PAULINE HANSON’S ONE NATION

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS POLICY

Preamble

One Nation believes in honouring all those who lose their lives or are injured while serving their country in the armed forces, whether volunteers or conscripts, regardless of area of service, rank or status and without discrimination. Any Australian Defence Service personnel injured or killed whilst undertaking activities unique to the Defence Force, within Australia, within a recognised theatre of operations overseas or whilst undertaking other Defence Force activities such as peace keeping duties should have the same status as those who are currently termed "veteran" under the Veteran’s Entitlement Act.

One Nation will reverse the current ethos permeating government departments dealing with ‘veterans’ which appears to place the desire to minimise expenditure of public money above the physical and emotional needs of veterans.

All existing Defence Service veterans’ entitlements will be maintained and the repatriation system and Veterans’ Entitlement Act will be reviewed, to remove the anomalies and discriminatory elements which have created confusion and concern within the ex-service community.

Direct and appropriate links with ex-service organisations will be maintained and the valuable work of those organisations will continue to be supported.

Key Proposals

One Nation recognises and will put into effect the Australian people’s great debt of gratitude to all those veterans of conflicts, campaigns and hazardous peace-time activities in which this nation has been involved. One Nation will:

• Undertake a review of the Veterans Entitlement Act, which is voluminous and complex, and endeavour to simplify the Act, at the same time removing all discriminatory elements;

• Amalgamate all activities involving Defence Service repatriation and compensation, veteran’s medical treatment and hospital services, defence home loans and other matters included within the present veteran affairs portfolio under the one government department – the Department of Veterans Affairs;

• Establish a precise definition of or re-define the terms ‘hazardous service’, ‘veteran’ and any other term which is undefined, or poorly defined and therefore is open to interpretation by bureaucrats in determining eligibility criteria for veterans;

• Retain the Repatriation Commission, subject to a complete review of the repatriation system;

• Abolish the Repatriation Medical Authority and the Specialist Medical Review Council, enabling veterans to choose their medical practitioner;

• Maintain all current entitlements for the Defence Home Loans Scheme and consider extension of eligibility to those medically discharged through no fault of their own before attaining sufficient service time, and undertake a review of the disparity of entitlements for those personnel who have not had operational service;

• Review the claims system in an endeavour to establish a fairer, speedier and more efficient system;

• Maintain an ongoing review of the operation and performance of hospital services offered to veterans;

• Continue to award the war widow/ers pension and the disability pension without imposing income tax or applying an income/assets test;

• Initiate negotiations with the States regarding the use of the Veterans’ Entitlement Cards for receipt of travel concessions and other seniors’ concessions offered by the States;

• Ensure that all services for the supply of artificial limbs and appliances are implemented in accordance with best-practice service delivery;

• Retain the Anzac Day legislation which ensures that 25 April each year is Australia’s national day of commemoration and seek co-operation by the States for the implementation of complementary legislation;

• Ensure that any official government organised Dawn Services are held at the appropriate time irrespective of whether all official guests are in attendance;

• Maintain existing commitments for the proposed Hellfire Pass Memorial Park on the Burma-Thailand Railway;

• Maintain a policy of no charge to the areas of commemoration at the Australian War Memorial and no charges to other areas within the War Memorial, always respecting the views of the majority of veterans, their families and other interested groups on this issue;

• Maintain current arrangements for representation from the ex-service community to the Council of the Australian War Memorial;

• Support the agreement between the UK and Australia on the renovation and continuing maintenance of the Taiping (Malaysia) civil cemetery where some Australian military personnel are buried; and
  

• Co-ordinate an Australian venture, through the Office of War Graves, to restore the World War II memorial located at Daray, Timor.

Service Pension and Disability Allowance

The present system of allocation of entitlements is unsatisfactory in that it discriminates on the basis of gender, location of theatre of war and degree of exposure to hostile enemy forces. One Nation believes that all present and former Australian Defence Force personnel should be treated equally in determining entitlements to compensation and any other type of support which is needed because of their Defence service and that those who remain in Australia to protect the Nation in the event of hostilities on our own soil should be accorded equal recognition as those who are in overseas theatres of operation or who are injured while undertaking activities in peace time which are unique to the Defence Force in preparation for its defence role.

One Nation will increase the amount of both the Service Pension and the Disability Allowance by 10%. Recipients of Service Pensions must be Australian citizens and permanent residents.

One Nation will extend the current Service Pension entitlement by automatically upgrading to Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) status all ex-service personnel who are 70 years of age or over and who are receiving l00% Disability Allowance.

Health and Dental Services

World War I veterans had to wait 55 years before the government provided health-care benefits to those who had survived the War. The World War II veterans are still waiting for these benefits.

The present Government’s Budget announcement which extended the Gold Card to World War II veterans is not effective until l January 1999 and, in any event, restricts eligibility to those aged 70 years or older who "incurred actual danger from hostile forces of the enemy."

One Nation will provide all ‘veterans’ who are Australian citizens and who have permanent residency with a Gold Card at age 70.

Telephone Allowance

At present World War I veterans, of whom there would be probably less than l000 left in Australia, receive a telephone allowance of $42.50 per quarter. By comparison, World War II veterans receive only $l5.60 per quarter.

One Nation will extend the payment of the telephone allowance to all ‘veterans’ who are Australian citizens and permanent residents at the rate of $42.50 per quarter.

Deeming

One Nation will repeal all deeming legislation for ‘veterans’ who are Australian citizens and permanent residents.

Nuclear Veterans

The following policy for Nuclear Veterans was released at Gosford R.S.L. on l9 August l998:

One Nation will extend to all Australian service personnel who served at the British Atomic weapons test sites, during the test and during the subsequent clean-up operations, full ‘veteran’ status under the Veteran’s Entitlement Act (Hazardous Service Section). The entitlements under this Act are to be extended to the wives, widows and families of the servicemen.

One Nation will grant to the Nuclear Veterans a Veteran’s Gold card, to be effective immediately.

One Nation will award to the Nuclear Veterans the Australian Service Medal 1945 – 75 with clasp inscribed either ‘Nuclear" or with a nuclear symbol.

Undertake a review of the Veterans Entitlement Act, which is voluminous and complex, and endeavour to simplify the Act, at the same time removing all discriminatory elements.

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