Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill (No 2)

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I’m grateful to the Minister in the chair, the Hon Ron Mark, for engaging in this way and, indeed, I acknowledge that he has been very open to discussing the issues arising from this legislation throughout.

My first and only comment is in relation to Supplementary Order Paper 561 that, again, I acknowledge and disclose that the Minister has been prepared to engage on, along with his officials. It’s simply the removal of the specific time frame that’s currently in the law; this bill will remove that for, perhaps, understandable reasons, but reasons that, none the less, a number of submitters at the Social Services and Community Committee felt was unfortunate. Specifically, it will not be the case any more that within 30 working days a decision must be given in relation to a claim. My proposal is simply that the period of time be amended to 30 working days or, if more time is needed, then 10 working days after all the information required has been obtained by Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand.

I understand that the proposal may not have full support across the House, and I do acknowledge that, but, none the less, I did want to give some weight to the submissions made by various veterans in relation to that throughout the select committee process.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Look, firstly, I want to acknowledge the honourable member and the sincerity of the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that he has proposed and put forward. I do acknowledge that this is a matter that was raised in submissions and was a point of discussion. I guess the position that we are faced with is whether you become overly prescriptive or put the emphasis on Veterans’ Affairs (VA) to deliver in a timely manner.

The problem with the 30-day requirement is that there are aspects that VA has no control over. So when matters are referred to other agencies, when further information is sought to enable—and sometimes from the veterans themselves—the case to be progressed, very often it is totally beyond the ability of VA to control those responses and that feedback, that information flow.

We have addressed, in the last Budget, one of—well, we have taken steps to address one of the challenges that VA have faced over the years, and that is the difficulty that VA has had in getting other Government departments to share information—that is the resources that VA have had in terms of personnel and in terms of data-processing capability to actually address case work in a more timely manner. We believe that we have attacked those issues through the last Budget, in particular. I am confident that the chief executive of VA and her staff now are not only focused more on delivering more rapid responses but are better resourced to do so, and we have addressed the information-sharing deficiency that VA was shackled by up until now.

So, at this point in time, we would not see the need to reimpose that 30-day requirement, and we won’t be supporting it. But, again, I acknowledge the sincerity of the honourable member’s concern and his SOP, and we undertake to ensure that the services are delivered in a timely, effective, and responsive manner; I’ll most definitely be watching for veterans who feel that it hasn’t been.

The question was put that the amendments set out on Supplementary Order Paper 560 in the name of the Hon Ron Mark be agreed to.

Amendments agreed to.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 561 in the name of Chris Penk be agreed to.