DFWA advocates for policies, not politicians nor political parties.
The Coalition includes: the Liberal Party of Australia, the National Party of Australia, and the Country Liberal Party.
The Coalition released its veteran centric policies for the 2022 Federal Election. Veteran centric budget measures from the Federal Budget 2022-23 have been included.
The details of these policies are extracted below.
Federal Election 2022 Platform Policies
Wellbeing Centres
$70 million will support the creation of 14 Wellbeing Centres, based in locations with a significant veteran population.
- Greater Sydney (NSW)
- Western Sydney at the Scheyville Veterans Centre in partnership with the Hunter Anzac Memorial (NSW)
- Mid-north coast region (NSW)
- Newcastle/Hunter region (NSW)
- Wagga Wagga region (NSW)
- Mackay region (Qld)
- Wide-Bay Burnett region (Qld)
- Sunshine Coast region (Qld)
- An additional centre in the South-East Queensland region (Qld)
- Northern suburbs of Perth (WA)
- Greater Melbourne and surrounds (Vic)
- Geelong/Surf Coast region (Vic)
- Mornington Peninsula (Vic)
- Capital region (ACT)
Child and Adolescent Mental Health
An additional targeted investment of $2.6 million will establish a pilot program to provide early intervention specialist child and adolescent mental health support for children of current and former ADF members, focused on members with service in the Special Operations Command.
This investment will be rolled out over two years in the three high-need locations of Sydney, Perth and Brisbane to cover Holsworthy, Campbell and Gallipoli Barracks. It is expected to benefit up to 43,800 children of current and former members of the ADF and their families.
A re-elected Coalition Government will also expand and diversify the help provided to veterans and their families with a $1.9 million investment in a new pilot of a Chaplaincy Support program for at-risk veterans transitioning from the ADF, focusing on spiritual health and wellbeing and treatment of emerging conditions such as moral injury.
Veteran Mental Health
Ex-service organisations play an important role in supporting the wellbeing of veterans and the Government will invest an additional $2 million to enable veteran-led mental health charity Swiss 8 to continue to offer its proactive health and wellbeing app free of charge to veterans.\
National Veteran Volunteer Service
The Coalition recognises current and former ADF members are national assets and $38.1 million will be provided over the next three years to establish a National Veteran Volunteer Service program in partnership with Disaster Relief Australia (DRA).
This innovative program will increase the engagement of veterans and their families in disaster resilience, recovery and relief operations, and community service projects throughout Australia. In doing so, this will improve the health and wellbeing of veterans and their families and their long-term employment outcomes.
Veteran Employment and Transition
The transition from the ADF to a post-service life is a unique and challenging experience and a re-elected Coalition Government will invest a further $10 million to extend assistance to support ex-service and community organisations to deliver tailored, innovative support to help veterans find meaningful civilian employment once they’ve transitioned out of the ADF.
Commemoration
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring the service and sacrifice of Australians and $10 million will be provided to expand the successful Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants program, so local communities can continue to commemorate the service and sacrifice of Australians in war.
An additional $3.7 million will be invested to establish an ongoing grant program to mark the private graves of First World War veterans who died after the war and are resting in civil cemeteries.
$400,000 will be provided to support the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway in inner-west Sydney, a living memorial and commemoration site for Second World War veterans.
Federal Budget 2022-23 Veteran Centric Budget Measures
The policies below were included in the federal budget 2022-23 by the Coalition government.
Additional Funding for Claims Processing
The additional funding announced in the 2022-23 Budget will fund the engagement of staff to reduce the backlog of unprocessed claims for two years.
The 2022-23 Budget has provided an initial $22.8 million in 2022-23 for the DVA to engage 90 public service staff for two years to reduce the backlog of unprocessed claims.
This will be followed by a further investment by the Government at a later stage for additional staffing and to fund other measures to improve the veteran claims processing system and reduce waiting times.
Veteran Wellbeing
The Family Support Package (FSP) will be enhanced by expanding the services and allowing families greater choice in how they use services provided through the program. The enhanced FSP will be available to more veteran families through expanded eligibility.
The Psychiatric Assistance Dogs Program will be expanded to provide financial support to eligible veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who have privately sourced a suitably trained and accredited psychiatric assistance dog prior to the Program’s implementation, ensuring they are not financially disadvantaged.
The pilot program to support veterans on incapacity payments in fulltime study, will be extended until June 2023.
Providing $9 million in grant funding to Invictus Australia over three years to continue to support wounded, injured or ill veterans on their recovery journey through participation in adaptive sports, including the Invictus Games and the Warrior Games.
Extend the Provisional Access to Medical Treatment (PAMT) program until 30 June 2024. PAMT provides access to treatment for 20 common service-related conditions while the veteran’s claims for those conditions are being processed.
$70 million over four years to increase the fees paid for veteran home care services.