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Opinion: This week, the federal government handed down a budget that failed to commit any funding to supporting Australian veteran families.
As the government touted a record $53 billion commitment to Defence over the next decade, the families who provide the bedrock of our national security have once again been left in the shadows.
For a community that hasn’t seen a substantive policy update since 1986, this budget was a confirmation that we aren’t seen as a priority.
Funding bureaucracy over community
The core of the issue lies in where the money is going. Yes, $173.7 million was allocated to the veteran portfolio.
But this funding is designated for the machinery of government, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs departmental bureaucracy, rather than grassroots, community-led organisations.
This is a dangerous misallocation of resources. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide explicitly identified that the current government-centric service model is a material contributing factor to veteran suicide.
By doubling down on the most inefficient part of the ecosystem, the government is ignoring the very entities proven to enhance family wellbeing and prevent crisis: the community organisations dedicated to supporting them.
Furthermore, putting more money into the public sector while neglecting agile community services is directly at odds with the budget’s stated goal of increasing national productivity.
We are seeing millions of dollars allocated to disparate causes, yet as war rages in the Middle East, the families of those who serve our nation are being told to keep waiting.
Empty chair at the cabinet table
The lack of prioritisation for not just families but their veterans too is perhaps most visible in the structure of the government itself. Currently, the minister for veterans’ affairs does not have a seat at the cabinet table. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised that veteran families were barely mentioned in this budget.
Without a representative in the room where the highest-level fiscal decisions are made, our community continues to be treated as an afterthought, an extension of the veteran rather than a critical component of national security.
The message we continuously promote, that was acknowledged by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, is that supporting families is a direct investment in Defence capability.
You cannot build a high-tech, future-ready force on the backs of families who are quietly breaking under the strain of service life.
Cost Of stalling
The government may argue that veteran and veteran family community groups will receive support through the establishment of the new Veteran Wellbeing Agency.
While we welcome future-state planning, the reality is that this agency will not be ready to allocate funding for at least 12 to 18 months.
And we do not have the luxury of time. Our families are facing crises today. We are treading water, servicing the community while the government stalls.
Our modest request for $5.17 million, funding that would have provided trauma-informed crisis support, career development for partners, and maintained our vital War Widows Program, was ignored.
This is a drop in the ocean of a multi-billion Defence budget, yet its absence will be felt in every veteran household across the country.
Consequences Of inaction
The Families of Veterans Guild will never stop advocating for our community, but we must be clear about what this funding gap means:
- Increased isolation: without expanded peer support, vulnerable war widows nationwide will face profound loneliness.
- Economic strain: veteran partners, who are already three times more likely to be underemployed, will continue to lose their professional identities without career reclamation support.
- Widening mental health gaps: Without specialist intervention for families, the cycles of trauma and grief will only deepen, placing further pressure on an already broken system.
Final thoughts
You cannot ask families to sacrifice their stability, their careers and their mental health for national security and then offer them nothing in return.
We are asking for an investment in the people who make service possible. Until the minister is at the cabinet table and funding is shifted from bureaucracy to the front lines, the “record investment” into Defence will remain a hollow promise to those who serve.
Renee Wilson is the chief executive officer of the Families of Veterans Guild.
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