MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (16:28): At the Australian War Memorial, there is an exhibition called Deathmin, and I would encourage my Senate colleagues and members of the public, when you're there, to go and check it out. It is by Kat Rae, and I'll quote her about this particular exhibition. She said: After my veteran husband Andrew suicided in 2017, I inherited a stack of post-death admin.

This "deathmin" contains thousands of pages in which Andrew requests support for his broken body. Eventually, DVA paid $7 fortnightly, later reduced to $5. Three months before Andrew died, payments ceased. … … … Deathmin is a counter-monument to the strong, upright imagery often conveyed in the Australian War Memorial.

At my height and Andrew's weight, Deathminembodies the burden placed on veterans and their families. It asks bureaucratic institutions to care for the people they say they will. The government says: 'Well, it's just another cheque.

You'll still get more than $5,000.' But this threshold adds another obstacle. It's another piece of paper. It's another form.

It's another visit to the GP. And it all goes on the stack; it all piles up. It all goes on the shoulders of veterans who are just trying to get well and on their families.

This is not something we should be doing. We've heard so clearly from veterans and their families just how hard it is to get support. And now we're saying that if we identify that you do need support—if you really need support, if you need so much support that you have to have more than $5,000 of allied health—we're going to check you; we're going to make sure you really need that support, rather than just trusting the health system and the veteran.