QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr KEOGH (Burt—Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel) (14:15): I thank the member for his question, and I thank him for referencing that legislation. That was legislation that was passed by this parliament with the support of all sides, as you would absolutely expect, because not only are we are honoured by the presence of those people that have served in our defence force in our parliament, and we thank them for their service, but it is the responsibility of our nation, of our parliament and of any government to make sure that we look after our veterans.

I don't think anybody would disagree with that proposition or with what's in that legislation and is set out as our obligation. As I said at this dispatch box very early on becoming minister, there had clearly been failings in providing the necessary support, services, compensation payments and right treatment in service and for those people who had served—not just by one government; by many governments—but we all had to work together to make that system work better.

It's why there was the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and it's why we have worked so hard to make sure that we are working to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, amongst other changes and improvements in the system of support for our veteran community. But we are making the lives of our serving men and women better as well.

As we do that, it's clear from the failures of the past that there's always room for improvement. That's why we've also made sure that we've been working together with the veteran community and have always said, in implementing change, that we work with the veteran community to get those changes to work right for them. I know, as I'm sure every former minister for veterans' affairs in this place knows, that there has been, built up over time, a lack of trust in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and we know why.

We want to remedy that and we want to change that. That's why we've made the investments in the department that we've made. We continue to work to make it better for everybody, and I think we have been making it better.

Is there more work to do there? There absolutely and always will be, and that's what we will keep doing. I hope that every government in the future will always keep working to make those systems better.

The SPEAKER: The member for Riverina on a point of order? Mr McCormack: I seek leave to table this sacred document, the Australian Defence Veterans' Covenant, so the minister can refamiliarise himself with the words therein. Leave granted.