MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator CADELL (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (16:50): I was in the Senate estimates room with Senator Shoebridge, and I think Senator Pocock was there too, when we were asking questions of DVA about these cuts and this cap. When you get down to why these things happen—it came down to, out of all our veterans, two veterans receiving over $100,000.

That's it. Two veterans out of the whole thing. I think one was getting a lot of money on dietitian work.

I think that was one of them. I don't know the other one; it was maybe podiatry, but I can't remember. At the time, we asked, 'What are you doing to stop the rorts from these providers?' If I were to see something going wrong—if I see overbilling—I would go after the provider and say, 'What you're doing is wrong and you are no longer part of the system.' I'd take action against them.

We were stunned to hear that no action was taken against the providers, but action was taken against every single veteran—more than 25,000 of them—who went over the cap, over the $5,000 mark, in 2024-25. So two providers are potentially taking advantage of the system by rorting it, rorting taxpayers and rorting veterans, as well as taking money out of the system, and the government's answer is to punish 25,000 veterans by putting a cap on allied health services.

In some articles of war, collective punishment is actually forbidden on this sort of thing, but we're doing it to our own veterans. Imagine going and fighting overseas and serving in your military—doing all of this—and then being the victim of collective punishment by your own government for the actions of potentially one or two people. They talk about the crime of going to see the physio.

That's a very good point. Imagine going to see the physio and being punished for it. When we talk about these 25,000 veterans that went over the cap and the savings—I heard them say: 'It's amazing.

We're putting $79 million into allied health.' That's great! You're pulling $748 million out of the system and you want to be congratulated for putting a bit more than 10 per cent back into the system. This is the wrong way to go about it.

I texted a gentleman from Scone that I was talking to last week about this. I haven't got permission to use his name yet, but, if it comes through while I'm talking, I will. This $5,000 for him is in two months.

He's in dire straits from his service. He was a young, fit man; his body's failing him. He's had open-heart surgery.

He's had all of these things. For him, the uncertainty about what this means is causing more stress. It's actually making his position worse.

We can't sit here as the kind of nation we are and say that the ends justify the means in this case. How can we possibly say that taking all of this certainty and all of this care from people who have put themselves forward to go to war for us is a good thing? When it comes to the ongoing consultations, I have an email from this same gentleman I was talking about earlier.

It says: 'Can you suggest that he push the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to send any discussion papers to each and every RSL subbranch in the country? This will give a strong message back to the government of what they actually need and want. Everyone I talk to from my cohort of military mates is fuming, and they will tell the story that they need to, not the'—I'll remove the last two words from this because they're explicit.

This is what I can't get down to. It is a missed call. People get these things wrong all the time, but it is a cap that serves no purpose.

Imagine not fixing a problem. Imagine just extending how long the pain goes for if you get to your cap. It's a ridiculous thing.

We've seen this time and time again. The government can identify a problem, but it doesn't even know how to go about fixing it. An action where it ticks a box is what this government wants, not an action that fixes the problem.

I say to our veterans: you deserve better. I say to our veterans: this is uncalled for. I say to the 25,000 veterans that need this help—there were 25,000 last year, and there may be more in the future: you need this help; you deserve it; and we will restore it, because it is just part of our deal with you.

We are breaking a covenant we made with you when you took the oath, when you went into uniform, when you agreed to serve your country. We've heard the very personal stories from Senator Lambie. We've heard them around.

It was an unbelievable thing, sitting in that chamber, just hearing that this is all because of a couple of providers that have done the wrong thing, and that no action was taken against them. Don't punish the people that do the right thing for the actions of a couple of criminals.