MEDIA STATEMENT
17 August 2026
Australians who put on our nation’s uniform and serve this country should never have to fight their own government to get the healthcare they need.
Yet that is exactly what veterans are being forced to do under the Albanese Labor Government’s plan to impose a $5,000 annual threshold on allied health services from 1 July next year.
I have worked closely with veterans and veteran organisations on the Sunshine Coast for many years, and I know how important continuity of care is, particularly for people dealing with complex physical injuries, PTSD and other service-related conditions.
Their treatment should be determined by their clinical needs, not by an arbitrary dollar figure set in Canberra.
Labor can call this an “allocation”, a “threshold” or a “review” as many times as it likes. The reality is that once a veteran reaches $5,000, another process stands between that veteran and the treatment their health professional says they need.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs itself says veterans requiring treatment beyond the $5,000 threshold will need further funding considered on the basis of clinical need.
That means more uncertainty for veterans who already spend far too much of their lives dealing with paperwork, assessments and bureaucracy.
Today, veterans, their families, advocates and allied health professionals came to Parliament House asking the Government to listen.
Instead, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs could not even give Parliament a straight answer about why he would not meet with them.
These are men and women who served our country.
They have travelled to Canberra because they are worried about what these changes will mean for themselves, their mates and their families.
The very least their Minister could do is sit down and listen to them.
Veterans should not have to protest outside Parliament or fight through another layer of bureaucracy to receive healthcare for injuries and illnesses sustained because they served Australia.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide made painfully clear the consequences when systems fail veterans and their families.
The lesson from that Royal Commission should have been to make care easier to access, more responsive and centred around the veteran.
Instead, Labor is creating another hurdle.
I support increasing payments to allied health providers and removing unnecessary requirements for veterans to repeatedly return to a GP for referrals.
But you do not fix one bureaucratic problem by creating another.
If a veteran clinically requires $3,000 worth of treatment, they should receive it. If they clinically require $10,000 or more, they should receive that.
I stand with veterans, their families, advocates and my Coalition colleagues calling on the Albanese Labor Government to scrap the cap.
The Government has until 1 July 2027 to abandon this policy.
It should not take another inquiry, another review or another tragedy for Labor to listen.
Scrap the $5,000 cap and give our veterans the care, respect and dignity they have earned through their service to our nation.
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au
