Australia to apologise to LGBTQ veterans as it drops controversial healthcare cap

The Albanese government will formally apologise to LGBTQ veterans who were discriminated against in the military and allow historical homosexual offences to be expunged as it abandons a controversial plan to introduce a $5000 threshold for veterans’ allied health treatment.

The decision to drop the cap came after a fierce campaign from the veteran community and divided MPs who had served in the ADF over whether Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh should resign.

Keogh said on Thursday he had listened to veterans’ concerns and was taking the threshold “off the table”. The decision comes as the government also faces pressure to deliver on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

The Albanese government has officially scrapped a proposed $5000 annual threshold on veterans’ allied health services.Alex EllinghausenThe proposed measure, announced in May’s budget, would have replaced the current system requiring veterans to return to a GP for a new referral after every 12 allied health visits. Instead, veterans would have had their care reviewed once treatment costs reached $5000.

“We have heard from veterans there are concerns about this approach,” Keogh said. “We have been listening carefully and today, the government is taking the proposed $5000 threshold off the table.”

The move had been weaponised by the Coalition and independent senator Jacqui Lambie who had attacked it and rallied community support for the government to axe the measure.

Keogh said the government would proceed with a separate plan to increase allied health fees paid by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which he says would be the biggest increase in 20 years.

He had previously argued the changes would reduce administrative burdens for about 90 per cent of veterans, allied health practitioners and GPs.

Keogh said he would now consult veterans and health providers on other ways to improve wellbeing outcomes while maintaining the integrity of the system.

Speaking later in the Senate, Labor frontbencher Jenny McAllister announced: “The government will make a formal apology, acknowledging the harm experienced by LGBTIQA+ personnel and veterans as a result of historical discriminatory practices at the appropriate time.”

A ban on homosexual service in the defence force was overturned in 1992.

The government has also introduced legislation that will allow current and former defence personnel and their families to be able to apply to have their historic consensual homosexual service offences extinguished.

Greens Senator Nick McKim welcomed the apology as “long overdue”, but said it must be delivered by the prime minister and be accompanied by a financial redress scheme – a call backed by LGBTQ community leader Rodney Croome.

Lambie welcomed the backdown on the allied health cap, encouraging veterans to “have too many beers” in celebration, while Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said it had taken the government too long to change its position.

“This is a government that’s had its priorities wrong from the moment we saw the budget. The budget is unwinding in front of our eyes, and that’s because the government has simply got it wrong time and time again,” Taylor said.

Liberal frontbencher Phillip Thompson, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, became emotional when he spoke of the “personal” nature of the government’s attempt and its effect on his friends.

“The only reason I’m not another statistic, or my name’s not etched on the wall at the War Memorial, is because I had services that I could get. I had psychology support. I had physio and [occupational therapy] when I needed it,” Thompson said.

The MP joined opposition veterans affairs spokesman Michael McCormack and Taylor in calling for the immediate resignation or sacking of Keogh.

Several Labor caucus members had voiced concerns internally over the past week over a growing constituency backlash towards the cap, claiming they’d been inundated by complaints.

“Once again, we’ve lost a whole lot of skin for nothing,” one MP said.

Lambie, however, offered a fulsome defence of the minister, saying: “In the time I’ve been out here, Matt is the best thing that we have probably had, and he’s the smartest thing we’ve had. He’s a lawyer. He knows how it work.

“OK, he’s taken a bit of a trip on this one, he didn’t get this right. But what that department is doing, considering the amount of pressure it’s been under, is the best I have seen that that department operating.”

If you are a current or former ADF member or a relative and need support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046. Other support lines include Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and the NSW Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511.

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