From the Minister
The Hon Matt Keogh MP
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel
I have introduced into Parliament the legislation to simplify and harmonise the veterans’ entitlements, compensation and rehabilitation system, as recommended by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s Interim Report.
With these law changes it will be easier for veterans and families to understand what they are entitled to, easier for claims advocates to assist them with their claims, and easier for DVA staff to process those claims. This will mean veterans and families will be able to receive the benefits and supports they need and deserve as quickly and as easily as possible.
A significant amount of engagement, consultation and collaboration informed the content of the Bill. We received 323 written submissions, and input from many more veterans through meetings and online consultation sessions on the draft Bill about how the legislation could better serve the community. We listened to that feedback, and those views informed the legislation. Please check out the DVA website for all the information about how these changes work.
A Senate inquiry into the legislation – the Veterans’ Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Bill 2024 (the VETS Bill) – has already commenced and will report later this year with the aim of allowing the legislation to pass this year.
But we aren’t just waiting for better laws.
The work we have done to remove and process the backlog of claims we inherited together with our proposed laws to simplify and harmonise veterans legislation will see an additional $6.5 billion in benefits and supports being provided to veterans and families over five years.
We are also making the claims process more efficient for everyone. For example, DVA has just completed a major review of its medical assessment forms to make them easier to understand, quicker to complete for medical practitioners, and more effective in helping staff to obtain the information necessary to make informed decisions on claims. This project has successfully reduced 210 forms to 84 – streamlining more than 650 pages down to less than 200.
We are also improving accessibility to services and DVA information with our new Digital Veteran Cards, now available in the myGov app. Almost 300,000 Veteran Card holders can now add their Veteran Gold or White Card to the wallet in their myGov app. If you have a MyService account, you can add your digital card to the wallet once you’ve linked your account to myGov. You can also save your card to the myGov app home screen for easy access.
Tackling veteran homelessness is also a priority for the Albanese Government. Veterans are three times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. That’s just not acceptable. I recently launched our $30 million Veterans’ Acute Housing Program to fund not just homes but also wrap-around services to support veterans and their families who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, get back on their feet.
Our Veterans’ and Families’ Hub Program is also expanding. In June, I opened the newest Hub, in Burnie, Tasmania. This Hub will provide health and wellness support (with general practitioners on site) and will also take its services on the road, operating a mobile outreach clinic for veterans living in regional areas.
I want to thank every member of the veteran and family community who shared and re-lived their often distressing experiences with the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. In June, the Royal Commission presented a culmination of these submissions in the lived experience report, Shine a Light: Stories of Trauma & Tragedy, Hope & Healing.
The report made for hard, and at times harrowing, reading. But to bring real, meaningful change to the way we support serving personnel, veterans and families, it is important that those stories were shared and their experiences not repeated.
The Government looks forward to receiving the Royal Commission’s final report and recommendations, knowing they will be informed by those stories.
I was honoured to deliver the commemorative address at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Villers- Bretonneux in France this year.
While paying tribute to the 46,000 Australians who lost their lives on the Western Front, we can never lose sight of not just those who have died for Australia in many conflicts since, but also those who have come home not just with physical scars but mental scars as well, and the families that live with and support them. It was very moving to see so many Australians, young and old, doing just that across Australia and across the world, like in France, on Anzac Day.
Finally, I would like to thank my good friend Matt Thistlethwaite for so capably working with me as Assistant Minister for Defence and Assistant Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. Matt’s genuine dedication to supporting serving and ex-serving personnel, with a particular focus on their mental health, has shone through.
I also welcome Luke Gosling to the role of Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans’ Affairs and Northern Australia. As a veteran himself, Luke is well positioned to provide valuable insights and I look forward to working with him on the issues of importance to the veteran community.