Matters of Urgency — Veterans

Glenn Sterle

Senator Cash has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today, which has been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The serious failure of judgement demonstrated by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in initially declining to meet veterans and bereaved family members who came to Parliament House to raise urgent concerns about their health care, and the question of whether the minister retains the confidence of the veteran community he is entrusted to serve.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Michaelia Cash

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The serious failure of judgement demonstrated by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in initially declining to meet veterans and bereaved family members who came to Parliament House to raise urgent concerns about their health care, and the question of whether the minister retains the confidence of the veteran community he is entrusted to serve.

Minister Keogh has sadly lost the confidence of the veterans he is supposed to support and champion on a daily basis. In their own words—this is an indictment on any minister—he has lost their trust. He has lost their respect. On that basis alone, it is no longer tenable that Minister Keogh hold the position of Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel.

Our veterans are the Australians who put on the uniform, and they put it on proudly. They are the people who serve this country. They are the people who are prepared to put themselves in harm's way so that they can defend the freedoms that each and every one of us has on a daily basis. They should never have to fight their own government and, in particular, their own minister simply to be heard. Yet, under Minister Keogh, that is exactly what they are being forced to do.

Sadly for Minister Keogh, this is not one bad meeting, as he would like Australians to believe it was. It's not one mistake. It is now an established pattern of behaviour: make a decision detrimental to veterans and ignore the veterans' pleas. They fall on deaf ears. Then the outrage happens. The Australian public and the veterans stand up. They stand up to the Prime Minister and to Minister Keogh, and then they retreat.

This week has been an utter disgrace in this portfolio. Veterans came to Parliament House in good faith, deeply concerned about Labor's $5,000 allied health threshold and what it could mean for them and veterans with serious health complaints and complex health needs. We heard of suicides that have now occurred because of the stress that these veterans are under. What does the minister, who is meant to be championing them every single day, do? He refuses to meet with them. That is just sick, quite frankly. What Minister for Veterans' Affairs refuses to meet with veterans who come here to plead with this government, 'Please don't take any further action that is going to be detrimental to our health'? He refuses to meet with them.

Only after he is actually called out by the former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and publicly shamed does he agree to sit down with them. My God, the reports now coming out of that meeting from the veterans who attended—he walked in without shaking their hands. He sat with his arms crossed. He rolled his eyes at the people who had served our country, who were being detrimentally impacted by so many now of Labor's changes. And then he says to them he's missing an appointment with the Governor-General. What, an appointment to go and have drinks? You've got to be kidding me. He now says he got it wrong. Guess what, Minister Keogh? Shame on you. Yes, you did, but this is the problem now: what's come out of the meeting?

This is what the veterans are saying. Former RAAF pilot and GP Dr Tim Nelson said that the meeting 'confirmed for us that lack of trust'. Donna Manton, a defence veteran, an advocate and a long-time Labor supporter, says she is heartsick to be calling out this government and this minister for not caring for veterans. Former Royal Australian Navy diver John Armfield said, 'I enlisted under the Navy values of courage, honour, honesty and loyalty, and yet you, Minister Keogh, have failed to display any of these values.' That is the veterans talking.

What we now have with this minister is a pattern of behaviour. Remember when he made—and this is probably one of the sickest decisions a government has ever made under a minister—the decision to remove the very small amount of funding that former prime minister Tony Abbott had given to the parents of Corporal Cameron Baird, a Victoria Cross recipient who lost his life—a few grand a year to travel around this country and raise the case for our veterans, and that minister cancelled it. What type of a sick minister does that? This minister has lost the respect of the veterans. We've lost respect for him, and, quite frankly, he needs to go.

Karen Grogan

Before I start, let's just be really clear. Every single veteran and every single serving member and every bereaved family member who comes to this parliament deserves to be treated with respect and deserves to be heard. Above all, they deserve a government that will invest. They deserve a government that puts actions behind the words. It's all very well to have a lot of words and a lot of hot air, but it's the actions that are going to significantly impact their lives as well.

I will say that Minister Keogh has said that he made an incorrect call in not meeting with those veterans, and he has put his apologies forward, and I'm not going to go into that. But what I am going to go into is the fact that, when we came to office, the Department of Veterans' Affairs had been underfunded and underresourced for years and years.

Almost 42,000 new claims were sitting in a backlog when we came to government. That's 42,000 veterans who were languishing with no care or respect by those opposite when they were in government. Forty-two thousand—just let that sink in for a minute. Those people were ignored and neglected by those opposite. The government, our government, the Albanese Labor government, funded additional departmental staff and cleared that inherited backlog, but it has taken time. We couldn't get through that in no time at all. We couldn't look at such neglect from those opposite to our veterans. We couldn't get through that in no period of time.

We have continued to invest. Not only have we invested to clear that backlog, but in looking at the system, it was not working. It was not working for those veterans who have fought for our country, who have stood there in their uniform, prepared to defend the rest of us. We will respect them. We do respect them. And that respect comes with significant action.

There have been a lot of very emotional stories this week about situations of health care, situations of abuse—all sorts of really horrible, horrible situations. The royal commission made a series of recommendations, and those recommendations are the ones that we are rolling out. That royal commission was what gave us the blueprint for what veterans, their families and their communities need. Not only are we processing claims more quickly, not only are we putting forward better health care and compensation to support veterans when they need it, but we're working to fix this system so it's less complex. That work has begun. That work is on foot.

From 1 July this year, we began implementing the most significant reform that Australia's veterans support system has seen in generations. Just to be clear, we had the royal commission and 1 July brought significant change. We're now seven weeks on from that. We should start to see significant improvements as this system is now rolling out. The new arrangements simplify the compensation system. It makes it easier for veterans and their families to understand their entitlements and access them. It also allows claims to be processed much quicker. These reforms were shaped through consultation with veterans and their families because that's how we do things.

Also on 1 July we opened the new Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency. That is about helping veterans find their way through quite complex systems, and it's a system that we have seen rolled out in South Australia. The Northern Adelaide Veterans' and Families' Wellbeing Hub at Elizabeth Vale is now supporting our community of more than 11,000 veterans and family members. That's on-ground actual assistance helping veterans. It's helping them look to what they need, how to get there and how to have that support at their hand. Support for mental health issues, physical health issues, employment support, access to housing, financial advocacy, transitions assistance—these are all of the things that they desperately need. We are providing them because we respect those veterans and every last one of them deserves our gratitude and our respect. And they have it.

Tyron Whitten

Labor is making veterans fight another battle—the battle to access the care they need. If you listen to the other side, it's all rosy. Why would they be here looking for money if they didn't need it? What is actually disturbing is the way the Minister for Veterans' Affairs has treated those that have served our country.

Under the 2026-27 budget, allied health services have been capped at $5,000 a year. For a veteran requiring physiotherapy, rehabilitation, psychological support, specialist appointments and ongoing treatment, $5,000 can disappear very quickly. For veterans in regional and remote Australia, the burden is even greater with travel, accommodation and other costs adding to the expense of the care. But veterans who travelled to Canberra to raise these concerns faced another battle to even be heard by their own minister. Veterans and bereaved family members made the trip because they wanted to explain the real-world impact of these changes. They wanted to propose practical solutions. They wanted their minister to listen. Instead, they say the minister initially declined to meet with them. Outrageous.

When a meeting eventually took place, the veterans who attended have described the minister's conduct as 'deeply disrespectful'. They say he refused to shake their hands, sat with his arms crossed and rolled his eyes as they explained their concerns and put forward possible proposals. They also say the minister complained that the meeting with them meant he was missing an appointment with the Governor-General. Boohoo!

This is an extraordinary way to treat Australian veterans. These are people who served our nation—people who put their lives on the line. They're not travelling to Canberra to be dismissed; they travelled to be heard. Instead of showing them respect and compassion, they say they were met with indifference and disrespect. The Minister for Veterans' Affairs has a responsibility to listen to veterans, not make them fight to get through the door. He has a duty of care. He has a responsibility to understand the consequences of a government policy, not dismiss the people living with those consequences. Veterans should never have to beg their own government for dignity. The $5,000 cap is deeply concerning, but so too is the attitude veterans say they encountered when they tried to challenge it.

Five thousand dollars is not a measure of what a veteran's health is worth. A veteran's access to care should not depend on how quickly a budget allocation runs out. Those who served our country should never be made to feel like an inconvenience when they ask the minister to listen. We ask our servicemen and women to run towards danger to protect our country. The very least they deserve in return in respect. Our veterans deserve better from this government, they deserve better from this minister, and they deserve to be heard, respected and properly cared for. This isn't good enough.

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