Mr CAUSLEY (12:05 PM) —I do not intend to take up my full 20 minutes in this debate. I have listened with interest to many contributions on the Veterans' Entitlements Amendment (Gold Card) Bill 1998 , and I do not think it would serve this House for me to repeat the things that have been said. Nevertheless, I do want to come here and congratulate the Minister for Veterans' Affairs (Mr Bruce Scott) for honouring a commitment that this government gave to the veterans of Australia.

My area on the North Coast of New South Wales has a significant number of veterans who served during the Second World War, probably because it is a very pleasant place to retire. I have had the pleasure of welcoming the minister twice to Lismore to meet with the veterans community, and I know that they have appreciated that very much and they congratulate the minister for the very fact that he will come and listen to their concerns and the issues that they have as a veterans community and for the fact that they have an office of the Department of Veterans' Affairs in Lismore. I know that the minister has extended that across Australia so that the veterans are serviced by officers as much as possible in the regional communities.

When I transferred from the state government to the federal government at the last election, one of the first things that was drawn to my attention by the organisations that represent the veterans was their desire for a gold card. I think they had lobbied for a number of years to have that gold card extended to Second World War veterans as it had been extended to First World War veterans in the past.

Australia is a fortunate country in many ways. We probably tend to nitpick in this House from time to time about the services and the benefits that are provided to Australian citizens, and I dare say we all would like to extend further services, but Australia does look after its veterans and its elderly probably a lot better than many other countries. The veterans community has certainly been provided with services over the years that recognise the great effort they put in during that war.

Many Australians today, particularly the younger ones, probably do not recognise the real threat that there was to Australia at that time. I was very young myself, but there are things indelibly printed on my mind from when I was only two or three years old. There was real concern in this nation about the threat of the Japanese invasion—it was so close. I know things that happened, and I remember very clearly, that showed the real concern of Australians that they were about to be invaded. If it had not been prevented, then the whole history of the world would have been changed. We can only muse on what might have become of the conditions that we enjoy in Australia today.

There is no doubt in my mind that anyone who served in those forces and went through the horrors of war, particularly in some of the concentration camps that were too horrific to even contemplate, deserve all the support they can get from the Australian community. I know that in recent times both the former government and this government have endeavoured to educate the younger generation as to what these people actually did, so that we understand the efforts that were put in. I think both sides of politics should be congratulated for that.

I know that there are sections of the veterans community that believe that this does not quite go as far as they would like. I recognise that, and I am sure that the minister does as well. There are certain quirks that arise that deny some people access to the gold card. For instance, this has been put to me by some veterans who never left Australia but were ordered to defend the northern areas of Australia. They did not come under enemy fire at that particular time. It was one of those quirks of fate, I suppose, that they were not ordered to go overseas; they were ordered to stay and defend Australia. I think they have a reasonable argument: they were in the services, they were available to be used by the Australian army and they could easily have been sent overseas. While they did not come under enemy fire at the time, they certainly were part of the whole defence of Australia. I do accept that we should look closely in the future at whether that benefit can be extended to those people.

I note the comments by the member for Bonython (Mr Martyn Evans). As I said, it really does show that Australia is ahead of many other countries in looking after its returned service people. There is no doubt that what he says is true. Veterans from other countries who served in other armies that helped defend against the enemies at that time, whether it was in Europe or the Pacific area, are not provided with the support that we provide in Australia. Australia is not a big nation. It is very difficult for us to provide pensions and support for people who defended other countries or helped to defend the world as they saw it at that particular time.

It is sad that the British government is not prepared to extend its pensions to people who are now living in other countries. I certainly have examples of that in my electorate where people do not get the CPI benefits on their pensions. They are left in a tenuous position as far as trying to exist is concerned. In some instances, the method of payment is such that the Taxation Office says that they should be paying provisional tax because tax is not taken out of those benefits that are paid every month. There is no doubt in my mind that they have a real problem. Someone on a fairly low income who then has to find provisional tax, which more or less doubles the tax in that particular year, can find it extremely difficult, especially when they are 81 or 82 years old, to cover their medical expenses and all the living expenses that they need. I know that is not anything to do with this bill, but we should raise it and take note of it.

There is no doubt that the gold card does give considerable support to veterans who served during the war. As other speakers have said, I know that many veterans are very grateful for the benefits that are available to them. Some veterans who have served in subsequent wars, such as the Malaysian campaign or Korea or Vietnam, say to me, `We hope we don't have to wait 54 years before we get some benefits.' I suppose that is a fair comment, but their predecessors did have to wait that long to get the gold card benefits.

I know that some of the subsequent wars, in particular the Malaysian and Vietnam wars, were quite different from the major wars because they were what we might term `dirty wars' where you did not know who the enemy was. Some of them were subjected to modern warfare, which is quite a different situation, although my father-in-law suffered from mustard gas in the First World War so some of those weapons were available during those wars. The veterans from Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam should not be ignored. They served their country the same as everyone else did, genuinely believing, at the orders of the government, that they were defending the freedom and democracy we have in this country. So I think the least we can do is to try to support these people.

I believe that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs has certainly shown that he is prepared to go out there and improve the lot of veterans in Australia. While the government does take seriously the fact that we must be very cautious in the management of the economy and that we should make sure that we do not run into further debt, which will reduce the ability for us to provide these services in the future, the government has shown that it is prepared to branch out and give extra benefits to people who we believe are entitled to receive those benefits.

I congratulate the minister. I believe that this is legislation the veterans have long been looking for. Certainly the veterans who are benefiting from it congratulate the government. I think that we should congratulate the minister on bringing this legislation before the parliament.