DVA "Town Hall" invokes PGPA Act to push veterans to MLCOA
DVA cited the PGPA Act last night to justify forcing veterans to MLCOA. Its own data proves it's failing every test that Act requires.
Last night DVA held a "Providers Town Hall" meeting. Over 100 questions submitted. Three answered — all pre-selected by DVA. No live questions taken (not much of a town hall I hear you say).
Deputy Secretary Andrew Kefford invoked the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act repeatedly to justify capping what your doctor can charge for compensation reports. He named figures publicly — $3,100 average for a treating psychiatrist, $400 for a GP. He shamed providers charging above those rates, and confirmed DVA sent letters to 23 providers who charged above these rates. Letters that providers have advised were polarising and instilled fear.
But he said nothing about what DVA pays MLCOA — its sole contracted provider for independent medical examinations. The contract has never been published. The per-assessment rate has never been disclosed. The KPIs have never been made public.
The PGPA Act requires efficient, effective, and ethical spending. DVA is failing all three!
Efficient? Between 2012–13 and 2016–17, VRB overturn rates rose from 47.5% to 59.8%. In NSW, 73.8% of DVA decisions were overturned. Current data shows upwards of 80% of VRB applications are now resolved in the veteran's favour. DVA blames "new evidence." Senior veteran advocates say the evidence was there — DVA just got it wrong the first time. Every wrong decision generates a duplicate report, a Section 352D preparation, a VRB hearing, and potentially an Administrative Review Tribunal appeal. A $3,100 treating doctor report that gets it right first time is cheaper than any MLCOA assessment that triggers this cascade.
Effective? A system where the majority of decisions are overturned on review is not effective. It is a system producing wrong answers at scale.
Ethical? DVA confirmed last night it has narrowed Recommendation 101 of the Royal Commission — which said veterans should have the same provider choice as NDIS participants — to exclude compensation assessments entirely. That is the one area where veterans have zero choice. The deadline is 1 July 2026. Fifty-three days away.
DVA applies the PGPA Act to your doctor's invoice. It doesn't apply it to its own system. It doesn't count the VRB hearings, the duplicate reports, the ART appeals, or the months of delay that its sole-provider model generates downstream. And it doesn't count the human cost — veterans trapped in exactly the adversarial process the Royal Commission said was contributing to suicide.
We are asking DVA to publish the MLCOA contract, disclose the full pathway costs including VRB appeals, and implement Recommendation 101 in full before 1 July 2026.