Submission lodged with the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission

A short update on what your signatures are now backing.

Today I lodged a formal submission with the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission, the statutory body established in September 2025 to provide independent oversight of the Australian Government's implementation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

The submission asks the Commission to include the $5,000 DVA allied health cap within the scope of its statutory inquiries into how the Government is implementing the Royal Commission's recommendations. The argument is straightforward. The Government cannot, in the same Budget cycle, claim to be implementing 104 of the 122 Royal Commission recommendations in good faith, and at the same time impose a cap that operationalises the exact rationing the Commission identified as harmful.

The submission also makes a second, sharper point. Even if the "demonstrated clinical need" exemption the Government has promised is eventually designed (consultation does not begin until August), the foreseeable operational reality of the exemption pathway, including more GP appointments, more paperwork, undefined DVA decision wait times, and interruption to essential care while veterans wait, will itself constitute a barrier to care of the kind the Royal Commission warned against.

This is now on the record with the independent oversight body the Government itself established. It cannot be quietly ignored.

What's happening elsewhere in the campaign:

The House of Representatives e-petition is expected to be certified on 30 June.
A parallel Senate paper petition is in preparation, with multiple senators approached as presenters.
The Office of Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP (Greens, Ryan) has confirmed Elizabeth wants to speak on the cap in the chamber over the next sitting period.
The cap has been raised on Hansard four times by Coalition MPs and once in Senate Estimates by Senator Lambie.
Over 25 federal MPs and senators have received personalised correspondence on the cap.
Two things you can do in the next ten minutes:

Share the petition: https://c.org/9Xbjm9h5Yf
Send the template MP letter to your federal MP: bit.ly/vet5000cap
Thank you, again. This is moving because of you.

Rebecca