Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (15:57): I'll go directly to the human cost. The former speaker mentioned the human cost. I've listened closely to previous speakers, and I want to shed some light on the significant support from our government for those who not only keep Australians safe but continue to do so. This is an MPI, and we all understand that we are able to look at the subject and see whether it's able to have some light shone on it. That's what those on this side are doing, because it refers to failures to keep Australians safe. We will shine a light on those opposite and their failures to do so. We're talking about Australians and the failure of those opposite to keep Australians safe—in particular, veterans. On the human cost those opposite talked about: try 42,000 Australian veterans in a backlog of claims to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That's because sufficient funds were not put into that department to deal with the claims. I understand well, as do many on our side—and also some on the opposite side of the chamber, if they're honest—the extraordinary human cost to Australian veterans and their families. Those opposite want to talk about human cost; those who put the uniform on should receive the best-possible care that we have and that we're able to put into place. That's what we did in the budget. Our most important capability is our people. An opposition member interjecting— Mr GOSLING: I hear someone on that side scoff at that, and that's unfortunate. That's unfortunate, because what we saw over the years was a government—and the Leader of the Opposition, in fact, was a defence minister, and they did roll out the red carpets. Unfortunately, they didn't put enough money into capability. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to having the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide. They finally agreed to do it but then continued to underfund the services that veterans and their families relied on. That's how we ended up with a backlog of 42,000 Australian veterans waiting to get the support that they needed. We've heard from the veterans minister himself previously—and this is not something that he has crowed about, but it is significant—that billions of dollars more were put into the budget to make sure that we continued to get rid of that backlog by helping Australian veterans. We funded 500 additional places to get on top of the claims and, now that we've done that, we're investing further with an additional 141 staff to process claims faster. But it's not just those on this side of the chamber. I think it was the member for Groom himself who said that he would leave the government should there not be sufficient funding put into the Department of Veterans' Affairs. He now sits over there on the crossbenches because those opposite, when they were in government, didn't properly fund the Department of Veterans' Affairs. With my own eyes I saw him stand up at a press conference and say that if those opposite, the government at the time, didn't put sufficient funding into DVA to deal with the 42,000—this was his own government he was talking about betraying veterans and their families by not putting enough into the services that they required. He now sits over there because he'd had an absolute gutful of that. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): The member for Casey? Mr Violi: The member opposite referenced the member for Groom. He should actually be referencing the member for Calare. The member for Groom is very much still a member of the opposition. I just think it's important for Hansard. I know he wouldn't deliberately mislead; I just wanted that clarified. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Would you like to clarify that? Mr GOSLING: Yes. The member for Calare is the fellow over there on the backbench. He used to be part of their government but left in disgust because they wouldn't properly fund the DVA. But I've neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to those opposite who didn't spend the money that was required to look after the people who kept our nation safe, and that was the subject of this MPI.