The Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Member for New England
Media Statement
15 May 2024
Veteran Hubs and community grants slashed in Labor’s Budget that also delays veteran entitlement reform
• No plans to extend veteran hubs
• Community veteran welfare grants cut in half
• No plans to restore funding to mark unknown ANZAC and WWI graves
• Royal Commission recommendation on veteran entitlements to be delayed a year
Last night’s Federal Budget confirmed Labor has no plans to extend the veteran hubs program with all funding due to dry-up in just two years.
The budget also cut in half the Veteran Wellbeing grants program that provides local groups with much needed funding to support veterans and their families. Just $10 million will be allocated to the program this year compared with $20 million in 2023/24.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Hon. Barnaby Joyce, said the Veterans’ Chaplaincy Program was also on life-support with just one year’s worth of additional funding.
“Veterans across Australia continue to pay the price for not having a voice in Cabinet under Labor”, Mr Joyce said.
“As a result, Labor’s Minister for Veterans’ Affairs has to go cap-in-hand to Cabinet and ask for more money, and he walked away with less”, Mr Joyce said.
He said the Budget Papers also confirmed the Labor government had no intention of implementing the very first recommendation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide which called for new streamlined veterans’ entitlements legislation to be in place and operational by “no later than 1 July 2025”.
“The government will miss that deadline by an entire year. If Labor can’t deliver on the first recommendation to pay our veterans properly and on time, then what hope is there that Labor will implement the other recommendations”, Mr Joyce said.
He said Tuesday night’s budget has also confirmed the Albanese Government has no intention of reinstating $2.9 million it had ripped from the Unmarked War Graves program that was designed to locate and honor an estimated 12,000 World War I veterans, many of whom served at ANZAC Cove, who lay anonymously in graveyards throughout Australia.
“On ANZAC Day last month when Australians were saying “Lest We Forget”, Prime Minister Albanese was finalising his budget which would mean 12,000 World War I veterans would remain unknown in their unmarked graves. That says everything you need to know about this government”, Mr Joyce said.
ENDS
Media contact:
Heidi Williamson
0447 307 884