OFFICIAL
THE HON MATT KEOGH MP
Minister for VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL
MEDIA RELEASE
9 February 2026
IMPROVING VETERAN WELLBEING OUTCOMES
The Albanese Government is prioritising the health and wellbeing of our veteran community, with a commitment to providing more effective and efficient support to veterans and families of veterans.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has traditionally focused on providing medical treatment and compensation to veterans. Consistent with the findings of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, DVA will now have a greater focus on early intervention and prevention, working closely with the Department of Defence to identify risks earlier and act sooner. This includes using insights from claims decision‑making to support Defence’s proactive approaches, and making it easier for veterans to access treatment and rehabilitation as early as possible to improve wellbeing outcomes.
The Albanese Government is investing $739.2 million to improve the provision of the treatment and rehabilitation for veterans to reduce the impact of injury on them and improve their lifetime wellbeing.
Modern clinical evidence shows that early access to the right care helps to:
- improve daily functioning
- prevent conditions from worsening
- reduce long term impairment
- support mental health, and
- strengthen long term wellbeing and quality of life.
This reform is part of the Albanese Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, recognising that fostering wellbeing is one important protective factor against suicide.
As part of this work, DVA is also working more closely with Defence on strengthening preventative approaches to reduce injuries in service, and once a medical condition is accepted as service-related, veterans can access modern, evidence based care.
We’re funding effective and innovative treatments for veterans, prescribed by registered medical practitioners. This includes options such as medicinal cannabis, for which we are releasing a new framework, as well as world‑leading treatments like MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment‑resistant depression, with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure safety and clinical oversight.
But in providing those supports for veterans, we’re also improving support for medical practitioners.
DVA has updated fee guidance for assessments, ensuring payments for reports are more consistent with other equivalent jurisdictions and better reflect actual costs to practitioners.
Alongside the release of the updated fee guidance for assessments, active monitoring of invoices has increased. These updates are part of DVA’s work to safeguard the integrity of the veteran support system to make it easier for veterans and families to access fair, transparent, and accountable care and compensation that supports their wellbeing.
While many thousands of health care providers across Australia provide critical services to support the health and wellbeing of the veteran community and the vast majority of providers act ethically to support veterans, regrettably some do not.
The Government’s significant investment in DVA since 2022 has meant claims decisions and funds are flowing more efficiently than they were under the previous Government. Bad actors are seeking to take advantage of improved Government service delivery and we are scaling up DVA’s integrity and compliance efforts to match.
The Government is investing more than $203 million to strengthen program integrity and veterans’ advocacy with the introduction of reforms to boost integrity and compliance efforts to combat fraud by providers and expand the support of professionalised free advocacy services for veterans and families of veterans.
Consultation is now underway on strengthening protections for veterans engaging with the advocacy system to ensure they’re not exploited.
We will stop medical practitioners and unscrupulous veteran advocates taking advantage of veterans and those lodging fraudulent medical reports or claims for treatment provided.
We won’t hesitate to refer those who take advantage of veterans to the appropriate authorities, ensuring they are held accountable for making it harder for veterans to access the support they need, when they need it.
The Albanese Government is committed to ensuring Defence personnel, veterans and families receive the care, services and supports they not only need, but they deserve.
MEDIA CONTACT: DVA Media Team: [email protected]
MEDIA NOTE: To view the Consultation paper on veteran advocacy regulation: Strengthening protections for veterans visit Consultation paper — Veteran advocacy regulation: Strengthening protections for veterans | Department of Veterans' Affairs