MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (16:13): Labor is making veterans fight another battle—the battle to access the care they need. If you listen to the other side, it's all rosy. Why would they be here looking for money if they didn't need it?
What is actually disturbing is the way the Minister for Veterans' Affairs has treated those that have served our country. Under the 2026-27 budget, allied health services have been capped at $5,000 a year. For a veteran requiring physiotherapy, rehabilitation, psychological support, specialist appointments and ongoing treatment, $5,000 can disappear very quickly.
For veterans in regional and remote Australia, the burden is even greater with travel, accommodation and other costs adding to the expense of the care. But veterans who travelled to Canberra to raise these concerns faced another battle to even be heard by their own minister. Veterans and bereaved family members made the trip because they wanted to explain the real-world impact of these changes.
They wanted to propose practical solutions. They wanted their minister to listen. Instead, they say the minister initially declined to meet with them.
Outrageous. When a meeting eventually took place, the veterans who attended have described the minister's conduct as 'deeply disrespectful'. They say he refused to shake their hands, sat with his arms crossed and rolled his eyes as they explained their concerns and put forward possible proposals.
They also say the minister complained that the meeting with them meant he was missing an appointment with the Governor-General. Boohoo! This is an extraordinary way to treat Australian veterans.
These are people who served our nation—people who put their lives on the line. They're not travelling to Canberra to be dismissed; they travelled to be heard. Instead of showing them respect and compassion, they say they were met with indifference and disrespect.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs has a responsibility to listen to veterans, not make them fight to get through the door. He has a duty of care. He has a responsibility to understand the consequences of a government policy, not dismiss the people living with those consequences.
Veterans should never have to beg their own government for dignity. The $5,000 cap is deeply concerning, but so too is the attitude veterans say they encountered when they tried to challenge it. Five thousand dollars is not a measure of what a veteran's health is worth.
A veteran's access to care should not depend on how quickly a budget allocation runs out. Those who served our country should never be made to feel like an inconvenience when they ask the minister to listen. We ask our servicemen and women to run towards danger to protect our country.
The very least they deserve in return in respect. Our veterans deserve better from this government, they deserve better from this minister, and they deserve to be heard, respected and properly cared for. This isn't good enough.