Thursday, 24 February 2022

Ministers statements: veterans support

Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Suburban Development, Minister for Veterans) (12:37): Today I would like to update the house on a recent commitment from the Victorian government to Legacy, supplying half a million dollars for delivery of a veterans wellbeing program during the federal royal commission. We know it is going to be a hard time for our ex-service community and their families with the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide conducting public hearings. I was lucky enough to be joined in the Parliament gardens recently by members of Melbourne Legacy: CEO Jo Moloney; Ken Tsirigotis, chief operating officer; Annabelle Wilson, manager of community engagement; and Joel Sardi, who actually served in the Australian Army and had a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan. Joel spoke about how he and his family have benefited from the wonderful work Melbourne Legacy do for the ex-service community.

In this program Melbourne Legacy will be a gateway to a range of support provided by other ex-service organisations, community organisations and the commonwealth. Melbourne Legacy will employ two veteran liaison officers, who will assess the individual needs of the veterans and their families and connect them with referral partners and ex-service and community support organisations. This will be complemented by Melbourne Legacy’s existing case management team, which includes five social workers, counsellors, a program coordinator and two existing veteran liaison officers, and Melbourne Legacy have also of course their embedded alliance partners. In saying this is a hard time for the veterans community, I know the Victorian veterans community look forward to the interim report from the royal commission, which they hope will lead to an improved system that looks after Victorian veterans and their families, as it should.

Can I just also, on another matter, congratulate Commodore Greg Yorke on his appointment as the new chair of the Victorian Veterans Council. I really look forward to working with Commodore Yorke with his insight into how we can assist Victorian veterans and their families.