MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr WALLACE (Fisher) (16:19): I want to acknowledge the veterans that came and saw me yesterday in my parliamentary office for their service. Kirk from Nirimba was injured while serving our country, and he still requires ongoing physiotherapy for that service related injury. He's calculated that physiotherapy just once a fortnight could exhaust his treatment allocation, forcing him back through another approval process simply to continue care already prescribed by his doctor.
Minister, why should Kirk have to keep asking permission to treat an injury he received serving this country? Mark from Little Mountain is a retired Air Force firefighter. He lives with chronic pain, complex injuries and multiple service related conditions.
His health needs are not confined to one neat category. Different conditions require different providers and different forms of treatment. Under the system, he faces separate referrals and repeated trips back through the medical bureaucracy just to continue managing injuries the Commonwealth already accepts as service related.
Veterans with complex conditions are precisely the people who will feel these changes most heavily. How many times, Minister, should a veteran have to prove that he or she is still injured before this government simply lets their doctors treat them? Ellie from Meridan Plains served for seven years in the Royal Australian Navy, including two Middle East deployments and service in the South China Sea.
She now needs psychology, physiotherapy and dietetics to manage injuries resulting from that service. From July 2027, Labor proposes to place all of that allied health treatment inside the same $5,000 envelope. That means veterans with both physical and psychological injuries are effectively being asked to make a choice between different parts of their health care.
Ellie should not be forced to decide whether her mental health, her physical rehabilitation or another clinically necessary treatment matters most. Which treatment does this government expect Ellie to give up first? Mark from Parrearra has only recently been medically discharged from the Royal Australian Navy.
He's living with lung disease, physical injuries and mental health conditions arising from his service. His recovery is only just beginning. Yet before that recovery is properly started, he already knows that the government intends to put a $5,000 cap around his allied health treatment.
For a recently discharged veteran dealing with multiple serious conditions, that creates uncertainty at exactly the point when the system should be giving him certainty and support. We should be helping veterans transition from Defence into civilian life, not telling them from day one where the financial limit on their treatment sits. Minister, what does this government say to a veteran whose recovery has barely begun but who already knows where this government's financial limit is?
Joe from Palmwoods is an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran. Joe was medically discharged in 2011 and is TPI with multiple accepted service related conditions. He requires around 20 allied health appointments each month and expects to reach the $5,000 cap very quickly.
His GP considers his treatment clinically necessary, and it is coordinated across the treatment team. He fears the exemption process will add bureaucracy and interrupt treatment that has helped him make significant progress. Joe believes DVA should target providers who rort the system rather than impose blanket caps on veterans with genuine complex needs.
And Teresa from Little Mountain relies on regular psychology, TMS, dietetics and exercise physiology treatment to manage PTSD. She estimates the $5,000 allied cap would be exhausted within months. Why are we imposing a cap?
Why is this government imposing a cap on treatment that is helping veterans stay well and preventing greater healthcare costs later?