veterans. We're very glad that today we are receiving the support of senators to ensure that the TPI veterans are better off. This $1,000 a year increase to the special rate of disability pension, an increase of $38.46 per fortnight, is to ensure veterans and their families are better supported financially, helping them keep up with cost-of-living pressures.

It forms part of the recent federal budget, which is delivering on the Albanese Labor government's commitment to deliver responsible cost-of-living relief. The increase to the TPI payment means it will be comparable to the national minimum wage and, crucially, greater than the after-tax national minimum wage a wage earner would receive.

This initiative recognises the importance of supporting veterans who have been severely impacted by their experiences in the Australian Defence Force. The bill will achieve this by amending the Veterans' Entitlement Act 1986 to increase the rate of pension payable to TPI veterans. This government is committed to implementing practical support measures to better support defence personnel, veterans and their families. We are committed to ensuring that they get the support that they not only need but, more particularly, deserve. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.