MATTERS OF URGENCY
Senator COX (Western Australia) (16:46): I begin by acknowledging Senator Lambie's long and determined advocacy for veterans and her personal contributions both last night—here in this chamber, while I was in the chair—and earlier today. Sharing an experience like this in this chamber cannot be easy. Senator Lambie has taken her own pain and used it to fight for women and veterans without the same platform, resources or ability to pay.
She brings this matter forward because she wants veterans to receive the care they need. That is the goal we all share. Pelvic health conditions affecting women veterans have not always received the research, the recognition and the attention they deserve.
On a personal side note as a former police officer, I still have hip pain decades later from wearing accoutrement belts. The government must take this seriously. On the question before the chamber, there's an important distinction.
The government is not introducing a hard $5,000 cap after which veterans allied health services simply stops. From 1 July 2027, there will be a $5,000 threshold at which further treatment is clinically reviewed. Where additional care is clinically required, DVA will continue to fund it, including multiple additional episodes when needed.
But I understand why the word 'threshold' provides little assurance to someone who's spent too long fighting the system. DVA will continue to consult veterans, families, providers and ex-service organisations to ensure that mechanisms are fast and simple and that they do not interrupt essential treatment. Senator Lambie's contribution should be heard as part of that process, and I want to honour that here today.
These changes also come with a $169.7 million investment into allied health provider fees, the largest increase in more than two decades. When Labor came to government, DVA was underfunded and underresourced. Almost 42,000 claims had not been looked at.
Labor funded DVA, hired staff and cleared that backlog. Today, DVA is better resourced than in the last three decades. Funding for veterans services, rehabilitation and compensation has risen from around $10 billion under the previous government to $15 billion just in this year.
We have delivered the most significant reform for veterans entitlements in generations. We simplified the system the royal commission found was so complicated it was damaging veterans' mental health. We opened a $78 million Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency and established the independent Defence and Veterans' Service Commission.
By the end of last year we had implemented 32 of the royal commission recommendations, and we expect to have implemented two-thirds by the end of this year. That is real change for veterans, and these allied health reforms build on that record. But no government should use its broader record to dismiss a veteran who says the system is still failing them.
Senator Lambie has given this chamber a deeply personal warning about where those failures can lead. I cannot support this motion, because the proposed arrangement is not a hard cap on care. But the concern behind it must be heard.
The test will be whether veterans like Kate and Senator Lambie receive the treatment they need without delay and unnecessary battles, and that is the standard veterans deserve. It is the standard our government accepts, and we will work to meet it.