CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr ROB MITCHELL (McEwen) (10:15): There's not a day in this place across the nation that we don't thank veterans for their service. The men and women who deal with injuries—visible and invisible, physical and mental. They didn't enlist for money, fame or prestige but for the service of our nation.

That service and sacrifice means we owe them a lot. So it's very sad to me and to many across our nation that, since the budget, the coalition has wilfully misrepresented the government's changes to allied support for veterans. They get behind the mike and talk about a cap that stops veterans from receiving allied health support.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They gaslight veterans that their nation has left them behind. The thing is that there is no cap.

Let me be so clear that even those opposite should understand it. It does not exist. Under the system, veteran cardholders need to go back to a GP every 12 sessions to access allied health care.

There are two issues with that process: needing to go back to GPs, which is a continual burden, and some unscrupulous operators out there overcharging veterans because they know it gets covered. What the government has proposed is to scrap that 12-session cycle and put a threshold, not a cap, to review treatment. The difference between a cap and a threshold is that, when you hit a cap, that's it.

You're stopped, like when they talked about migration. But this is not the case here. The threshold is in place as a marker to look at where things are going and to make sure veterans are getting the help they deserve.

It also doesn't apply to everyone. In fact, fewer than one in 10 veterans will need this review. Veterans getting medical and specialist dental, optical and hearing services don't need a review, and 90 per cent of the veterans have annual health expenses under $5,000.

That is a fact. All these people were going to benefit by not having to seek referrals again and again. You'd think that veterans should not be used as a political pawn.

I know it's desperate times for those opposite. The orange wave that they created is now coming to bite them, and you can feel the heat. They feel the heat and they know it.

Maybe they're feeling guilty. For nine long years they sat on their hands and did veterans over. We took over from a prime minister that told his veterans' affairs minister that the underfunding of Veterans' Affairs was because they were seen to be of 'no political advantage'.

That describes the opposition when they were in government. They were Scott Morrison's words to his minister who threatened to resign. Minister Keogh put $6.5 billion in our first budget to fix the backlog of untouched claims.

Now we're taking the next step forward to lower wait times and reduce the unnecessary pain. So the members for Riverina and Herbert and all your mates come in and screech and carry on, but where the hell were you when this was happening? Because I'm sure you'll stand at Kapooka and wave at all the new recruits, but you've never had the courage to stand up and say: 'By the way, we don't think it's a political advantage to fund you.

That's why we underfunded you.' My message is simple to these guys: stop manipulating and disrespecting veterans.