QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (15:30): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Senator McAllister) to a question without notice I asked today relating to medical services for veterans. When a veteran needs a medical procedure or compensation for an injury that has been caused by their service for our country, the Department of Veterans' Affairs requires a report from a DVA approved doctor.

But, as my questions to the minister revealed today, doctors are reporting that DVA is failing to pay for reports, and in some cases DVA are using reports that haven't been paid for to make their assessment on the veteran. That's bordering on theft. In fact, in the real world, businesses who don't pay up on time are known as delinquent debtors.

Because DVA aren't paying their doctors, some of those doctors are refusing to do more reports until their outstanding invoices are paid. You can't really blame them. They already get paid less than their counterparts—less to treat veterans.

How's that for a slap in the face? We get treated like second-class citizens these days. I've met doctors and specialists who work for those lower rates and put up with the very late payments because they give a stuff about veterans, which is more than I can say about the department.

I've also met a lot of doctors and specialists who are making the decision not to be an approved DVA doctor, because it places too much pressure on their practice that they just can't sustain. I've also been hearing from veterans who have been getting emails from their delegate questioning the veteran's relationship with their doctor. I have it on good authority that this has happened at least five times, which tells me it's going on a lot more.

So keep coming to my office. A respected practice that looks after many veterans recently told me that it got a phone call from a veteran's partner who said that DVA outright refused to send his doctor a liability report request, even though that was his treating doctor. When the DVA were asked why they did this, they didn't supply answers.

They just refused, because, once again, they've given up caring about veterans. Doctors and practices have also been telling me that this started happening in February and March this year. How about that?

Doctors have had an absolute gutful, and so have I. Some are now refusing to submit liability and personal injury reports for veterans until DVA pays outstanding invoices. You are playing with veterans' lives.

Some of those doctors have dozens of unpaid invoices. It's barely three years since the royal commission handed down its final report. The commissioners were very clear: delays and complexities in veteran disability claims processing significantly heighten the risk of veteran suicide.

I was getting reports when the royal commission was still running that things were getting better. Not now. We've gone backwards.

Now veterans and their doctors say it's going backwards, I know it. I'm playing in it. It's gone backwards.

It has gone so backwards in the last six months. Do the Prime Minister and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs think they just needed more funding for claims processing while the commission was on, and then they could go back to treating every veteran like they were a bloody second-class citizen? DVA is relying on medical evidence to make decisions about veterans' compensation while failing to pay medical practitioners who produce the evidence in full and then forcing veterans and putting them in a panic mode and sending them to mlcoa, which is disgraceful in itself.

My office has raised this issue with Minister Keogh's office on multiple occasions, but veterans and doctors are still waiting. Today, in response to my questions, I got no answers. One doctor has submitted 18 liability and personal injury reports to DVA and has not been paid for a single report.

The doctor is now holding onto a further 23 reports that are complete but not yet sent to DVA because they have not paid these outstanding invoices. Some of these invoices are more than 90 days old. I want DVA to know this: I have those reports in my office.

I went and did the job you could not do. You could not negotiate with these doctors. I have those reports.

I would suggest the clock is ticking. If one of these 32 sitting on my table takes their life, I look forward to going to a coroner's inquest with you, because right now the clock is ticking on veterans' lives. Get off your butt and get up there and get those reports.

Those veterans have waited long enough. It is time to pay the doctors. Question agreed to.