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The federal government has announced an additional $328.1 million in the 2023–24 federal budget to support veterans and dependants accessing Department of Veterans’ Affairs services.
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The funding is designed to support more than 340,000 veterans and dependants accessing Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) services, reduce veteran compensation claims backlog, and build on $537.5 million already invested in the October 2022 budget.
A breakdown of a new funding includes $64.1 million to retain 480 DVA staff for frontline service in 2023–24, $254.1 million over four years to modernise and sustain IT systems and $2 million to continue mental health awareness and suicide intervention training for volunteers supporting veterans.
The federal government has also pledged to expand eligibility for the Acute Support Package, introduced in the October 2022 budget, to include grandcarers or grandparents who are full-time carers of children of veterans.
The new funding supports the federal government’s response to the interim recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, as well as the acknowledgement of the different challenges experienced by veteran families.
Defence spending as a proportion of GDP will lift 0.2 per cent higher by 2032–33, according to the 2023 federal budget.
In addition, over the next four years, the federal government will invest more than $19 billion to implement the immediate priorities identified by the Defence Strategic Review.
To learn more about how this year’s federal budget will impact Australia’s national security posture, hear directly from the nation’s key decision makers on the Defence Connect Budget Lunch livestream here.
