New veterans’ legislation introduced to Parliament
On 3 July 2024, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel, Matt Keogh, introduced legislation into Parliament to simplify and harmonise the veterans’ rehabilitation and compensation framework. This is another important step the Government has taken to respond to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s Interim Report.
The Bill would consolidate all legislation governing veterans’ compensation and rehabilitation into the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (MRCA) from 1 July 2026. This means the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (VEA) and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act 1988 (DRCA) will be closed to new compensation and rehabilitation claims. An underlying principle of the Bill is that there will be no reduction in payments that veterans or families have previously received or are currently receiving.
These changes will make the claims system easier to navigate and help veterans and families receive the support and services they are entitled to. It will also ease the administrative burden for DVA, making determinations less complex, and reducing training and system maintenance overheads.
The Bill also introduces a range of enhancements that will improve compensation arrangements for veterans, including:
- a new Additional Disablement Amount (ADA), similar to the existing Extreme Disablement Adjustment (EDA) available under the VEA (This will compensate older veterans who have a high degree of incapacity due to service-related conditions.)
- introduction of ‘presumptive liability’, which will allow the Repatriation Commission to specify injuries and diseases that can be determined on a presumptive basis where they are known to have a common connection with military service, without needing to engage with the Statement of Principles (SoP) system
- consolidation of household and attendant care, travel for treatment, and retention of automatic granting of VEA funeral benefits in the MRCA
- an increase to $3,000 for funeral allowance for previous automatic grant categories currently covered under the VEA, and the availability of reimbursement of funeral expenses up to $14,062 for all service-related deaths.
The 2024-25 Budget included a measure providing an additional $222 million in veteran and family entitlements across the first 2 years from commencement of this legislation, with increased expenditure continuing beyond the forward estimates.
The Bill is the result of significant community consultation undertaken over 3 rounds since late 2022. Over 50 consultation sessions were conducted in 2023 and 2024 and 569 submissions were received. DVA found there was broad support within the veteran community for a single ongoing Act.
Following consideration of the feedback on the exposure draft in early 2024, these changes have been made to the Bill:
- Veterans in receipt of DRCA incapacity payments will automatically transition to MRCA incapacity payments on the date of commencement.
- Where the Repatriation Medical Authority updates an SoP between the veteran’s primary and reviewable decision, the version of the SoP which is most beneficial to the veteran’s circumstances will be applied.
- An introduction of an instrument-making power to enable the Repatriation Commission to determine circumstances where a veteran must receive financial advice before receiving a lump sum payment.
The Senate referred the Bill to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 3 October 2024.
More information is available at: www.dva.gov.au/legislationreform.
Information on the Senate Inquiry is available on the Australian Parliament House website.