00:01There was absolute relief around the veteran community today
00:04when this announcement was made.
00:06I think, you know, I think it was a timely announcement
00:10by the government to kind of scrap this cap
00:12as it was currently advertised and implemented
00:16and recognising that they needed really to consult with veterans
00:19before they rolled out this type of policy,
00:21which is generally how things work between the advocacy groups
00:25and Department of Veterans Affairs.
00:27I think this was more of a budgetary measure
00:29than a normal policy programming position
00:31that we would get consulted on.
00:33So how unsettling had it been when the cap was initially announced?
00:38Yeah, it was very unsettling for veterans.
00:40And I think, you know, on the back of the Royal Commission
00:42where we had, you know, enormous amounts of evidence
00:44talking about veterans' anxiety and concerns
00:48and issues around accessing health care,
00:50I think when this was announced
00:52and there was very little to no information
00:55about what that meant for veterans
00:57and really, to be honest, a lot of it was to do with, you know,
01:01controlling the providers that have kind of been popping up
01:04since the Royal Commission, you know, exploiting vulnerable veterans.
01:07So I understand the point of the cap to a certain extent,
01:11but the distress really came from the fact that it wasn't consulted
01:14and people had no information
01:16about how it was going to affect them as individuals.
01:18They felt like they lost their agency.
01:20And so what kind of impact was it actually practically going to have?
01:25Yeah, like, so, you know, it's multifaceted, really.
01:28So, you know, there's no sort of type of veteran.
01:31So you've got young veterans, you've got old veterans,
01:33you've got veterans with varying levels of disabilities
01:36and you've got some veterans that have no issues at all.
01:39So it's really hard to kind of pinpoint
01:41what exactly those issues will be because they're multi.
01:44But at the end of the day, it's about, it was really about making sure
01:48that they could continue with the care that they already had in place
01:51without having extra burdens put upon themselves to, you know,
01:55to have to go and get extra approvals from their GP,
01:58which then, you know, if they've reached that threshold,
02:00then they would have to go to the Department of Veterans Affairs
02:03to get further approval.
02:04And for a lot of veterans that have had difficulty
02:07dealing with the department, for whatever reason,
02:10that anxiety and that stress really had an impact
02:13on their ability to kind of, you know, accept this decision,
02:16if you like, and that brought about a lot of the stress.
02:20And this was for things like physio and dental?
02:23Yeah, so allied healthcare.
02:24So for a lot of people, it's, yeah, it's physio, psychology,
02:28those type of kind of treatments that really get after some of those,
02:33particularly it's psychology, like we heard in the Royal Commission,
02:35you know, the amount of kind of mental health challenges
02:38that a lot of our veterans struggle with.
02:40And so, you know, the idea of losing access or feeling
02:43that you may lose access or ability to continue to engage
02:48with your service providers, you know, that does create anxiety.
02:51You know, sometimes for veterans, that's really what's keeping them alive
02:55between, you know, like having those treatments.
02:57And same with the physical, you know.
02:59The idea is that we want our veterans who are injured
03:03or who are unable to work for whatever reason as a result
03:06of their service to, you know, to get the treatment that they need
03:08so they can get back into the workforce and continue
03:11to contribute to the economy.
03:12So, you know, it created a lot of stress and for families as well.
03:16And so the opposition is calling for the minister to step down now.
03:20Do you think he should?
03:23Look, I think that's, no, look, I don't.
03:26I think on the face of it, you know, there are decisions
03:30that are made in government.
03:31And, you know, at the end of the day, there is a budget
03:33and there are resource implications.
03:35And I think the minister, you know, by rolling back this decision,
03:39by the Albanese government rolling back this decision,
03:42you know, they've recognised that it was ill thought out.
03:44They've listened to the veteran community, you know.
03:47And Minister Keogh, you know, has engaged with the veteran community
03:51since the budget announcement in May when this, you know,
03:55when these discussions started to happen and the pushback
03:57from the veteran community came.
03:59And, you know, Women Veterans Australia,
04:01the organisation that I'm the chair of, like,
04:03we partner with nine other of the really big VSOs,
04:06including RSL National, Legacy, Defence Force Welfare Association.
04:10And we've been working with the minister's office
04:12and the department since that announcement in a policy setting.
04:17So, you know, we've done our own kind of roundtables,
04:20we've gone through the policy, and we're actually just in the process
04:23of writing submission back to the minister about how they could get
04:26after, you know, the intent of what this threshold was meant,
04:29which was really to go after those providers and to make sure
04:33that we weren't losing, you know, valuable taxpayer monies
04:38out of the, you know, Department of Veterans Affairs budget,
04:41you know, to people that are not providing the services
04:44that veterans need.
04:45So, you know, it was kind of well-intended,
04:47just very poorly executed.
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