MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:39): This is volume 3 of the final report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, entitled Military sexual violence, unacceptable behaviour and military justice. It runs to 600 or so pages. There are seven volumes of a similar size.
There were 122 recommendations from that royal commission. Not one of those recommendations said that there should be a cap on allied health services for our veterans—not a single one. And, yet, in this year's budget, brought down in May right at that spot by the Treasurer, there was a cap introduced for our veterans, for those brave men and women who had the courage, wherewithal, tenacity and determination to put on a uniform and go and represent us in the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy, something that our nation asked them to do to help our nation in its time of need, to serve our nation, to protect our people.
That is the first order of government—to protect its people. This government has neglected its duty to protect the people who protected us. Those veterans had our backs when we needed them most and, when they need us most, this government has turned its back on them.
This government has introduced an unnecessary and unjust $5,000 cap on the allied health services that care for our veterans, for those who've served our nation, for those whose service and sacrifice we should uphold. When we say 'Lest we forget' that should carry meaning. That should carry worth.
It shouldn't be just on 25 April or 11 November that we say, 'Lest we forget'; we should say it every day. We should say it in our hearts, we should say it in our minds and we should say it in our actions. But our veterans have been let down.
They have told us, this week particularly, how badly they feel they have been let down. A group of those veterans came to parliament on Monday seeking a meeting, seeking to be heard—not much given their service and sacrifice. It's little to ask—just a favour.
They asked the minister if they could have a meeting. Initially, he said no. He then, after pressure, had a meeting with them, and they felt let down in that meeting because of the minister's demeanour.
They felt that the minister showed reckless disregard in his body language in that meeting. That is a shame to hear, Minister, because I felt you were better than that. They feel let down because they came here to ask questions, to ask why the $5,000 allied health cap had been introduced.
I know the minister has said on many occasions since the budget, defending this unjust cap, that there will be consultation and that veterans groups will be asked. Well, here was your opportunity, Minister, to have some consultation and to get the feedback from veterans. These were decorated veterans who have served tri-services, veterans who just wanted to be heard.
They didn't ask for much. They didn't ask for you to roll your eyes, fold your arms or throw your hands back in the air. They just wanted to be heard.
When, Minister, you talk about consultation, why wasn't the consultation on the allied healthcare cap done prior to the May budget? That is a fair and genuine question. Why wasn't the consultation with stakeholder groups widespread?
Why weren't veteran groups consulted? There are many of them. Why weren't the widows guild and so many others asked?
Why weren't they consulted? Then we have veteran mums, such as Julie-Ann Finney. She's the mother of a veteran.
I've met Julie-Ann on many, many occasions, and I know you have too, Minister. She feels very badly let down by the lack of consultation and by the lack of respect and care. It comes back to respect.
She has lost everything. I don't know what it's like to be in the shoes of a mum's who's lost their son. No parent should ever lose a son, let alone in those circumstances.
That is why we had a royal commission. That is why the royal commission went right around this wide brown land, consulting, listening and making recommendations, yet, out of 122 recommendations, not one of them said there should have been an allied health cap. Interestingly, on the front page of the actual royal commission volumes, there is a sculpture, and it is For Every Drop Shed in Anguish.
The dedication on the plaque of that sculpture says that it was opened by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, but he wasn't there. I don't know whether he insisted on his name being on the plaque, but the member for Kingsford Smith opened that particular sculpture. Again, you might shake your head, Minister—and that's what you did to the veterans the other day, and that's the issue.
That's the problem. Sometimes, when you don't like the truth—sometimes, when a minister doesn't like what he or she hears—you just have to cop it. I know.
I've been in meetings where it hasn't been that nice, where I haven't liked what I've heard. But you've got to listen. And we're not just talking about your regular stakeholder groups.
We're not just talking about your constituents who might come in with a grievance. We're talking about veterans. We're talking about people who are broken, people who have mental health, anguish and anxiety.
We've already heard from members of that group who have claimed that four people—four veterans, four wonderful heroes of this nation—have taken their own lives because of the anxiety brought about by the allied health cap, the $5,000 cap on veterans. They've already taken their lives. If that doesn't fill us with dread about what might come when the policy actually comes into play next year, then I don't know what will and we're in the wrong caper.
Minister, your job is to help, protect and serve those who served us. It's not to be served. The minister's answers in question time left a lot to be desired, because he was blaming what happened in the past.
He was blaming the department. Sometimes you have to take responsibility for your own actions. Sometimes you have to fess up.
Sometimes you have to know that you've done the wrong thing. And sometimes, when you are a minister and you are going into those big roundtable meetings where the money is being issued prior to a budget, you have to defend and you have to yell and you have to bang on the table and say, 'I'm not going to cop a cut to veterans. I'm not going to take this.' Prime Minister, do you know what this is going to mean to our veteran community?
Never mind the politics. People have to come before politics, and veterans have to come first, and our veterans have been let down. Our veterans feel let down, and they feel let down by the government.
They feel let down by this minister and they feel let down by the nation that they served, that they put on the uniform for, that they went out and, in some cases, gave their lives for—their brothers, in the case of one of these members who gave his life. It's just simply not good enough, because our veterans deserve better. If we've got one job to do in this place, it's to help our veterans to get back into civilian life and to give them every care, support, love and wraparound service they need.
It's not to say to them, 'Your service is now going to be so limited that your access to health care is going to be $5,000 and you'll have to go back every time.' The minister will no doubt come to the dispatch box and explain away in talking point form exactly why he thinks the allied health cap is necessary. But it's not necessary, and don't take my word for it, and certainly don't take the minister's word for it.
Take the veterans' word, because they're the ones who matter, and they're the ones we should be serving, not ourselves, Minister.