STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator SCARR (Queensland) (13:50): Thank you to Senator Lambie, who's ceded her two-minute statement to me. My thoughts are with you, Senator Lambie. It's entirely appropriate, given that you can't be here today, that I talk about veterans.

We had veterans here in the parliament earlier today—people who served in the Vietnam War, people who served in Iraq, people who served in Afghanistan—calling upon the government to axe the $5,000 cap on allied health care that was introduced in the last budget. They're calling on the government to axe the cap. It was very disappointing to hear from those veterans that they were unable to meet the Minister for Veterans' Affairs today.

I would have thought there was nothing more important for the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to do today than to meet those veterans. If he'd met those veterans, he would have heard their concern with respect to the application of this cap to their health care. They're concerned that, especially given the complicated natures of their ailments, their $5,000 will run out after two or three months, and then they'll be forced to apply to the government for a continuation of that health cap.

I asked questions at the last Senate estimates of the department in relation to how this cap will impact the 25,000 veterans who exceed $5,000 of allied health care each year. I said: 'How are you going to process these applications? How much funding has been set aside?' I got the answer to my question just recently.

The government's telling us $593,000 is being set aside to process those 25,000 applications. That means $23 per application. What do you think's going to happen?

Delay in those veterans getting the health care they need. Axe the cap.