MOTIONS
Mr THOMPSON (Herbert) (12:09): I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Herbert from moving the following motion immediately That this House censures the Government for ripping $748 million from veterans' healthcare through a $5,000 cut on allied health services, forcing veterans to fight bureaucracy to access treatment, betraying the covenant owed to those who served Australia, and balancing the Government's budget on the back of veterans and their families. 'Without DVA, I'd be stuffed.
I have 22 scars on my body from various operations and metal in my body. I have PTSD, depression and anxiety, amongst others.' 'In the last four years, I lost my health, my mental health and my 24-year career and now I'm going through a separation from my family, all from military service.' 'These people want to reduce treatment. They are going to have a massive veteran health crisis on their hands.' 'It is just a slap in the face.
We did what we did for our country. Now we have to fight the government for the help we need. It just isn't right.' 'If I lose physio, my injuries will become substantially worse, probably ending in more surgery.' 'I'm currently unable to work with my back injury, and my mental state has continued to crumble since service.' 'I've nearly lost my life due to these issues multiple times.
Once again, we were thrown in the dirt.' 'If I lose either of my treatments, I can guarantee I wouldn't be here much longer. The country has truly lost our veterans.' 'I'll not be a burden on my family. I will take my life so my family doesn't see me at my worst.
I want them to remember me as the man I am today.' These are the messages, the heartbreaking messages, that I receive every day from veterans who are struggling, from veterans who have asked this government to get rid of this $5,000 cap on their allied health care. These veterans are talking about suicide. They're talking about not being here much longer because of this government's cap.
It's simply not good enough. We look veterans in the eye on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day. We say, 'Thank you for your service.' We say, 'Lest we forget.' To me that's a commitment, a commitment that this parliament and their leaders have to veterans.
But now it doesn't feel like a commitment. It feels like this government is betraying them. It feels like this government is letting them down.
It's because we have an incompetent minister for veterans' affairs, and we have a prime minister who isn't strong enough to make the right choice to sack his veterans' affairs minister and scrap this $5,000 cap on allied health care. I can't understand why, for any bit of legislation where they've had such pushback and been told that this is not what the veteran community want, they double down.
Just before, a motion came back from the Senate to the House of Representatives where the majority of the Senate voted to scrap this $5,000 cap, and the government didn't have the spine to debate it, to bring it on or to stand up and acknowledge they got it wrong and then scrap it. They pushed it to another sitting day, which means it'll just sit there and nothing will happen.
It is not good enough. This Labor government is looking veterans in the eye and saying, 'Your service doesn't matter.' Now, you don't have to take my word for it. You heard from about nine different veterans just before with their heartbreaking stories.
When they put on their uniform, serve on combat operations and humanitarian missions, help out through natural disasters, they expect that, if they become wounded, injured or ill, the government will look after them, because that's the commitment that governments give to our veterans, to our Defence Force. Sadly, once again, we've seen, from this government, our veterans being let down.
It talked about suicide in this message. If we haven't lost too many veterans—the Australian people know that and expect action. Yet we've got a government that is pushing people to start thinking like that again, pushing veterans to think that their service or their life—they don't want to be a burden on their family.
That's a plan. I am so terrified that that plan will come to fruition. There was never a consultation process announced.
This is a new thing. The consultation is running for, I don't know, however long. And then, at the end of it, I'm sure that the minister and the government will say, 'Yes, veterans don't want this cap,' and I will stand in here and say, 'I know, genius, because they came to Parliament House, they've emailed our offices, they've met with everyone that they can'.
They've tried to meet with the minister that didn't want to. You don't need a consultation process. You know that veterans don't want this cap.
This is a cost-saving measure that is placed on the shoulders of veterans—$748 million. That is disgraceful. A government should not ever, ever use veterans' health to prop up or fix their broken budget.
That is something that I wouldn't have thought that any government would do. Yet here we are today, not being able to debate a motion coming back from the Senate. We had Senator Babet sitting on the same side as the Greens.
No-one would have thought that would occur. But they all know that this is wrong. They know that this cap is going to hurt our veterans.
All this prime minister and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs have to do today is stand up and say, 'We'll scrap the cap. We'll get rid of it, and it's not because of the coalition; it's because the veterans don't want it.' Veterans have asked. Veterans have told.
Veterans have demanded. I've had backbenchers on the Labor side come over to me and say, 'Yes, we want to get rid of it,' or, 'Please, don't come to my electorate and mention it.' The member for Isaacs doesn't agree. He thinks that we should keep it.
He mentioned that before. I'm happy to go to his electorate and to meet with any ex-service organisation that told him and any other Labor member that this cap should stay, because I'm telling you no-one has. We've got veterans' families, spouses and children contacting members of parliaments' offices going, 'I'm terrified of what this will do to my mum,' or their dad.
If this is occurring, and you know it's wrong, then why wouldn't you just scrap it? Why won't you scrap the cap? You have to do the right thing.
This is the time when the Minister for Veterans' Affairs can. He can say, 'It won't happen. We won't have a cap,' because we shouldn't, because, if a veteran's doing it tough, they're in a dark hole, things aren't going well—like I've heard from one of those veterans.
He's just had a separation and he's got post-traumatic stress disorder. He has 22 scars on his body and has had multiple surgeries, and he's looking up and he can't see any light because the only light that he had, the treatment that he was getting, is being taken away because of this cut. We've had the Department of Veterans' Affairs tell people that it'll be several months before they may get a review to be able to get any extra money.
You shouldn't have to fight for that. I know what happens next. We go to funerals.
I've carried too many coffins to sit in this place and allow incompetence to potentially make our veterans, myself or others that serve attend another funeral—because that's what my fear is. We don't have to do this. It wasn't in the recommendation.
I'm unsure; this could be recommendation 123—the Keogh recommendation, I'm not sure. But I can tell you that no-one, even people that don't vote this way and don't vote that way—this is a bipartisan position. You're either going to do the right thing and scrap the cap, or you're going to dig in.
I can tell you now, I wouldn't want to be rocking up on any Anzac days or remembrance days or going to any of your veterans groups, because they are rightly angry. They will be furious. Mr Pasin: November's coming up.
Mr THOMPSON: Yes, we have days coming up where we say, 'Lest we forget.' We say, 'We will remember.' I can tell you now it means nothing coming from this government side. 'Lest we forget' is something that we all have a commitment to do. We go to the War Memorial and we see the names etched on the walls. We see their families.
We see people crying. They're asking you to be a leader today and scrap this cap. There is nothing worse than this cap being placed on our veterans.
These people who put on the uniform deserve much more respect than you're giving them. Minister, you're sitting here today. I hope that you stand up here right now and agree that this cap shouldn't be there.
We should scrap the cap. If not, I hope you stand up and resign. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Georganas ): Is there a seconder for the motion?