Petition to: The Hon. Minister for Veterans' Affairs · and the Australian Parliament

16,000+
Veterans sent to one single provider since 2022

Rec. 101
Royal Commission right to choose — still not implemented

1 Jul 2026
Deadline for Royal Commission recommendations

When a veteran submits a compensation claim, DVA is required to consider evidence from medical practitioners, and fund any further investigations and assessments required to reasonably investigate the veterans claim.

DVA is systematically rejecting veteran’s ability to see the medical practitioners of their choosing, instead forcing veterans to attend assessments with a single commercial company: MLCOA.

DVA holds exactly two contracts with doctors. One with MLCOA, for Independent Medical Examinations. One with BUPA, for internal advice. That's it. There is no alternative panel. There is no veteran choice. If you don’t have a regular doctor, specialist or psychiatrist, or if DVA deems your regular doctor does not meet their fabricated non-legislated requirements, you get sent to MLCOA - a single commercial provider, owned by foreign investors, with no independent oversight.

DVA's own invented rule - never disclosed to Parliament: DVA tells veterans their doctor "doesn't count" unless they've had an "established and ongoing treating relationship." But every MLCOA examiner sees veterans exactly once, for the sole purpose of the claim. DVA applies the rule to your doctor. It doesn't apply it to theirs.

Veterans with hearing conditions face something even more troubling. DVA is sending letters telling them that to have their tinnitus claim finalised, they must attend Hearing Australia - DVA's sole contracted hearing provider - for an assessment and "any required treatment." This is not a referral. It is a condition of receiving compensation veterans are legally entitled to.

"I had twelve to twenty appointments with my GP over two years. DVA said his report was 'too severe' and sent me to a stranger instead. A ten-minute appointment. That was it." - Former Special Forces veteran after being sent to MLCOA for a PI reassessment.

Twenty-one documented veterans describe MLCOA assessments as hostile and re-traumatising: suicidal ideation dismissed as "a normal response to life stressors"; a psychiatrist who laughed during a trauma disclosure; an orthopaedic surgeon who asked the veteran which boxes to tick on the form.

The Royal Commission said fix this. The government agreed. Nothing has changed.

In December 2024, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide handed down Recommendation 101: DVA clients should have the same right to choose their provider as NDIS participants. The government agreed to implement it. The deadline is 1 July 2026. DVA's current practice is moving in the opposite direction.

 
What we're asking for:

1.Stop forcing veterans to attend MLCOA. Allow medical evidence from all doctors on equal terms.

2.Stop conditioning tinnitus compensation on attending Hearing Australia. Let veterans choose their own audiologist.

3.Publish and withdraw the invented "treating doctor" definition — it has no basis in legislation and is being used to override veterans' own doctors.

4.Publish the MLCOA and Hearing Australia contracts in full — what DVA pays, and how performance is measured.  Pay all medical providers the same rate for the same service, and subject them to the same KPIs and governance.

5.Replace the sole-provider model with a panel of at least three providers when the MLCOA contract expires in December 2026.

6.Implement Royal Commission Recommendation 101 in full — genuine provider choice for every veteran — before 1 July 2026.

Veterans served Australia without question. The least Australia owes them is the right to see the doctor they trust.