Why Jacqui Lambie’s not done fighting veteran health caps

0:00They want us to fight for this country. You want us to have babies for the country, but you're not interested in supporting our reproductive system. Last month an emotional Jackie Lambie revealed a private health battle connected to her time in the army. About six months ago my vagina started to pull up, pull up. This is an injury that is directly connected to my back injuries. And from my time in the army, my vagina was collapsing in three months, so it was taking my blood with it. The independent senator called out gaps in healthcare services for female veterans and raised against the government's plans to introduce a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans. I'm begging you, Prime Minister, we are already suffering enough. Drop the bloody cap. Drop it mate, it is so unfair. It is what we do not need. It is enough.

1:03Vaturans have had enough. Leave us alone. This week fellow veterans joined her calls laying down their war medals outside Parliament House in protest as Lambie promised to continue the fight. I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am. Today, Senator Jackie Lambie and my veterans are getting a raw deal. It's Thursday, September 10. Jackie welcome to 7am, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you so much for having me. So, a few weeks ago you stood up in Parliament and you shared this very personal story, something that I think a lot of people would hesitate to even talk to their friends about, let alone the entire country like you did. Why did you decide to speak? I think for me, first of all, is because when it comes to women veterans, that first of all, we're not looking after us in defence when it comes to our reproductive system.

2:04I live in Olviston and it's quite an early population who has no shame whatsoever. So when I was in my local bakery, when I was still down and out waiting for, I was talking to one of the, I don't know, she must have been probably about 65. In any way, she said, what's going on? And I went, look, you know, I've had a prolapse, a bladder prolapse on top of that. I'm going into hospital. She turns around and she says something to me. She said, oh yes, I've had three of them. I'm waiting for another surgery. And then she goes, how many of you women are in prolapse? Like in every woman because they're all over 50 and have prolapses. And how many of you are waiting? You know, so for me. And by having me coming out and saying stuff, I've got more to say because if they're waiting times, we're already eight or 10 weeks, they've now had double the amount of people come in in the last two weeks since I did that speech. So we are smashed out there. So every woman now is like, right, if we're talking lambies, talking for diners, we're all bloody talking for diners and that's it.

3:06Oh my gosh, I'll have bandwagon going on here, baby. I'm going, good on you. Good on you. That's for a wait. Steen up. So that is the problem that I have now created. So these women go, I've been waiting for this. I've been so embarrassed or haven't been to get in. There is now a lot more people on the waiting list, so the last two weeks and that will continue to grow. And so what's your experience, Beam? How difficult has this health battle been for you? It's really, it's really challenging because, you know, for about four months, I can be anywhere in 30 seconds away from a toilet, you know, and I'll be honest with you. You know, there are times where you've got to wear pads. You're just leaking over time and it's really embarrassing. And you know, and that concourse infections stuff like that, all because we're waiting, you know, for me, I was able to pay that $8,000 out and get that operation. But if I were setting Tasmania, I'd be still sitting there waiting. You know, you want us 50 plus women to be out in the workforce. And if we're carrying this around, it makes it really, really difficult.

4:07It all starts, so, so, so, it starts to hurt our mental health. You know, the embarrassment of it and stuff like that. I don't want women to be embarrassed. I want them to come forward, you know, I want them to come forward and get it fixed because it should be fixed. The country tells you to go and have bloody babies for it. And then put you on the side of the line and says, go look after yourself. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sick of them looking after penises and I want them to start looking after our vaginas. That would be very good. Yeah. And so when you first spoke about this, it was in the context of veterans' health and the government's plan to introduce a $5,000 cat for veterans on our health services, like psychology and physio, veterans will be able to access more care after the cap, but only after a formal clinical review. What would that mean for veterans like you? Yeah. I don't even know why you were bringing a cat first of all. Those people who are using that money are our most injured veterans. So I'll use myself as an example. When you are down now, after an operation in your own rehab and you have another incident happen after that, like I had three in a row.

5:08So I've been having to do this for nearly 12 months now. I'm eating through that cap. Not only would you be seeing a psychologist twice a week because you are down and out. You also have your exercise physiologist. You have your physio as well and chiropractor. I'm cheering through my amount of money in five weeks. DBA says, come back to us and give us 28 days to tick it off and we go and I go get stuffed. If you can't tick that off within 24 hours, we're not playing and they can't mate. So that's how it works. It's really, I don't know why you need to put a cap on veterans' health. I just find it really in bad taste and I find it disgusting all over a couple of incidents. So we're paying the price. We're paying the price for that and it's not our price to pay. Well, the government, they say this is all about saving money that there'll be $750 million saved over three years and that's through cracking down on what it calls over servicing. The number of conditions that people are claiming for now has more than doubled. In the last few years.

6:10So there's been a big ink and part of that's because people have recognised. We've improved the system, which is good. And so they're bringing forward more claims and according to the government, they say the changes will increase access to services and mean that better ends don't have to be constantly being sent back to doctants. Five thousand, it means for the more than 90% of veterans that are under that, this makes it easier because they're not having to continually go back and get new referrals every 12 sessions. I've just got a couple of questions on that. What do you say to that? No, so it's not about our doctors. It's what we need to get back. It's about a rehab. Most of these are rehab providers and podiatrics. All right, things like that. Most of these guys, when we get our operations and get down and out, most of these things that are covered under that allied health, under that five K-cap, other people that we need the most. Your exercise physio, even women's health is on this. So if I'm dealing with my back and that is well, that physio that is helping me not just with my back, but the other one that is as expert in this, that also goes up there. One thing DBA did was lift the payments,

7:11for those allied health people, which is great, which means it's going to true through the cap even quicker. I mean, this is just the most idiot proposal I've ever seen. And why a PM? You have to ask how arrogant is Alvin Easing? What sort of PM would bother taking on veterans over $5,000 a pack? So I have a rule problem with this. It's absolutely disgusting. It's disrespectful to everyone that is served out there and anybody else that's serving that knows his treatment. Still to come, how are our veterans doing two years on from the Royal Commission? Senator, this week a group of veterans went and laid down their warmitals outside Parliament House. They say the government's been letting veterans down. Each medal represents deeds of valor, loyalty and sacrifice. But the promises these medals represent

8:12cannot be on it in ceremony and then abandoned in policy. Is that how veterans are feeling, or broadly? Yeah, it's great to see them coming up here and building a group and saying, we're going up here and we're going to fight for that. And I think that's great. And they're doing a great job. They're walking the halls of power. You know, and say, well, do you want to let us in with veterans? Let's say a bunch of respect for you, got in here or say it. We'll take 15, 20 minutes. You know, and I think that's a fair go. There is a lot of people up here that have opened their door for them and I'm very grateful and so they should. This implementation was introduced without a single question or a conversation with the people it was going to affect. But whether or not this gets done's another thing, but I tell you what, I'm up here for two weeks and I think the PM's going to get very, very sick of me standing up and down in that Senate and belting him around. And one, I don't think it, and the other thing is I don't think it's going to help he's polling. They haven't realised yet between all the people that have served out there

9:13and our friends and family, we're well over a population of a medium. So if you don't want their vote, be very, you just stick to that 5K cap. We've got a real problem here. So I would just, I would ask the Prime Minister, because it comes down to him. It's not the Minister in the end. The Prime Minister could go to the Minister and say, this is killing us mate, get rid of the cap. Have you had any response from Anthony Urban E.C. since making that speech? No, I have not seen the Prime Minister since I've been down and out. Obviously there are other Labour Members and Ministers that I speak to and things like that. He hasn't reached out to me. I'm sure he's hearing me. I know he's a very busy man. I don't think he needs to speak to me, because if he hasn't heard all those veterans led and clear by now, you know, and I think by now we're about 40,000 on Apetition, which we're about to put into Parliament, I suggest that he wake up and remove the ear plugs out of his ears, because it is a bloody problem. And Jackie, this week also marks two weeks since the Royal Commission in the Veterans Suicide handed down its final report. At the time, the government adopted almost all of those recommendations

10:16and it says since then there has been record investment in veterans health. So have things improved in that two years? Do you know, it was really sad. I could see things improving, you know, but I can tell you since probably about February this year the claims processing times have gone back out. And we still have a culture of arrogance in the Department of Veterans Affairs. I suggest if they want to change their culture, Ruby, they need to do one thing. All those people that have been sitting right at the top there that were part of all those bloody suicide sitting at the top when these have all been happening after the last 20 years I have to ask, why they're still sitting in those top positions? Why they still there? You know, so this is what we're up against. That culture will never change until you get some fresh faces sitting at the top of DVA. I need people in there fighting for veterans they're going to do the right thing. Not because the PM or the Minister says they'll find some savings and they better places to find savings in that DVA. I'll be bloody brutally honest with you.

11:16How dumb are they? And so just finally, I mean, what is your fear here moving forward? Well, my fear is that suicide, they're already started to lift back up. You can see they went a little bit quite just after that rule commission and but you can see over the last six or eight months and especially since this has come in, people panic. If you're told you're going to get a cap and you're already down and out and you're stuck especially those ones that never going to work again and they're being told DVA is now putting another bit of pressure on them. I'm sorry, this will be the tip of the iceberg and this is where you're going to see more suicide. And it'll grow very quickly. Well, Ducky, thank you so much for your time and I wish you the best with your recovery. Thank you so much. Also in the news, Anthony Albanese is defending a six million dollar grab

12:17awarded to a golf club in his electorate. After it was revealed he had an honorary membership that was not declared on his register of interests. The Prime Minister has defended the funding as necessary to fix flooding and sewage problems and says he has no membership card and does not attend the club. Cross bench MPs are calling for an overhaul of the government to invite only Grants program. Archer was revealed earlier this week that Grants were overwhelmingly directed at Labor seats or seats are wanted to win at the last election. And a claim to author Blanche Del Pugey with a reformer prime minister Bob Hawke has passed away eight to 82 following complications from influenza. Del Pugey was an award winning model as demographer. His best name works included her acclaimed biography of Hawke, which won the New South Wales Premier's award. The pair married in 1995 and remained together until Hawke's death in 2019. I'm Daniel James, thanks for listening to 7am. We'll be back tomorrow.