Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Ministers statements: veterans services

Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan—Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Minister for Veterans) (12:46): Today I would like to update the house on the interim report from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which was handed down last month. The report included 13 urgent recommendations and seven preliminary observations, providing a step forward in enacting much-needed change to better support veterans.

The first five recommendations are in line with what I have heard from Victorian veterans. I want to concentrate on two of them: to simplify and harmonise the veteran compensation and rehabilitation system; and to improve the administration of the claim system. At a recent veterans wellbeing task force meeting chaired by the federal minister, Matt Keogh, I suggested on behalf of Victorian veterans and their family members that we should be able to enact these two recommendations. What Victoria has consistently said is that if a veteran or a family member reaches out for help then they should just be helped and they should be believed. There is so much money spent on not believing veterans and their family members; it is at the point of being ridiculous. Everyone across the country that has to deal with this system understands that and knows that.

Despite the change of federal government, we are consistent, as far as the Victorian government goes, that this system needs to be completely overturned and to stop being adversarial. If we are going to believe any cohort of people in the first instance, it is this cohort of people.