Budget Review 2021–22 Index
Kelsey Campbell and Michael Klapdor
No final response to Productivity
Commission report
In June 2019 the Productivity Commission (PC) sent the
Government its final report on the inquiry into the system of compensation and
rehabilitation for veterans: A Better Way to
Support Veterans. In February 2020 the Minister
for Veterans’ Affairs, Darren Chester, stated that the report ‘will be
fully responded to in the matter of [the] next few months’. An interim
response to the report was released in October 2020, which the minister
said addressed 25 of the 69 recommendations. However, as discussed in the
Parliamentary Library’s 2020–21
Budget Review, some recommended actions that the interim response
claimed had been implemented or were ‘underway’ were not consistent with the
PC’s recommendations. The
minister stated the final response to the PC’s report would be provided as
part of the 2021–22 Budget.
The 2021–22 Budget does not include a final response to the
PC report. In a
media release, the minister noted that the Budget addressed several of the
PC’s recommendations either in full or in part and that the Government ‘will
finalise any outstanding matters from the Productivity Commission report as
part of its response to the Royal Commission [into
Defence and Veteran Suicide] once it is finalised’ (see the ‘Defence’
article in this Budget Review for information on the royal commission).
An information
sheet published by DVA stated that the remaining PC recommendations
‘primarily relate to structural and legislative reform’ and these
recommendations will ‘now be pursued via a legislation reform roadmap that will
be developed in consultation with the veteran community’.
The PC’s
report had found that the veterans compensation and rehabilitation system
‘is not fit-for-purpose—it requires fundamental reform’ (p. 2). The PC’s
structural and legislative reform recommendations were intended to address key
problems with the current system which it found is:
-
overly complex—both legislatively and administratively with the
three main statutes providing different entitlements and overlapping in terms
of eligibility
-
difficult to navigate—there are a large number of different
benefits with complex eligibility criteria and rate structures
-
inequitable—the level of support differs for those with similar
needs depending on what legislative scheme they are covered by and
-
poorly administered—placing unwarranted stress on claimants (p.
2).
It is unclear why the Government is waiting to finalise
outstanding matters from the PC report as part of its response to the royal commission.
The consultation
document for the royal commission’s terms of reference state that the commission
‘will not be required to inquire into matters that it is satisfied have been dealt with
by other inquiries’. The PC inquiry spent more than a year examining the entire
system of veteran supports and the royal commission may determine that many
matters were adequately dealt with by the PC. A delayed response to the PC
report may delay improvements in support for veterans.
Additional resources for the
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
The
Budget includes $302.8 million over four years to support the operations of
DVA (p. 194). One component of this measure is $164.6 million over two years
from 2021–22 for DVA’s operations and to support claims processing. There has
been a significant increase in claims for compensation made by veterans over
the past two to three years, which DVA
says has ‘created a backlog’ (p. 1). There were 121,000 claims in 2019–20,
more than double
the number in 2017–18 (p. 15). As
at 30 September 2020, there were close to 16,000 more claims for initial
liability under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
and the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence-related Claims) Act
1988 than DVA had the capacity to allocate to an official for processing
(the department’s measurement of a backlog).
Veterans’ families and advocates have
recently been critical of the long processing times. The
PC report also raised concerns about the claims administration process,
citing a general lack of training and guidance for assessment staff, slow
claims assessments and high error rates (p. 393).
The additional funding in the Budget will allow DVA to
increase its average
staffing level by 28%—from 1,615 in 2020–21 to 2,062 in 2021–22 (p. 159). DVA
has been criticised by members of its own staff for its reliance on
contractors inexperienced in dealing with veterans’ issues. In its 2019–20 Annual
Report, DVA stated that $20 million in funding in 2019 for additional
contracted staff had helped the department ‘achieve excellent results’, even
though many processing-time targets were not met (p. 37). The Community
and Public Sector Union has argued the Government’s staffing cap prevented
DVA from hiring more permanent staff to meet the increased demand.
Other components of this additional funding include:
- $55.1 million for the
continuation of the Veteran Centric Reform program, which includes ICT
upgrades, decommissioning legacy systems and digitising files for clients from
the Vietnam War
- $40.7 million (plus $3.1 million from the Department of Defence)
for a data sharing platform between DVA and Defence—information gathered
through this platform is to be used for ADF injury prevention and management
and planning future DVA support services. The platform was developed by DVA as
an alternative to the PC’s recommendation for a levy on Defence to fund
veterans’ support services (see the 2020–21
Budget Review) and
- $21.4 million for improved
data analytics, including a focus on the characteristics of veterans who
die by suicide; targeted health interventions; and improved forecasts of
long-term liabilities.
Veterans’ health and wellbeing
measures
The Budget includes funding for a range of health and
wellbeing measures, primarily the extension of existing programs or trials:
-
$61.9 million to
increase the DVA fee schedules for podiatry and occupational therapy to
address concerns current fees are below market rates, and to review DVA’s Home
Care and Community Nursing programs
-
$16.9 million to extend the Provisional
Access to Medical Treatment trial for two more years—the trial commenced
in 2018 and provides access to DVA-funded medical treatments for those
waiting for their liability claim to be accepted (where the claim is for one of
the 20 most commonly accepted conditions under military and defence
compensation schemes)
-
$6.0 million to establish an ADF
Firefighter Scheme for around 300 firefighters exposed to hazardous
substances at RAAF Base Point Cook between 1957 and 1986—the scheme will
automatically accept claims for a list of 31 prescribed conditions and provide
annual cancer screening
-
$23.3 million to establish the current
Wellbeing and Support Program pilot as an ongoing program providing
intensive case management for highly vulnerable veterans transitioning from the
ADF to civilian life, or with complex-care needs after leaving the ADF and
-
$10.7 million to establish two Veteran Wellbeing Centres: in
Tasmania and South East Queensland. The
centres provide DVA services alongside other support from community
services, ex-service organisations and private providers. Six centres were
established following a 2019
election commitment by the Government (p. 1). The Australian
Labor Party had committed to seven centres—six in the same areas proposed
by the Government and an additional centre in Ipswich in South East Queensland
(p. 8).