Address to Parliament - Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022

Thank you for your service, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, and thank you for the service provided to our armed services by all of those who now sit in the parliament. I also say thank you to those members, including the member for Blair, who I know has spoken on this particular motion. Thank you for your contribution. Thank you also to the government for bringing forward the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill. This is important. We said at the outset when we returned to opposition that, if there was good legislation and if there was good policy, even if it was going to cost money, then it would be a sensible thing for the opposition to support.

I acknowledge the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, who is in the chamber. I previously held that role in 2017-18, as well as being an assistant minister for defence in 2016. I know how important this particular piece of legislation is for those who have served.

I listened very carefully to the member for Kennedy, and in a wide-ranging speech he said some good things that we, as legislators in this place, can adhere to. He is quite right when he says that land availability and planning and development are things that are holding back people's ability to get into their first home and to invest, and that has therefore caused pressures on the rental market. Whether it's in Defence or whether it's in civilian society in general, homeownership at the moment is one of the critical issues, particularly in regional Australia.

I come from Wagga Wagga. It is a garrison city. It is home of the soldier—you know that, Deputy Speaker Wilkie. Every army recruit does their 13 weeks of basic training at Blamey Barracks at the Army Recruit Training Centre in Kapooka, and we in Wagga Wagga are very proud of that base. Since 1939 we've had a Royal Australian Air Force presence, and, if you spend any given time in the RAAF, chances are you will end up at Forest Hill. Since 1993 we've had a navy presence. I know there's currently a lot of water around Wagga Wagga, with the wet weather events we've had in recent times, but, back in the early 1990s when the Navy was establishing itself in Wagga Wagga, it was considered a long way from the nearest drop of seawater. It still is. There wasn't much water about, but it's important that we have that navy presence attached to the RAAF base in our city.

I was the Assistant Minister for Defence at the time the white paper was coming out in January-February 2016, and I am proud that we were able to see fit as a government to invest $1 billion or thereabouts in much-needed infrastructure upgrades for both the Forest Hill RAAF airbase and the Kapooka army base. Particularly at the air force base some of the infrastructure dated back to the 1950s. If you're being accommodated on base, you need the best accommodation. I appreciate the work that Defence Housing Australia has done and have seen that first-hand.

I know Sandy Macdonald, a former senator in this place from 1993 until 2008, and I appreciate the role he has played with Defence Housing Australia, and I commend him for that. It's important that former parliamentarians play their part in giving back, and former senator Macdonald has certainly done that. I know that I am proud of the work that we did together, particularly in Western Australia, to create more housing opportunities for our serving personnel. This creates opportunities for soldiers, aviators and sailors to get into homeownership whilst they're serving and when they return to civilian life.

As the member for Kennedy and others have indicated, it is difficult for soldiers, aviators and sailors to adjust when they leave the force, leave the structure, leave the support mechanisms and leave the military family and go back into civilian life. Sometimes they haven't made those investments and sometimes they haven't thought beyond their uniformed service to consider homeownership. I appreciate that $11½ billion of support is provided through the Department of Veterans' Affairs each and every year, and I appreciate that that's largely uncapped. I know the new minister understands and appreciates the importance of veterans, and I acknowledge that. DVA supports 340,000 veterans and their families every year.

Whilst I appreciate that, I'm digressing a tad. If any veterans either read this in the Hansard or are listening to this broadcast, I would like them to know that Wagga Wagga will have hearings—hearing block 8—into the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide from 28 November to 2 December at the Mercure hotel. Chief Commissioner Nick Kaldas APM supported by Dr Peggy Brown AO and the Hon. James Douglas KC have taken those important hearings to Wagga Wagga, and it's important that anybody who wants to make a submission can do so, because Wagga Wagga is a garrison city. Many veterans who come and serve in our city return to our city after their service and live there.

That's why this particular piece of legislation, the Defence Homeownership Assistance Scheme Amendment Bill 2022, is so important. We want to see our veterans, those who've proudly worn the uniform, have homeownership. It's not good enough. It wasn't good enough under a coalition government and it's not good enough now under a Labor government that we have veterans, those who've served our nation, those who've put their lives on the line and those who've taken the ultimate risk, living in cars and under bridges.

I appreciate full well that some veterans don't necessarily want to be associated with or attached or connected to the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I fully appreciate that some have had breakdowns in communications with DVA.

But I also want to point out that DVA does an amazing and remarkable job. Those people who work in the Public Service for that department are there to serve those who've served us—those who've served our nation—and those people in DVA do the very best job they can. Can they do better? Of course they can—everyone can; we know that. But help is there for those who seek it, for those who need it, for those who want it. And, if at first you fail to get that support, please try, try again, because DVA is there to support those people.

I appreciate that Bob and Gladys Bak—who were both awarded OAMs and who live in my electorate at Bethungra, and have an organisation called the Integrated Service People's Association of Australia—do what they can, as well, to connect veterans to support, to help mechanisms, to assistance. They work hand-in-hand with the DVA. Sometimes they butt heads. But, by and large, generally, they are very, very good at getting the support that local Riverina veterans need.

I know that Charlotte Webb, working with the local RSL, and Dave Gardiner, the Wagga Wagga sub-branch president, and others in the Wagga Wagga area, are doing their best to give support. I know that those at Pro Patria, who've proposed a veterans wellness centre for North Ashmont in our city, are also doing their best to connect veterans to the support that they need. I would like to think that the federal government, in its May budget, will see fit to honour the $5 million that was provided by the former coalition government to establish a wellness centre, or centres, in Wagga Wagga.

I know that the member for Herbert, in his shadow ministerial role, has spoken passionately in this debate, and he made some very pertinent points. He described the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme as a great scheme. And of course he's right—we know that; the minister appreciates that. He said that it's a scheme that means that, when you're serving, you have that support to help you get into homeownership. He talked about his experience of getting into defence, into the Australian Army, as a raw-boned 17-year-old, and about his background, coming from social housing and from a single-parent family. He described his mum as an awesome single mother, raising three children. He expressed the view that he found it difficult to save—as many 17-year-olds, as many teenagers and people in their early 20s, back then, found it difficult to save. I appreciate that. Even when I was first married, with mortgage rates hovering north of 18 per cent, it was very difficult.

And these days, with the pressure on the cost of living, it is difficult to save. But this legislation—and I commend the government for bringing it forward—provides that hope.

I know the member for McEwen spoke in favour of this particular legislation. I know he knows, in his electorate in Victoria, for the veterans that he serves and represents, how important it is to give them that hope—to give them that ability to get into homeownership.

We do not want our veterans having to sleep rough. We do not want them doing that when they get out of the service.

And they do find it difficult, sometimes, to adjust—they absolutely do. I acknowledge that, having been to Camp Baird in the United Arab Emirates and spoken to a number of serving soldiers who were transitioning in and out of Afghanistan and other deployments. Some of them were talking about their eventual retirement—which was, for them, not going to be that long away—and the concerns that they had as to adjusting back into civilian life. Owning a home is a big aspect, a big part, of that, and we want, as a parliament, to make sure that we give them the very best opportunity to do just that.

I know that the member for Herbert spoke about the DHOAS being introduced by the Department of Defence on 1 July 2008 to assist Australian Defence Force members to achieve homeownership. It's a retention initiative. It aims and encourages members to continue to serve in the ADF by giving them the ability to get into their, potentially, first home. I appreciate that it is going to come at a cost—in 2022-23, $4.8 million; in the following financial year, $11.3 million; in 2024-25, $13.9 million; in 2025-26, $16.2 million, at a total of $46.2 million—but what are our veterans worth?

These are the people we will honour, commemorate and celebrate in two days time, on Armistice Day, when we will pause and acknowledge the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front and other theatres of war in 1918 to end what was called the Great War, or World War I. No war is great; we know that. It's only right that, as members of parliament, we pause and lay wreaths. That is ceremonial, but it's important, and we do mean it—our acknowledgement and respect, the ultimate respect, for those people who've paid the ultimate sacrifice. But, whilst acknowledging that, we should also take the opportunity in this place to make a difference for our veterans. We should do what we can to support and help those people whose names are etched on memorials, having served in wars past and in peacekeeping missions, and those families who have lost loved ones. We need to do what we can in legislation such as this and the Veterans Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget Measures) Bill, which will follow this current motion. We need to do what we can to make sure we pass good legislation, and that is why the coalition is supporting this bill.

It is good legislation, and I thank the government and, in particular, the relevant minister for bringing it forward. I acknowledge that they are trying to do everything they can, as we did in government, to support our veterans. I commend the bill to the House.