MOTIONS

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (10:38): The government is pleased to support the motion moved by Senator Lambie. I acknowledge Senator Lambie's contribution on these issues over many years in this parliament. Today, of course, marks two years since the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide handed down its final report, and that royal commission was the most significant and most comprehensive inquiry conducted into suicide and suicidality in Defence and veteran communities.

And I acknowledge those in the gallery, as Senator Lambie did, including Julie-Ann Finney, who fought so hard for that commission to be established. The royal commission heard harrowing evidence from thousands of currently and formerly serving Defence members and their families and, in particular, the families of those who are no longer here to speak for themselves.

We thank all of those who came forward and bravely told their story to the royal commission. Your courage and the royal commission's work direct the necessary change that is needed to save lives. We heard of systems that were broken, of a culture that was toxic and that simply not enough was being done to support Aussie personnel in and following service.

The final report of the royal commission was a historic opportunity to deliver lasting reform and support our defence personnel, our veterans and their families. The evidence we heard should have left no-one in this place in any doubt that there was need of great reform, and the government, since we came to office, has been working every day to deliver real and meaningful and enduring reform for defence personnel, veterans and families.

On this anniversary we note that we had implemented 32 of the recommendations at the end of last year and we will have implemented two-thirds of recommendations by the end of this year. We have taken action on some of the most important recommendations from the royal commission, including establishing a new defence and veterans service commission that will improve independent oversight and evidence based advice to improve suicide prevention and wellbeing outcomes for the defence and veteran community.

The new Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency has been up and running since 1 July this year and is better supporting veterans and families. Just last week we announced that Natasha Stott Despoja AC has been appointed deputy commissioner of the independent Defence and Veterans' Service Commission to lead the inquiry into military sexual violence recommended by the royal commission.

Today we announced that the Albanese Labor government will go further and implement even more of the recommendations of the royal commission. We always viewed our response as a starting point, not the end of the work. It's why we've continued to examine the recommendations from the commission, strengthening our response as further work has identified a way forward.

The Albanese government has now updated the response to 15 recommendations. There are now a total of 113 recommendations which have been agreed or agreed in principle by the government, with a further eight recommendations to be noted. We are continuing to implement the recommendations from the royal commission at pace.

Before this place, there are two bills that together implement 20 recommendations and support a further 20. I encourage everyone in this place to work together to ensure the passage of those bills to continue to implement these important recommendations. Of course, in coming to government, we have also needed to fund and fix a broken system.

Since day one, we've worked to improve the lives of defence personnel, veterans and families with significant funding increases. This was well overdue. The state of veterans funding when we came to office was a disgrace.

Under the previous government, the Department of Veterans' Affairs was underfunded and underresourced, and this did mean that veterans were not getting access to the services and supports that they need and absolutely deserve. We have been working to rebuild things ever since. Everybody knows there was a backlog of 42,000 new veteran claims that had not been looked at by anybody in DVA under the previous government.

As a direct result of the funding by our government of additional DVA staff in the 2022-23 budget, we cleared that shameful backlog. We have continued to properly resource DVA so the funding for health care, support and compensation that veterans need and deserve can get to them faster. The past three years have seen record claims processing by DVA.

Determinations increased 42 per cent, from 62,583 in 2022-23 to 88,911 in 2025-26. Initial liability condition determinations have increased 123 per cent, from 106,667 to 238,389. In 2025-26, DVA determined a bit over 238,000 initial liability conditions, and that is the highest number on record.

Each of these decisions represents a formal determination about a veteran's health condition and opens the door to treatment. Approximately $15 billion was spent on payments and services for over 360,000 veterans and their families in 2025-26. That is some $5 billion more than four years ago, under the Morrison government.

Our changes, our investments in system capacity, are seeing resources flow to veterans as they should. Our changes included around $10 billion in compensation payments and a further $5 billion in healthcare treatment being paid out. We continue to progress these recommendations.

We're not only better funding veteran support; we have made once-in-a-century changes to simplify veterans entitlements legislation and improve integrity in the system, and we are taking a holistic wellbeing support approach to supporting veterans and their families. From 1 July this year, the most significant reform to Australian veteran support systems in generations began.

The royal commission told us. They found that the previous veterans legislation system was so complicated that it adversely affects the mental health of some veterans and can be a contributing factor to suicidality. The changes to the veteran support system that came into effect on 1 July this year simplified the veterans compensation system.

We want to support people. Of course we do. We have deep respect for the veterans who pulled on a uniform and served our country.

Anyone who puts on that uniform in our name deserves nothing less. Those who serve in our ADF and their families should be confident that they will be well supported by their leaders, by their mates and in the broader defence and veteran community, both during their time in service and following. it. And Australia's personnel should be safe in the knowledge that, whatever happens in service, they and their families will be looked after and acknowledged by a grateful nation.

There is more work to do, but our government takes this work seriously, and we do so because of our deep respect, our deep gratitude and our deep belief in the service that is offered by veterans to their country.