Despite having one of the largest cohorts of returned servicemen in the country, the Mid North Coast has been completely overlooked in the recent allocation of funding for Veteran Wellbeing Services in NSW as announced by the newly elected Federal Labor Government.
The Federal electorates in NSW overlooked in the scheme are conspicuously all National Party seats; being Cowper, Page, New England and Lyne.
Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan had secured a $5 million commitment from the former Coalition Government in April 2022, with the funds to be allocated from the existing Federal 2022 budget. Labor has now overturned this decision since being elected, seemingly reallocating funds to Labor seats elsewhere.
Federal Member for Cowper is calling on the Government to reconsider its recent decision, throwing support behind the many Veteran’s Wellbeing Groups within his electorate of Cowper who have worked tirelessly to create a proposal for the most cost effective and practical solution to Veteran Support for the region.
“To hear the news that the entire Mid North Coast has been left out of the recent funding decision is gut wrenching. How a region such as ours, boasting some of the highest numbers of Vets in the country has been overlooked is beyond comprehension. The work that our local veterans and I had done together would have seen a hub and spoke model service the whole of the electorate, not just one location. We know from experience that it is vital that this model is adopted to ensure that all our veterans receive the attention and care they deserve. I sincerely hope this is not an indication of things to come for our community from the new Government, and that we can have this funding returned”, Mr Conaghan said.
“I am calling on the newly appointed Minister for Veteran’s Affairs, Matt Keogh, to reconsider his decision and show a true Bi-Partisan approach to the support of those men and women who have served this country. Our Veteran’s should not be disadvantaged simply because their postcode does not fall within a Labor seat. These decisions must be needs based, not political point scoring. Five million dollars to support the wellbeing of Veteran’s and their families for many years to come does not seem like a big ask.”
Vice President of the Mid North Coast Veterans Wellbeing Network Justin Poppleton has been advocating for the needs of Veterans from Grafton to Taree and was integral in the creation of the Veteran’s Wellbeing Centre proposal for the region.
“We’ve been following the philosophy of a bottom-up approach, really listening to the feedback and needs of the local Veteran community and providing them with tangible advocacy. We know that travel and distance are so often deterrents when it comes to accessing appropriate services, and our model looks to address that by providing multiple locations within a hub and spoke network, rather than just the one centre. We currently have 19 advocates already providing services to those in need across the Mid North Coast, and we are working to the best of our capacity but we are stretched without the resources to appropriately support and connect our considerable Veterans Community”, Mr Poppleton said.
“To know that we have one of the largest Veteran populations in the country but haven’t made the updated list for a physical centre is disappointing. Our community was originally promised the five million from the Department of Veteran Affairs based on our Veteran numbers, so to have this now taken away doesn’t seem to uphold the aim of delivering a better future for everyone in the veteran community.”
The Mid North Coast Veteran Wellbeing Network first started providing advocacy services in 2011, at that time just to the Coffs Harbour region. Since then, eleven different ex-service organisations have now joined forces to create a more wholistic approach for the broader Mid North Coast.
