MOTIONS

Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (15:26): I second the motion. There are about seven advisory groups that advise the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and these advisory groups are made up of veterans and ex-service organisations. These are people that are experts in this field, and they are the people that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs should have spoken to before bringing in this cap of $5,000.

Not one of them was spoken to. Not one of them agrees on this cap. This minister has brought in this cap that is going to leave veterans worse off, and there's nothing that the Prime Minister can say nor are there any other weasel words that can be said that will convince the Australian people otherwise.

The Prime Minister said that, for all total and permanent impairment and the special-rate disability pension, those people will now be carved out and that this wasn't the case before. Let me tell you about a friend of mine, Paul Warren. He's missing his leg.

It got blown off in Afghanistan, in the same explosion where Ben Ranaudo was killed in action on my deployment in 2009. He's not TPI. He's not on the special-rate disability pension.

He's had issues with his leg. His leg can't function properly. He's had infections.

He's been in the worst despair of his life, but the Prime Minister and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs want to stand up and say: 'It's okay. I'm sure this won't affect veterans'—veterans like my mate Paul. It is not true!

This is going to absolutely wreck the veteran community. The minister couldn't even be bothered meeting with veterans. He hasn't met with any.

When he gets dragged to the table, he doesn't want to talk about it. He doesn't want to come down and defend it. This is not good enough.

This minister has lost the faith of the veteran community. He's lost the faith of the Australian public. To be honest, the Prime Minister should sack him because, right now, they're scrambling.

There was no consultation phase announced when we found this policy in the budget. No-one knew about it, but now there's a consultation process because they're trying to save face. It was not in the royal commission.

Nothing about a $5,000 cap was in the royal commission. The Prime Minister and other members want to talk about the 'price differentiation'. We're not talking about that.

We're talking about a cap. You cannot say that this cap is what the veteran community wants. Politicians are not experts.

They're not. They should be taking advice from the experts, and, in this case, it's the veterans and their families. A veteran has told me that he will not be a burden on his family.

You know what that means? That means he has a plan to not be with us anymore if he hits this $5,000 cap, because he knows what will happen. It will put him in such a hole.

He will drink more—he told me this—he'll self-medicate, and he won't be here anymore. That's what veterans are saying. They're talking about suicide, and this government can't do the right thing and scrap the cap.

Veterans are openly talking about suicide. This isn't good enough. For the Prime Minister to now say, 'I'm meeting with veterans,' to cover for his incompetent veterans' affairs minister just highlights the laziness of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

It shows that he's incompetent, and it shows that he's not listening. Five years and two weeks ago, there was the rescue mission in Afghanistan. We sent people into the most dangerous place in the world, into the belly of the beast.

A lot of those people that went on that rescue mission have left the Army and are looking at DVA and putting their claims in. Some of them are trying to get back in, because they know that they'll hit a cap very quickly—with their knee injuries, their mental health challenges, their shoulder injury—and, as soon as they meet that cap, then they don't get support.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs has said that it will take several months to get an increase in that cap so you can get the service you need—several months! This is ridiculous. This minister is clearly not up to the task.

If you've lost the faith of the people you're supposed to stand next to and support, then you shouldn't be in the job that you have. This minister is failing upwards continually. This prime minister should do the right thing.

He should frogmarch him back in here, give him, like the motion says, 15 minutes to answer to this, and not talk about all the other policies but talk about who told him that a $5,000 cap was a good idea. What veteran? Just one—one veteran.

The answer is 'you will not be able to get it'. I'm fearful for what will happen next. We do not need any more suicides in the veteran community.

This minister needs to go.