Mr CHESTER (Gippsland) (09:35): I want to begin by acknowledging the men and women in this place who have served in uniform and also those who may be listening to the broadcast at home and say thank you for your service and thank you to your families who supported you in that service of our nation. The oath of the Australian Defence Veterans' Covenant ends with the words: For what they have done, this we will do. That's a reminder to all of us in this place who haven't served in uniform. It's a reminder to a grateful nation that we have some significant obligations when it comes to our serving men and women and their families. We have to work tirelessly to make sure we are recruiting the right people to join Defence in the first place; we are training them well; we are giving them the capacity, the equipment and the support to serve well; and then that they're able to transition well and go on to live happy, healthy and successful lives in the civilian community. I also want to acknowledge at the outset that I need to apologise to the TPI Federation. I was meant to be there this morning, at a wreath-laying service, and I will miss the opportunity to engage with them face-to-face. It is disappointing for those members on this side of the House to be given such late notice for statements in this manner. I was told last night, at 6.45 pm, that this statement would be made to the House. I had a prior commitment with the TPI Federation and couldn't keep that. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. It doesn't bode well for the bipartisanship which is needed in this portfolio. Sadly, it is somewhat typical of the arrogance and the hubris which has become contagious in this government. Not only has the Prime Minister stripped the crossbench of the additional staff needed to assess legislation; they've also cut the number of senior staff to the opposition, and it's a deliberate attempt to avoid accountability and scrutiny. Telling the opposition about such a major speech on such an important royal commission, a speech the minister is about to make in less than 15 hours, like this is somewhat typical of this government's approach. This is a speech that the minister had been working on for weeks, and the opposition was given less than 15 hours notice. They want bipartisan support, but they treat the opposition with contempt. I'm sad to say we saw that in this place yesterday when we had legislation presented with no consultation—no consultation with the opposition whatsoever, no consultation with serving men women, no consultation with veterans—seeking to impose a 20-year time limit on an independent statutory agency for review of Defence decisions on major medallic recognition. At a time when we're trying to engage and support our veteran community, it is extraordinary that the minister came in here and endeavoured to put lipstick on a pig and pretend this is a good reform when it actually disenfranchises our veterans and their families. Only an arrogant government would seek to disenfranchise veterans and their families as we deal with the recommendations of this royal commission. This is a government so filled with hubris they're ignoring the evidence of their own independent tribunal. When I say 'their own independent tribunal', this is a tribunal the Labor Party established in 2011. It was a good reform. It was part of the Gillard government's reform to provide a review capacity into Defence decisions so that veterans and advocates could seek to rectify previous, perhaps, injustices. Under that bipartisan reform, we were able to see over the last decade, medallic recognition of the highest order—a Victoria Cross for Teddy Sheean, a Victoria Cross for Richard Norden. Commander Harry Smith, who led Delta Company, showed tireless dedication to ensure his men were properly recognised decades after that heroic action and received medallic recognition for their efforts at Long Tan. But under the reforms in the Defence Amendment (Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal) Bill 2025, which the government rammed through the House yesterday, none of them—Teddy Sheean, Richard Norden or Delta Company—would have the opportunity to have the decisions made by Defence reviewed, because the tribunal are going to have, thanks to yesterday's efforts by the Labor party, a 20-year time limit placed on their capacity to review Defence decisions. It is extraordinary. We have, on Anzac Day and at other major commemorative events, a proud tradition in Australia where we end with the words 'lest we forget'. They are three very powerful words. The sentence omitted before 'lest we forget' is, 'We will remember them.' But, under Labor's legislation rammed through the House yesterday, we will remember them sometimes! We will remember them if it fits in a 20-year time limit! 'We will remember them,' now has a use-by date thanks to this minister and thanks to this government. They want bipartisan support, but they rammed through legislation to effectively neuter an independent statutory agency at a time when we're trying to enfranchise our veterans through the recommendations of the royal commission. It was an appalling decision and misjudgement by the government and demonstrates that they're not really serious about achieving bipartisan support. The minister spoke on the legislation last Thursday, which surprised us all. We were quite stunned to see the legislation come into place. Then the bill was brought on yesterday. We know they won the election pretty convincingly, with about 93 or 94 seats, but the most extraordinary thing about yesterday was that only one of their members spoke. They were all missing in action. One member walked in to speak in defence of that legislation. We shouldn't be surprised to be treated with such arrogance and hubris by this government when we see examples like that, because this government has also been dragged, kicking and screaming, to deliver the fully independent Defence and Veterans' Services Commission, which is intended to win the trust of the veteran community and was actually a reform introduced by the Morrison government. We had a national commissioner in place before the royal commission was even called. On this side of the chamber, we have been supporting calls from RSL Australia and veterans advocates for the veterans services commissioner to be established as a Commonwealth statutory agency through purpose-specific legislation, as recommended by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. Again, this was the clear message from the RSL, the advocates and the families of veterans—that this should be a standalone act, to build trust and ensure the independence of the commissioner. Veterans advocates, like Julie-Ann Finney, who joins us here today, and the respected interim head of the DVSC, Michael Manthorpe, told the Senate committee inquiry into the issue that it would be 'highly desirable' to create a standalone act. Let's be clear. The only reason the Senate committee inquiry even occurred is that the coalition pressured the government into doing it. They were dragged kicking and screaming to have the inquiry. This government would be well advised to listen, for a change. The RSL has said: Australian veterans who have made unique sacrifices in service of our nation deserve to know their interests are being protected by an oversight body that will act without fear or favour. The RSL said: … the DVSC should be established under a separate Act of Parliament as an independent body … And the coalition agrees. I urge the minister to listen to veterans; listen to their families, like Julie-Ann Finney; listen to veterans advocates; listen to mental health experts; and listen to the coalition and give our veterans the fully independent commissioner they desire. I also want to direct my comments today towards the unique nature of military service and the need to ensure we properly support those who have served, both during and after their time in the Navy, the Army or the Air Force. At the time I announced the royal commission, in April 2021, alongside then prime minister Morrison, we said it was an opportunity for our nation to reset the agenda and unite the veterans community in what has been a very difficult, extraordinarily sensitive and incredibly complex issue for our veterans, their families and the Australian parliament for decades. The royal commission was a particularly harrowing and emotional time for many of our veterans, ADF personnel and their families who have lost their loved ones or who have been impacted in any way by their service. I say again: thank you for your service. A grateful nation owes you an enormous debt of gratitude, and we must keep doing better. We do need to use a royal commission to seek the answers and solutions to the unacceptable level of suicide in the defence and veteran communities. There is no level of suicide which is acceptable to this place or to the wider community. We have to do better. So I do agree with the broad themes in the royal commission. Additional efforts are needed to harmonise and simplify the claims and rehabilitation system, and the coalition has voted alongside the government to seek to harmonise the legislation in that regard. I also agree that reducing the claims backlog has been a high priority for the Department of Veterans' Affairs since I took on the role in 2018 and since the new minister took on the role in 2022. That has been an combined effort over many years to reduce that backlog. I totally reject, though, any suggestion that the previous coalition government failed to act to improve the veterans system for defence personnel or for veterans themselves and their families. This is a job that I believe may never be finished, but I can point to more than a dozen significant reforms during my time as minister and during the term of the coalition government. I must say, on almost all of those occasions, it was with the support of my shadow minister at the time. We introduced free mental health care for veterans and their families. We started the process of building eight wellbeing centres in Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Albury-Wodonga, Nowra, Tasmania, South-East Queensland and Townsville. The current minister has built on the network of wellbeing centres. We introduced a psychiatric assistance dogs program for veterans with mental health issues—the first of its kind in Australia. We appointed the Defence Families Advocate to make sure families are recognised. There is an old joke that goes around military circles in relation to Army RSMs saying, 'Son, if the Army wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you with one. ' But we made sure that families were properly recognised with the Defence Families Advocate. We delivered the Australian Defence Veterans' Covenant and the veterans' recognition package. We sought to overhaul Open Arms in support of a Vietnam veterans counselling service. We established the Prime Minister's National Veteran Employment Awards, which continues today. We commenced the establishment of the Joint Transitions Authority because we recognise that transition is the high-risk period. Transition is where things go wrong. Transition is where a serving member whose life has been associated with the uniform—their purpose and the job they do—transitions to civilian life. It can be excruciatingly hard. The Joint Transition Authority is intended to ease that process and make sure support is provided, and that work continues today. We funded the redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial to tell the story of contemporary veterans, and that wasn't always popular amongst members opposite or in some parts of the community. But the importance of the Australian War Memorial redevelopment is to ensure that our modern veterans' stories are told at a time when they can walk into that building with their own families and tell their stories. That's what it's meant to do. It's a real credit to the Australian War Memorial that they're delivering this generational project to recognise the service and sacrifice of modern service personnel. We tell the story of World War I very well and World War II exceptionally well. Vietnam—not too badly. But, for more recent conflicts, there hasn't been enough room in the Australian War Memorial to tell their stories, unfortunately. This redevelopment project is of generational importance, and I commend the War Memorial and the board for continuing to deliver that project with money that was delivered by the former coalition government. We added a question. This may seem like a small achievement, but I can assure you it was harder than you think. We added a question on military service to the 2021 census. So, for the first time, we were able to find out how many veterans we actually had in Australia, and then we could provide services in those communities, in a targeted way, to make sure we were supporting people in their communities. We delivered provisional access to medical treatment. We increased fees to health professionals to treat veterans. We improved financial support for veterans undertaking additional study. And the budget grew to more than $11 billion of support for veterans and their families. But more is needed. We've just heard from the minister at the despatch box—more is needed. I urge the government to build on these achievements, not tear them down. Australians can be proud of the fact that the budget for the Department of Veterans' Affairs has now grown to more than $14 billion. That's more than $14 billion of taxpayers' money provided each financial year to support veterans and their families. What I'm going to say now will be contentious in some parts of our veteran community. I acknowledge that we have to walk a very fine line in this place when we engage in public debate on issues surrounding veterans and their families. There is no question that military service exposes our men and women in uniform to increased risks of physical and mental injuries. There is no doubt about that. They train at a high level. They have to train at that level to be ready to be deployed, and there are risks of injuries that go with that. When they are deployed, the trauma they can be exposed to can obviously cause long-term issues. So there's no question there at all that there have also been many occasions when Defence and DVA have failed to properly support our ex-service personnel. I agree that the system, at times, has been too slow to act, too hard to navigate and, often, too combative for veterans. But it's important to acknowledge that no two stories are the same. Our men and women might all wear the same uniform, but they are all individuals, and they have individual experiences. We need individually tailored support where it's required—or, sometimes, no help at all—as they transition to civilian life. Some people transition needing no help at all. So I say with respect and a high degree of caution that I do have concerns with the royal commission risking a false and perhaps dangerous narrative that everyone who serves in the Australian Defence Force will end up severely injured, broken and in need of lifetime medical support for their physical or mental injuries. In providing that platform to focus on the very real—and, sometimes, the perceived—deficiencies in our system of support for service personnel and our veterans, what was lost was the positive story of military service and the benefits it can provide to the individual and to the nation. They were sometimes lost in the public debate, and we need to reassure our veterans that they should not become despondent. Help is available, with open arms, through the Department of Veterans' Affairs. At a time when the Australian Defence Force is trying to attract and recruit its fair share of the best, brightest and most capable young Australians, the 'busted veteran' myth is a barrier to achieving our recruitment targets. Compounding this situation is that, right now, we have a veterans' compensation situation that is being hijacked by some unscrupulous fee-for-service advocates who are more interested in maximising any payout to our veterans to boost their own commissions than in the wellbeing of their clients. I urge the minister to take a close look at this issue. I know he will be exercised by it. Let's start, though, with this simplistic narrative that everyone who serves in the Army, the Navy or the Air Force will have a negative experience that will leave them with scars for life. It's undoubtedly true that the unique nature of military service exposes ADF personnel to risk, and it's equally true that our grateful nation owes our veterans the care and support they need. But we have to remove the stigma of seeking help and support. We have to make sure that help is timely, and we also, as the minister has indicated, need to focus on wellbeing and a more holistic approach. But I caution, again, that it's completely untrue to imply that everyone will need medical help after ADF service, and we must not feed our veterans or our community a diet of helplessness and hopelessness, because it's damaging both to them and to their loved ones. The other thing that I'm concerned about is that it actually damages and creates a barrier to future job prospects if potential employers think they're recruiting damaged goods. I have heard stories from veterans where they were asked in a job interview: 'Do you have PTSD? I see you served in the Army.' It's just not fair. We need to make sure we have a balanced conversation in the public debate. As I said, we walk a fine line because we have to get that balance right. We have to have help for those who need it. It has to be timely. But we have to make sure we don't label all ex-ADF personnel in that way. From my experience as a minister and as part of the ADFPP, I have met some incredible young Australians in our uniform all around the world. Enlisting to keep our nation safe appeals to people from all walks of life, often with varying motivations. Undoubtedly, for many, there's a strong sense of patriotism and a desire to serve a greater good, while for others it's simply a pathway to a university degree or trade qualification or receiving a full-time salary. It's actually a good career offering for the right people, and our conditions of service compare favourably to those of our Five Eyes partners. Many veterans have confided in me over the years that their service in the ADF made them into a better person and gave them the discipline, the leadership skills and the problem-solving ability which improved their lives, and many of them have come to this place and proven that. On transition, they often reflect with pride on the service, and so they miss the camaraderie and sense of purpose they enjoyed as part of the unit. So Defence is a major training organisation, and we need to make sure that people who serve well, train well and transition well can go on to have successful lives in the broader community. At a time when ripping off the government seems to be regarded as a victimless crime, in some circles in Australia, there are people who are perpetuating the broken-veteran myth to try and improve their own financial wellbeing through the advocacy system. We are seeing a cottage industry developing where unregulated advocates are charging excessive fees and, in some cases, percentage based commissions, with a sole focus on maximising a veteran's entitlement. I do urge the minister as part of his reform efforts to have a very close look at the advocacy system. In conclusion, I say again that the opposition is prepared to work in a bipartisan manner as much as we possibly can to assist the government in supporting our Australian Defence Force personnel, our veterans and their families. We stand ready to work positively to deliver the reforms that are needed in defence, in transition and in DVA itself. But we won't be silent. Where we see problems and failures of the government or departments, we will speak up. We are determined to provide a voice for our defence community in this place. As I said, I fear the system will never be perfect, but it's important that we continue to learn from any mistakes we've made in the past. And it's important that we don't feed a vicious media cycle of despondency, desperation and helplessness when help is available to our veterans and their families. The vast majority of the Australian Defence Force personnel are proud of their service. They will train well, they will serve well, they will transition well in the next stage of their lives, and they will be incredible contributors to civil society in our nation. But, for our veterans who experience difficulties for any reason whatsoever, we must give them and their families the support they need in a timely manner. We need to keep investing and supporting the people who are already working today to help our veterans. There are literally thousands of Australians, both volunteers and paid staff members, who are working today as part of ex-service organisations to support our veterans through advocacy and through their hard work, and we want to thank them and continue to work with them and their families. Their contributions are already saving lives, and they deserve to be properly acknowledged. We mustn't look backwards. We need to bank the improvements we've made and then work constructively to invest in new ideas and reform measures that can deliver a better system in the future. The royal commission has been an opportunity to unite the military community and the political class to achieve those positive outcomes in the interest of all Australians. For my part, I will continue to promote positive stories of service, notwithstanding the challenges and the difficulties that many of our service men and women face. At an uncertain time in our nation's history, it's important to note we have a well-led, world-class, highly respected, well-trained and incredibly capable Australian Defence Force, and we should all be proud of them. But it is a job, with inherent risk of death or serious injuries, both physically and mentally. As a grateful nation, we owe them the best conditions of service we can afford to provide, every effort to ensure their mental and physical wellbeing and an opportunity to transition successfully to civilian life. For what they have done, this we will do. I thank the House.