Presidents
Message
The National and
NSW State Branch President, Mr Tim McCombe OAM, has
been at the forefront of the welfare for Vietnam Veterans
in Australia since the late 1970's. Tim's dedication and
committment to our cause is well known, particularly in
our struggle to have the effects of herbicidal spraying
in South Vietnam accepted as the cause of many cancers in
returning veterans and their offspring. See our
History
page for further information.
The following represents a
catalogue of recent items that effect the Veteran
community, and the steps we are taking for the welfare of
the veterans and their families.
When we came home from
Vietnam there was much wrong with how we were treated by
the Repatriation system, some ex-services organisations
and the government.
It is, I believe, our duty to
ensure our more recent comrades, the veterans of Timor,
Iraq and Afghanistan, do not suffer in the same
way.
We can do this by helping our
younger comrades with their compensation claims and
appeals, ensuring we acknowledge their outstanding
service given under extremely difficult and dangerous
conditions and keep reminding the government of its
obligation to properly compensate and care for those
whose service has damaged them.
This will become even more
important when most of our troops are pulled out of
Afghanistan. A few years down the track we know that the
psychological damage done by the trauma of these wars
will really begin to blossom. By then, the media interest
in our veterans will have waned. What is newsworthy while
the war is being fought will fail the 'interest' test
when the fighting is over. It is then that the really
hard work begins of reminding governments of their
continuing obligation.
The Vietnam Veterans
Federation will do what it can to ease the path for our
worthy successors.
The failure of the
Australian War Memorial to commission a new study of the
Agent Orange controversy despite the fatal flaws and
unjustified insults in the original official account,
does no good to its reputation or the reputation of the
Official History of the Vietnam war.
Such obviously bad history
needs correction.
As you will have read in
another article in the July 2012 edition of our Journal,
the person tasked with writing a summary volume covering
the completed series of the nine volume official history
has been a strong supporter of the original flawed
account to the point of defending it in at least two
lengthy articles.
It makes you wonder whether
the Australian War Memorial is more interested in seeking
the truth or maintaining the status-quo.?
Building Excellence in
Support and Training (BEST)
Now what's
happening?
BEST funding reduction by the Federal
Government -
For those who came in late; Last year the Federal
Government saw fit to change the way it administered and
allocated vital funding to ex-service organisations.
These 'BEST' grants form a vital part of funds that allow
organisations like ours, to provide the expertise
required, to administer our many offices and advise the
veteran and defence community.
WANT
TO READ MORE CLICK TO SEE SUMMARY
REPORT
Centrelink benefits for
those eligible 16-18 years old attending high school were
increased from 1 January 12.
The Veterans Children's Education Scheme (VCES) was
not included in this change and the DVA unsatisfactory
answer is "It is too administratively difficult." The
President has now written to the Minister seeking the
appropriate legislative changes to replicate the
improvements in the Centrelink benefit in the VCES. The
President will also raise this issue when next meeting
with the Minister.
At a recent NSW Branch committee meeting it was
decided to issue the following statement:
"This Association deplores the decision to exclude
Veterans Children's Education Scheme (VCES) participants
from the increased Centrelink benefits for eligible
secondary students 16-19 years old attending high school
and operative from the 1 January, 2012. To add insult to
injury the new Centrelink benefit is not taxed whilst the
VCES benefit remains taxable."
Keep watching this space for updates on these issues
as they come to hand.
Current
Issues
During 2012 we printed
many articles in our Journal, and in the interests of
keeping certain issues in mind we remind you of some of
the important articles from those
pages.
1. THE OFFICIAL HISTORY of
the Vietnam war has got the Agent Orange story wrong
again. A new volume has again wrongly reported the Agent
Orange Royal Commission’s findings with the
consequence that the veterans and their case are
demeaned.
2. IS THE GOVERNMENT
purposely undermining the Veterans’ Children’s
Education Scheme (VCES)? You would have to think so. From
1 January this year, eligible 16-19 years old secondary
students’ support payments have been increased at
Centrelink but the more generous payments have not been
granted to similar students in the VCES.
3. FB Smith’s account of
the Agent Orange controversy in Volume 3 of the Official
History of the Vietnam war is both fatally flawed and
insulting. Unfortunately, it has been strongly supported
by the Official Historian, Dr Peter Edwards. Recently,
rather than commission a new study of the Agent Orange
issue, the Australian War Memorial has commissioned Dr
Edwards to write a summary volume covering the completed
nine volume series. He is the wrong man for the
job.
4. We can’t assume that
benefits hard won for disabled veterans are safe. There
is a recent example where even a compensation benefit to
the most war damaged of our colleagues was attacked by
the government. It might be in the interests of younger
veterans to become involved in the veteran movement to
defend what we have, as well as advocate for new needs
resulting from recent wars.
5. Was Phill Thompson greedy
and dishonest? Those who knew him would probably describe
him in terms opposite to these; terms like generous,
honest, a man of integrity. But greedy and dishonest is
how the Official History describes Phill. The Australian
War Memorial resists correcting the
record.
6. How would you judge an
appeals system in which an appeal takes sixteen years to
complete? Dysfunctional perhaps? Unjust, perhaps? Perhaps
even ridiculous? We would agree with all of those
judgements. But that’s how long it took for our
appeal on the matter of the link between smoking and
prostate cancer to be completed. How could it possibly
take that long?
READ ALL THE ARTICLES IN
THEIR ENTIRITY IN ONE DOCUMENT HERE
Our
Journal
Click on the
images above to download an abridged version of our
past 3 issues.
The Journal in its
current format began life in 2000. Prior to then it was a
monthly produced A5 size pamphlet that quickly took on
the look of a newsreel with all our agenda items and
historical articles. At the beginning of 2001 the
"Newsletter" as it was called moved into this format and
was professionally published, as well as, becomming a
quarterly issue magazine style journal. Now, in 2012, for
quality as well as cost purposes, we have reduced our
issues to 3 per year; March, July
& November.
The aim was, and
still is, to bring relevant news of veteran commune
concerns and issues to our membership. It is not unusual
that each issue will bring with it some form of debate
over exactly what successive governments and the DVA, as
well as the RMA, are trying to get away with when it
comes to the responsibility of veteran care in this
country. Even after our lengthy battle for victims of
'Agent Orange defects and disabilities' , including our
offspring, we still find injustices being committed by
all parties of government and the Department of Veterans
Affairs, (DVA).
Full copies of
current journals are available from our Branch Offices,
however you will receive a copy when you become a member
of our association, and anyone is welcome to join for a
small fee.
Outreach
Program
Our Outreach
Program continues to be extremely successful in reaching
out to Veterans, service and ex-service community living
in regional and/or remote areas.
Any Veteran, widow
of a Veteran, and/or relative of a Veteran in rural NSW,
seeking assistance of the Outreach Team in matters of
Service Pensions, Disability Pension Claims, War Widow
Pensions, and/or MCRS Claims, etc., should contact the
OUTREACH COORDINATOR (below) , who will organise
assistance.
In the event that
members have friends who need assistance they are urged
to contact Dennis Hanmer who will coordinate the visit
program. Of course, the more people wishing assistance in
any one town or rural area, the more fulfilling the trip
will be for the team.
Remember, we assist
all Veterans, and service and ex-service personnel, in
any matter relating to your service that may require the
lodgement of a claim or application with the Department
of Veterans Affairs. We do this free of ANY
charges.
The team will
provide assistance and advice to ALL Veterans of ALL
conflicts, including Peacekeeping and Peacemaking
Missions. ALL personnel who served in the Armed Forces
between 1973 and 1993
-
ARE ELIGIBLE
FOR REPATRIATION BENEFITS.
OUR SERVICES ARE
FREE.
Contact: Dennis
Hanmer (JP) Mob: 0428 388 221 Ph: 02 9682 1788 Fx: 02
9682 6134
Email:
secretary@vvfagranville.org
Mail: VVPPAA (NSW Branch) Inc., PO Box 170, Granville.
2142
Operation
Life /
Welfare
Would you like to
be able to help prevent suicides?
What are the signs
to look for?
Where do you find
help for those at risk?
It’s an
understanding we should all have.
SO WHY NOT ATTEND A
SUICIDE PREVENTION WORKSHOPS FOR VETERANS, FAMILIES AND
MATES
Operation Life is a
program run by the VVCS (Veterans and Veterans Families
Counselling Service) for people who are concerned about
family, friends, mates or others in the veteran and
ex-service community.
Operation Life is a
strategy to prevent suicide and promote good mental
health and resilience across the veteran community. Its
major components include workshops providing
introductory, intensive and refresher courses in suicide
prevention. Welfare, pension officers and others from
ex-service organisations and the veteran community are
encouraged to attend.
Operation Life
workshops are not treatment programs but are designed to
help members of the veteran community to recognise
someone who might be having thoughts of suicide and to
link them in with appropriate help.”
To find out more
about Operation Life workshops, contact VVCS on 1800 011
046 (during normal business hours) or visit
www.at-ease.dva.gov.au.
Operation Life is
supported by all Ex-service Organisations.
PLEASE CONTACT
OUR WELFARE OFFICER,
TOM
JENKINS,
AT OUR HEAD OFFICE,
GRANVILLE, FOR ALL WELFARE
MATTERS