Minister ‘failed’ in duty to veterans

THE former minister for Veterans’ Affairs has been accused of failing his duty to veterans and has faced a harsh grilling about the three-year delay in implementing critical welfare recommendations.

In 2019 the Morrison government was told to simplify compensation claims for veterans but it has still not been done.

Federal MP Darren Chester was the third witness to give evidence before the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides in Townsville on Wednesday.

He oversaw the departments of Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel between March 2018 and July 2021, and was at the helm when the Productivity Commission handed down its report on Compensation and Rehabilitation for Veterans. He described the report as the most important he ever received as the minister.

A set of three critical recommendations made in the 2019 report proposed the government fix the complicated claims assessment process which fell under three disparate pieces of legislation by a 2025 deadline.

The complexity of the compensation process has widely been attributed as a contributor to stress, poor mental health and suicidality for veterans.

In Mr Chester’s time at the helm, the number of compensation claims the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) had on-hand ballooned from 12,000 to 57,000, but the former minister attributed this to its “success” in expanding the program allowing more veterans to file claims.

Counsel assisting Peter

Singleton said written evidence from DVA said that in early 2022 the government had still not formally agreed to implement the three recommendations from the Productivity Commission report.

In a written statement to the commission Mr Chester said DVA was asked to develop a “legislation reform road map”, but this happened almost two years after the report was handed down.

His statement said he believed this process was still under way. It took until December 2021 for a workshop to meet to consider the recommendations.

“The government got no further than saying that those recommendations would be the subject of a legislation reform road map,” Mr Singleton said.

“The government failed even to do the work needed to make a decision after three years.

“It hasn’t done the costings, it hadn’t done the modelling and a number of things that would be necessary before (it) could make a decision.”

While Mr Chester disputed parts of the question, he accepted that no completed draft legislation or costings were presented in his time as the minister.

“I’m talking about the most important recommendations in the most important report you ever received. You would agree … that the government has not applied enough urgency to get this done,” Mr Singleton asked the former minister.

“The ultimate conclusion must be, mustn’t it … with what has been achieved in three years (the) government’s failed in its duty to veterans?”