Ms MAY (10:40 AM) —In the International Year of the Older Person, this government has made and honoured numerous commitments to providing assistance for members of the veteran community. Many of these initiatives are incorporated into the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 1999 . One of these measures is HomeFront, an initiative designed to reduce the number of falls and accidents in and around veterans' homes.

The total cost to the health system of accidental falls is $806 million, more than double the cost to the Australian health system of road traffic accidents, which cost the Australian government around $370 million per annum. HomeFront aims to reduce this burden on the Australian health system by implementing preventive measures. Furthermore, HomeFront aims to maintain the health and independence of the veteran community and assist members of the community to continue living in their homes should they wish to do so. HomeFront will achieve these aims by providing eligible veterans and war widows with a free home assessment and up to $150 per year in financial assistance towards recommended aids and minor home modifications. HomeFront also provides a range of information, and helps link veterans and war widows to other support programs and services for which they may be eligible.

The introduction of HomeFront by the coalition government in January this year provided to eligible veterans and war widows up to $150 towards the cost of minor home alterations and home safety appliances and items. At the present time, HomeFront is available to all gold card holders. This bill before the House will extend that provision, allowing approximately 63,000 white health care card holders to be eligible for the measure. This will raise to 340,000 the number of members of the veteran community eligible for the initiative.

A complementary measure to HomeFront is also incorporated into this bill—a measure which allows the government to introduce the Home Support Loan Scheme, which was foreshadowed in the budget brought down in May. The home support advance will provide low interest loans of up to $10,000 for home modifications and essential maintenance. Loans under this scheme will be available to those people eligible under the Defence Service Homes Act who have an outstanding loan of less than $10,000. Eligibility for the loan scheme will be extended beyond those eligible for a defence service home advance. This new loan will be available to Australian veterans, members of the Defence Force and members of a peacekeeping force covered by the Veterans' Entitlements Act, and to their widows or widowers.

The student children of veterans will also benefit from this bill. At the moment, only children of deceased extreme disablement adjustment veterans are able to receive assistance under the Veterans' Children Education Scheme. As at 30 June 1998, there were 4,313 children being assisted by the Veterans' Children Education Scheme. As it stands, children of living extreme disability allowance recipients are not eligible for the scheme. This bill will correct this anomaly and ensure that the children of living extreme disablement adjustment veterans become eligible for such assistance as well, providing these student children with full access to all of the benefits available under the scheme, including financial assistance, educational guidance and counselling. This move corrects an anomaly which the opposition put in place when it was in government. It extended the scheme eligibility only to the children of deceased veterans. Estimates are that today there are approximately 36 children of living extreme disablement adjustment veterans who are in full-time education and would be eligible for assistance.

A further provision of this bill will allow the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to declare by gazettal the deployment of non-Australian Defence Force personnel as a peacekeeping force for the purposes of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986. This will effectively allow the government to act quickly and definitively where a situation may arise. The opposition may say that the government is replacing a provision that was taken out in 1997 and making a mistake in doing so. This is quite the contrary. As part of a major review of eligible service effective from May 1997, similar provisions to those now proposed were removed from the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986. The Veterans' Entitlements Act still provides for coverage of any member of a peacekeeping force, but there is still uncertainty about fast-tracking cover for non-Australian Defence Force members where there is no associated Australian Defence Force involvement. This is a proactive, responsible move designed to ensure any uncertainty about the legislation is remedied before it needs to be applied.

One of the major provisions in this bill is a mechanism for setting out the specific circumstances and criteria for determining whether a person is permanently incapacitated for work for the purposes of an invalidity service pension and income support supplement on the grounds of invalidity. Currently, the criterion for permanent incapacity for work purposes does not set out the assessment methodology to be used in determining the degree of incapacity. The current test is subjective and it is impossible to make a consistent assessment.

A key element of the changes, as set out in this bill, is that veterans will be required to have at least 40 impairment points determined by reference to the Guide to the Assessment of Rates of Veterans' Pensions that is used to assess rates of a disability pension. From 1 January next year there will be three measures of permanent incapacity for service pension purposes. The first is blindness. The second is the receipt of the special rate disability pension for total and permanent incapacity. The third measure is an objective assessment of the person's impairment, combined with the person's capacity to work. This proposal brings consistency to the process of assessing veterans by adopting a common standard. It will also result in a huge saving of $9.6 million over four years, which is due to the small number of veterans who are expected to re-enter the work force.

As the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon. Bruce Scott, stressed during his second reading speech, veterans found not to be permanently incapacitated, as measured by these new criteria, will continue to have access to Australia's extensive income support safety net, including disability support pension, sickness allowance and Newstart allowance. There is a need for existing invalidity service pensioners to have their permanent invalidity assessed against the new criteria. This is primarily because there are invalidity service pensioners who, the government is led to believe, do not have the requisite level of incapacity. The result is that it is being seen as a non-reviewable surrogate unemployment program. Changes under this legislation will restore credibility.

Under the legislative changes, about 600 veterans will be transferred from the Department of Veterans' Affairs to Centrelink. I draw attention to the fact that despite veterans having to change their current arrangements, a benefit of transferring to Centrelink is that they will have access to vocational training and more relevant programs such as Newstart. If the veteran is not permanently incapacitated, the real needs of the veteran are better addressed by one of Centrelink's income support payments, with associated vocational assistance.

While the government realises that some pensioners will be more appropriately placed on other income support programs, we are setting in place arrangements to ensure continuity of their income support. There will be other veterans who, for various reasons, do not meet the criteria for any income support payment—for example, they may be employed. These pensions will be cancelled. It is appropriate and fair that this occurs. A total of 1,780 veterans, equal to 15 per cent of invalidity service pensioners, will be reviewed. The government had decided not to review totally and permanently incapacitated pensioners, veterans over the age of 57 years from 1 January 2000, or veterans who already have 40 Guide to the Assessment of Rates of Veterans' Pensions points and who are unable to work for more than eight hours a week.

Veterans who genuinely are unable to work have nothing to fear from these legislative changes. As I mentioned earlier, the changes will restore credibility to the review process. The initiatives outlined in the veterans' affairs legislation build on the government's commitment to providing assistance and compensation for members of the veteran community. I commend this bill to the House.