Federal, state and territory governments have agreed to
improve coordination on veterans’ issues and work more
cooperatively on data improvement.
Minister for
Veterans’ Affairs Dan Tehan said the first-ever meeting
between the relevant Ministers for Veterans’ Affairs
from each state and territory had focused on transition,
homelessness, incarceration and mental health.
The Ministers agreed:
 | that each state and territory would work with
the Commonwealth to develop standardised military
service history indicators to use in national and
jurisdictional data collections for suicide and
homelessness. This will improve the quality of data
collected and lead to better service delivery.
|
| to pursue inclusion of a military service
related question in the next Census to greatly
improve our understanding of the veteran community. |
| the Commonwealth will investigate a mechanism to
advise states and territories when Australia Defence
Force (ADF) personnel are medically-discharged to
help better plan the provision of support services.
|
| the Commonwealth will ensure that all
medically-discharged veterans have a Medicare card
when they separate from the ADF. |
| New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and
South Australia are collecting data on veteran
incarceration and all other states and territories
have agreed to explore collecting this data. |
| New South Wales and Victoria have specific
programs to address veterans’ homelessness, and
information on these programs will be shared with
all other states and territories. |
| state and territory governments will provide
information on their services as part of every ADF
transition session for personnel leaving the
military. |
“The first ever meeting of Veterans’ Affairs
Ministers has led to a commitment to re-double our
efforts tackling the challenges faced by our veterans,”
Mr Tehan said.
“The Ministers have agreed to meet with state-based
and national ex-service organisations to discuss better
coordinating efforts addressing homelessness and other
services.
“All levels of Government are providing important
support and services to our veterans that recognise
their service and sacrifice but we have to ensure we are
coordinating our efforts.
“Our veterans will benefit from a more unified
approach as a result of getting all the relevant
Ministers together in one room to better coordinate
services and gather important data.”
