MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (15:34): Breaking a promise can have dire consequences. When veterans around the country learnt that this Labor government had gone back on its commitment to provide allied health support and to provide psychosocial support, they were rightly concerned and angry. Since yesterday, I have been contacted by thousands and thousands of veterans who are worried.
They're worried about what will happen when they fall over, they need a hand up and that hand is no longer there. If you need to see a psychologist and you have a shoulder injury, a knee injury or any other injury on top of that, then your $5,000 cap that this Labor government has put on will be capped out, and you won't be able to get the support you need. The minister has said: 'You've just got to ring up.
You've just got to go to the Department of Veterans' Affairs and put a request in, and you may be able to get some extra help and support.' A person at DVA told me that that could take several months. If you're in a dark place and the only bit of light that you can see is the treatment that you're getting and if that gets taken away, what happens next? You go into a worse place; you self-medicate.
And some people may not be able to pull themselves out. This is the reality. Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting— Mr THOMPSON: The member for McEwen can interject as much as he wants, but I've sat in that dark place, and we couldn't get pulled out of that place.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Member for McEwen and Member for Herbert, I'd appreciate it if you both stopped the interactions across the table. Mr THOMPSON: Through the chair, Deputy Speaker Claydon, the member for McEwen has continually interjected about— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me, Member for Herbert. I have dealt with the issue.
You do not need to school me on the standing orders. Mr THOMPSON: I'm not. I'm going through the chair.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have asked the member for McEwen to stop. I ask you to stop talking to him directly, which also encourages this. Mr THOMPSON: Sure—encourages it.
Okay. Thank you, Deputy Speaker— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Now don't— Mr THOMPSON: I said 'okay'. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well, just continue calmly in your speech.
Members opposite will have times to respond to this. You are getting an opportunity to put your viewpoints now. I'd like it done respectfully on both sides.
Mr THOMPSON: It does not surprise me at all that members of the Labor Party, of the Labor government, would interject when I'm talking about veterans mental health and how bad it is out there, would try to defend capping veterans mental health support and allied health support and would get so angry about having it called out. We saw it in here yesterday. We saw the Prime Minister get upset when he was called out on this issue, and we saw the Minister for Veterans' Affairs too.
But, in the community, veterans are upset—and rightly so. When those in here go home after being a member of parliament, tonight or when back in their electorate they'll sleep easy; everything's fine. In the veteran community, we're taking phone calls from people that are doing it tough.
We're taking phone calls from spouses and loved ones who can't find their loved one, their veteran, who's gone missing because they're having a bad time. We're the ones who are on the phone, not those members of parliament that sit across and want to interject, those who want to defend price capping for our veterans and who won't allow them to get the support they need.
I think it's a disgrace. I think it's disgraceful. Those members who think that the veterans affairs situation now is fine, with these price caps that are going to see people in a worse place, and who want to yell out and interject should be taking these phone calls from veterans who are in a dark place.
You're not there. You're not on the ground. You're not doing it for real.
The number of people that are continually ringing me and other veterans around the country and complaining about this disgraceful act from this Labor government—it is not just a broken promise. It's not just deceitful. It is a life-changing, life-altering disgrace.
I am so ashamed that we've had a minister for veterans affairs try to defend price capping by saying it was in the royal commission report. It wasn't. It should not be there.
They should redo it, because veterans deserve better than this Labor government.