Source: Radio New Zealand
Minister for Veterans Chris Penk says there is a lot of uncertainty about how many people might make a claim. NICK MONRO / RNZ
The government has not ruled out legal action, after a court ruling made defence veterans eligible for billions of dollars in further support.
The landmark High Court ruling backed a claim by the late Sir Wira Gardiner over his exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.
The government is facing an extra $1.4 billion liability, according to the latest estimate.
Minister for Veterans Chris Penk was pushed at a parliamentary scrutiny hearing on Tuesday afternoon on whether the government wanted to reduce this.
“We’ve been considering as a government if, and if so what, we should respond in some way, which hypothetically at least could include a legislative response, but we need to understand clearly what the implication of the ruling was,” Penk said.
Labour MP Greg O’Connor asked Penk if the possibility of a legislative response was due to him having conversations with the Finance Minister about reducing the liability.
Penk said that any diligent minister had to keep other ministers briefed.
“There are a number of possibilities but I don’t want to preclude any of those or prejudge particularly what may prove in the real world than the actual analysis.”
The percentage of claims accepted by Veterans Affairs has risen from 75 to 98 percent – but only 13 percent of those eligible have made any claim.
Veterans’ whānau may also be eligible.
“‘There’s an awful lot of room in scheme for veterans to make more claims,” Veterans Affairs (VA) acting chief executive Alex Brunt told the committee.
A backlog of claims – which stood at 2000 mid-year – had now dropped to about 1600 people.
Penk said there was a lot of uncertainty about how many people might make a claim.
Brunt said there were implications from the court ruling, not just for VA, but for ACC and the public health system that also delivered services to veterans.
His agency’s advice to the minister was focused on how to support veterans.
“There is an element of what are the fiscal implications of that but the fiscal implications are not driving the advice in any way,” said Brunt.
“We’re interpreting the law as it stands and we have sufficient liability to cover claims that are made.”
The questions for the government were more about what support vets needed, and who should provide those and how.
O’Connor pushed to know if VA was involved in any legal work that could reduce the liability.
“That is one scenario of many,” Brunt responded, but he added the minister had not asked for advice about how to reduce the cost of the court case, but on its implications and how best to support vets.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand