MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (15:49): To all those who continue to serve this nation in uniform, our veterans and their families: I note that the freedoms that we have today are on the back of hard-fought battles and wars and of sacrifices that you have made, and, today, I want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you've been let down. I'm sorry that the government has placed this $5,000 cap on your allied health.
This isn't about political partisanship; this is about a government that has let you down. Veterans from around the country have reached out to many of us in this place. They have lost faith in the veterans' affairs minister, and I have too.
His position is untenable. When you lose the faith of those that you're supposed to support and when you refuse to meet with those brave men and women who have served this nation, then you have lost the support of all veterans from around the country—veterans not just in Townsville and not just in Tassie but even in the Northern Territory, in Palmerston. Veteran Shane Pascoe-Bell has a long list of mental and physical injuries dating back to his service with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, which was a parachute infantry battalion in 1999 in East Timor, where he served.
He said: When you are parachuting, you are hitting the ground at 7 metres a second with 50-plus kilos of equipment. I've just had surgery on my knee, I've got a plate in my neck, and I have to have a few more artificial disks put into my lower back—the workload just eventually broke me down. I am already asking myself whether I am going to have to go without physio for a couple of months, or not see the counsellor for a couple of months.
You start to weigh up what part of you, health-wise, is the most important, so that's driving up anxiety among everyone at the moment. Veterans shouldn't have to ration their medical treatment. Veterans shouldn't have to be picking whether it's mental health support or whether it's physio.
It's just not what our bravest—those we sent into war, into peacekeeping and into humanitarian disasters—should have to be worried about. This veteran went on to say: This is just another kick in the guts where veterans will potentially be in a worse-off situation than they would have been before the Royal Commission … Like, today I went and had my hearing aids maintained and I had a psych appointment; I have an osteopath appointment once a week, so what do I drop off?
Just my physiology once a week would use 80 per cent of that $5,000. I won't get through it all, but I received a message. It says: I am a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma.
I required two inpatient psychiatric admissions. In the first 12 months following my discharge, well over $10,000 was spent on my mental health treatment alone. That was not excessive treatment.
That was necessary treatment. Military Sexual Trauma is a whole-of-body injury. It can affect psychological and physical health, the nervous system, relationships, employment, trust, identity and the ability to function long after a person leaves Defence.
I am angry and in disbelief … These are the types of messages that I receive nearly every day from heartbroken and distressed veterans and family members who, at this dispatch box just now, still did not get an answer from the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. We moved a suspension motion; the minister could have addressed the parliament. The minister just had 10 minutes to talk on this MPI but didn't talk about the substance of what people are nervous and scared about.
Veterans around the country have lost faith in this minister and his ability to do his job, and I have too. The Prime Minister needs to be putting veterans and their families first today. He needs to scrap this $5,000 cap on allied health, and he needs to sack the Minister for Veterans' Affairs.
He must listen to those that he may, sometime, have to send to war. We must listen to our veterans; our veterans want Minister Matt Keogh gone.