Parliament Votes to Delay $5,000 Veterans’ Healthcare Cap Amid Firm Backlash

Service medals are displayed during an ANZAC Day parade in Sydney, Australia on April 25, 2022. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

The Australian lower house has voted to delay a proposed $5,000 limit on veterans’ allied health care amid pressure from the defence community.

The cap, announced in the May 2026 budget, means the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) will stop automatically paying for treatment once a veteran’s costs exceed $5,000 in a single financial year.

From July 2027, the department will only keep paying if a doctor can show the extra treatment is clinically necessary.

Liberal Party Herbert MP Phillip Thompson, also a veteran, told Parliament the delay means the proposal will “just sit there and nothing will happen.”

During the parliamentary debate on Sept. 14, Thompson read out messages from veterans linking suicidal ideation to fears of losing treatment.

“This is a cost-saving measure that is placed on the shoulders of veterans—$748 million. That is disgraceful,” Thompson said (pdf).

He said the government was using veterans to “prop up or fix their broken budget” and pressed the minister directly.

“We should scrap the cap. If not, I hope you stand up and resign,” Thompson said.

In response, Labor Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh defended the policy, saying the threshold would apply to only about one in 10 veterans and would come alongside more funding for allied health providers.

“This is about enhancing the overall wellbeing of our veteran community,” Keogh said in Parliament.

He said the change was aimed at “removing a burden” on the veteran community and making sure that service providers were available.

“When we look at the budget and what we have delivered as a government, we inherited, when we came to government, a shocking state of affairs when it came to supporting our veteran community,” he said.

“Under our government, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs is now the best resourced it has been in three decades.”

The cap covers essential allied healthcare like physiotherapy, psychology, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, and podiatry.

The House voted 84 votes to 48 to postpone debate on the amendments until the next sitting with Labor MPs voting to delay the bill, while the opposition voted against it.

Fair Care for Veterans spokesman John Armfield said the vote confirmed the worst fears of the veteran community.

“How veterans are treated when they are injured in serving their country is nothing more than a budgetary line item for this government,” Armfield said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“Australian service men and women sign up to serve without limit or condition up to and including giving our lives. We now know that this government believes its obligation in return is capped at $5,000.”