Andrew gave a speech in parliament about veterans’ wellbeing and some of the challenges facing veterans, including the Government’s planned cap on access to allied health for DVA clients. You can watch or read his speech below:
“Deputy Speaker, the Minister for Veterans Affairs admitted that he “got it wrong” when he refused to meet a delegation of veterans a few weeks ago. But talk to veterans in my community about the difficulties they face accessing services, and about this Government’s ongoing disregard for their well-being, and you’ll find that refusing a meeting is far from the only thing the Minister got wrong.
Take the veteran being treated for prostate cancer who had a DVA covered surgical procedure last month. At his post post-surgery checkup, he overheard the receptionist telling another veteran that the practice had stopped taking DVA patients.
And why? Because DVA is slow to pay, slow to preapprove, and simply won’t answer the phone. Moreover, in the first veteran’s case, the receptionist had spent nearly two hours on hold to DVA and never got through, despite him already holding a letter confirming his cancer was covered. His surgery only proceeded because it was approved on the morning of the operation, literally.
Deputy Speaker, Hobart has as few as six urologists. And if DVA keeps driving them away, then veterans with cancer will wait longer to be treated, if they’re treated at all. And then there’s DVA’s decision to use a single company, Medico-Legal Consultants of Australia, to provide medical assessments of veterans’ claims. Veterans and serving personnel say MLCOA is more concerned about saving money than getting soldiers the help they need.
Indeed, according to an article published in the Daily Telegraph, one soldier who dislocated his shoulder at least 20 times while in the army was told by an MLCA doctor that his shoulder was “better than most shoulders out there”.
Deputy Speaker, this flies in the face of recommendation 101 of the Royal Commission, which says that veterans should be afforded a similar choice and autonomy to NDIS participants, including the right to choose their own rehabilitation provider.
And finally, Deputy Speaker, to the plan to cap allied health treatment for veterans at $5000. Now I do have a conflict of interest here, because I have DVA accepted conditions regarding my knee, shoulders, hearing and any future cancers, but that will not silence me when I see such appalling conduct by the Government.
The fact is that the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide did not recommend a cap, and every time the Prime Minister and Veterans Minister say so they are misleading the nation. What it did recommend was an increase in fees for medical services, which the Government is promising to deliver, which is good. But giving the game away are the Budget papers which identify the cap as a budget saving of about $750 million over just the first three years.
And that stinks”