Federal MP for Herbert Phillip Thompson has denies claims from Community and Public Sector Union
Federal MP for Herbert Phillip Thompson has denied claims that a Coalition government would cut jobs at the Department of Veteran Affairs, saying it is an ‘extremely personal’ issue to him.
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Federal MP for Herbert Phillip Thompson has denied union claims that a Coalition government would cut jobs at the Department of Veteran Affairs, saying it an ‘extremely personal’ issue to him.
Therom the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) released a statement this week that the Opposition had plans to cut 41,000 jobs including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and the Department of Education if they were successful at the federal election, something Mr Thompson denied.
“Under a Dutton-led Coalition government, no frontline public service employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs will lose their jobs,” he said.
“Those frontline workers are processing claims and ensuring that our bravest are getting the support they need.”
The CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said under the last Coalition Government, jobs in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs were cut and outsourced, leaving veterans lost in a backlog of almost 42,000 claims.
“Veterans were left waiting years for support they desperately needed and it had devastating consequences,” she said.
With the electorate of Herbert having the highest number of veterans accessing support from the Department of Veteran Affairs, Mr Thompson said it was true the DVA needed “government oversight.”
“We need the frontline workers to continue doing their jobs,” he said.
“But when it comes to the people in Canberra, the people in the back room, the people that don't get out into the regions, the people that couldn’t spell the word veteran; we’re looking at what you’re doing.”
“We want productivity. We want things moving in the right direction and we don’t want to be burying any more of our bravest”
A veteran himself, Mr Thompson said he has “carried the coffins of friends who have succumbed to their war within and died by suicide”.
“ I’ve attended more funerals than I ever thought I would at the age of thirty-six,” he said.
“This is extremely personal to me – I have stood up in parliament and spoken about this and I’ve shed tears for those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in war and also back here on home soil.”
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Originally published as Federal MP for Herbert Phillip Thompson has denies claims from Community and Public Sector Union
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