STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (13:07): Last night I told Kate's story. Kate is a female veteran who waited for three years to get surgery for vaginal prolapse. Why did she wait so long?

Because she couldn't find a gynaecologist who was happy with the low prices DVA pay. If I didn't have a good job, that could have been me. About six months ago, my vagina started to prolapse.

This is an injury that is directly connected to my back injuries from my time in the Army. My vagina was collapsing, and three months later it was taking my bladder with it, because there is such limited access to gynaecologists in rural and regional areas like Tasmania. I was looking at waiting for months for an appointment—that's in the private system in Tasmania—just to see a gynaecologist.

I put my claim into DVA over a month ago—crickets. There was no duty of care from the Department of Veterans' Affairs—absolute zero. So I came to Canberra to get the operation.

I paid $7,000 so I wouldn't end up like Kate. If I was like the majority of female veterans, I would have had to wait for DVA to approve my claim and then I would have had to search and hope—hope like hell—that there would be a gynaecologist who would accept the low rate that was paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That's how much they care about our vaginas.

I'm not alone. This is a condition suffered by one in 12 Australian women, but we can't be sure about those numbers because we don't keep accurate data. That's shocking in itself.

It's one of the most common and awful conditions that can be caused by childbirth, and we don't keep accurate data. When it comes to our female veterans, it's even worse. A survey of nearly 500 female veterans who had completed a minimum of six months of active duty found that two thirds reported pelvic health concerns, including 12 per cent who reported pelvic organ collapse.

The awful thing about this condition is that it also affects your bladder. A crucial treatment for post-prolapse surgery is physiotherapy, but female veterans can only get a maximum of four physio treatments, and they have to fight their way through a mountain of forms to get that. Women not in the Army are only entitled to five physio appointments under Medicare, even though the experts say that the recommended number is between five and 12 appointments at the very least.

How would that go under the cap for our veterans, let alone our women? Prolapse can be brought on by carrying heavy packs, high-impact training and combat training. I was in the first generation of Aussie women veterans who did combat training.

Men's and women's bodies are different, but, of course, that has never been factored in. When I asked Angus Campbell—years ago now—if there were any scientific evidence that women's bodies could stand up to the amount of weight that they were carrying in the Defence Force, he admitted they hadn't even bothered to look into it, and they still have not. They didn't have any scientific evidence.

Once again, like I said, they still don't. They want us to fight for this country. You want us to have babies for the country, but you're not interested in supporting our reproductive systems.

When the DVA ticks off on a claim, they must factor in at least one statement of principle—SOPs we call them. These are legislative instruments that set out factors which can connect injuries, disease or death from service. These are numbers for everything from tinnitus to erectile dysfunction, but guess what?

There is no SOP for vaginal prolapse. There's an SOP for penis problems but no SOP for vagina problems. Either DVA don't know that female veterans have vaginas or they actually don't care.

I would like to ask the Prime Minister, Minister Marles and Minister Keogh what they would do if their penises were hanging by a thread and what would they do if treatment for that injury directly connected to their military service was denied by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Would they say, 'Okay, no worries. I don't really need my penis'?

I don't think so. I'm asking you once more. I'm begging you, Prime Minister.

We are already suffering enough. Drop the bloody cap. Drop it, mate.

It is so unfair. It is what we do not need. It is enough.

Veterans have had enough. Leave us alone. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Cox ): Just before I shift the call, thank you for sharing your personal experience, Senator Lambie, and I acknowledge your pain.