S 10 2004 onwards

This Section includes years from 2004.

2004

• The Prime Minister is the Hon John Howard MP and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs is the Hon Danna Vale MP.
• In March the Minister announced the Government's response to the Clarke report on veterans' entitlements.  As part of its response the Government committed an additional $289 million over five years to implement a number of initiatives.  These included:

• Effectively exempting the veterans' disability pension, paid under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986, from the means testing under social security law through the introduction of a Defence Force Income Support Allowance (DFISA).  From 20 September 2004, the new DVA payment, the DFISA will be paid to people whose social security income support payment is reduced or not payable because of the impact of adjusted disability pension (see definition below).  DFISA will be the difference between the person's existing entitlement, and what the entitlement would have been had adjusted disability pension been exempt but was assessed in the calculation of rent assistance.  Adjusted Disability Pension / Adjusted DP: is a new term introduced by the Clarke Review.  It is defined in section 118NA of the VEA and means:

• General Rate (payable in multiples of 10% up to 100%), Extreme Disablement Adjustment, Intermediate Rate and Special Rate disability pensions paid under Part II or IV of the Veterans' Entitlement Act 1986 (VEA);
• Increased rates of disability pension for amputation and blindness, paid under section 27 of the VEA;
• Temporary incapacity allowance paid under section 107 of the VEA;
• Dependant's pension, which is a small frozen amount paid to dependants of disability pensioners, not granted since 1986; and
• Permanent impairment payments and Special Rate Disability Pension paid under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004.

• Indexation of the above general rate component of the disability pension in the same manner as the maximum basic rate of service pension.  That is, by reference to both the Consumer Price Index and Male Total Average Weekly Earnings;
• Extension of rent assistance to war widows from 1 January 2005;
• An increase in the funeral benefit from $572 to $1,000;
• Extension of access to the disability pension to surviving veterans involved in the Berlin Airlift; to those involved in minesweeping; and to aircrew of the RAAF's No.2 Squadron, who served on the Malay-Thai border; and
• An ex gratia payment of $25,000 to surviving Prisoners of War of the North Koreans, or their widows, for the extraordinary hardship they suffered.

• The Government also decided to respond positively to the needs of those affected by the British Atomic Test programme when the outcomes are available of the Australian Participants in the British Nuclear Test Programme – Cancer Incidence and Mortality Study.
• The Government accepted the Clarke Report's recommendation that there be no change in the incurred danger test for qualifying service, but rejected the view that this test had been interpreted too narrowly.