Bruce Ruxton’s Legacy: A Force To Be Reckoned With
The Days of Ruxton are not gone
In January this year, without adequate communication or explanation, approximately 14,000 Veteran pensioners receiving DVA’s Defence Force Income Support Allowance payments awoke to find the amounts deposited into their accounts had dropped by up to $400.
While the deficiency was temporary, DVA overlooked that many veterans, some of whom are vulnerable, rely on prompt payments just to simply survive. They need them to pay bills, buy groceries, and support themselves and their families. As it is, the money we’re talking about is barely enough to cover the basics of daily life, let alone any luxuries these veterans and their families might hope to enjoy.
The anxiety this has caused has been grossly underestimated and frankly, widely ignored.
The Shock
Imagine waking up on pension day to discover, for no apparent reason, your entitlements have significantly decreased. Why has my payment been cut? Will this be permanent? How will I live? What have I done wrong?
For some of these veterans, the money failing to arrive brought fear and perceived persecution. For Terry*, a former soldier, finding his bank account $400 short exactly a week after he’d made a submission to the Royal Commission into Veteran and Defence suicide made him believe he was being punished by DVA for doing so.
He immediately despaired and felt hopeless as a fear of life without sufficient funds hit.
The Fallout
Pursuing the matter, AVN received this statement from Minister Andrew Gee, “It’s disappointing that this delay with the letters has occurred. It should not have happened. The Department has apologised for the anxiety this has caused and I want to assure our ex-servicemen and women and their families that no veteran will be worse off by this change in legislation. These reforms simplify the payment arrangements for around 14,000 veterans and their families and increase access to rent assistance for our most disabled veterans with 6,900 set to benefit. I encourage any veteran who has questions or any concerns to contact the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on 1800 838 372 where help is available.”
While “no veteran will be worse off by the change”, in the short-term concerned and bewildered veterans were left for days with a sizable hole in their finances. For many, this was not just a minor inconvenience. That DVA failed to communicate the change meant veterans weren’t properly informed and couldn’t prepare for it. That isn’t good enough.
Australian Veteran News took this issue seriously, as did a number of smaller Ex-Service Organisations and veteran oriented Facebook pages, such as “Royal Commission Into Serving / Veterans Suicides, DVA and Defence”. But there was one Ex-Service Organisation that was conspicuously silent on this: The RSL.
The Silence
The organisation that exists for the purpose of advocating and representing veterans at a state and national level said absolutely nothing. There was no public representation to Government or the DVA, and nothing was communicated to those affected by it.
It is perhaps ironic that on the day veteran pensioners found they’d been short changed, the 13th of January, RSL Australia released an update titled “RSL Australia, working for you”, detailing how it “tirelessly” works behind the scenes to “ensure great outcomes for all veterans”. The disconnect can hardly be more obvious.
The question must be asked, if the RSL does not see this issue as worth commenting on, what will it comment on? If it is not unwilling to represent veterans on issues like this, what issues will it represent them on?
Recently in a meeting, I criticised RSL Victoria for its lack of public advocacy, or ‘big A advocacy’. The response from a senior member of the Victorian State Executive was, “The days of Bruce Ruxton are gone”. He suggested that it was no longer their role to stand on the steps of parliament and publicly advocate.
Well, I vehemently disagree.
Back to the future
I firmly believe that in 2022, we need energised, dynamic and passionate leaders within the RSL who will loudly and publicly address the good and bad that confronts veterans in the 21st century.
I also know that we have many people with those qualities within the RSL at state and sub-branch level, but something is preventing them from being heard.
This urgently needs to change because veterans like Terry* deserve to be represented and supported.
The RSL is simply not doing its job if it is not prepared to publicly stand up and fearlessly promote the interests of Australian veterans and their families.
In 1919, Gilbert Dyett was the 27-year-old National President of the RSL. A former Captain who’d served at Gallipoli, he fought the Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes so skilfully that he won a raft of concessions and entitlements that made Australian veterans the envy of the world.
102 years later, the RSL isn’t even prepared to speak out about the impact of bureaucratic incompetence that affects some of its most vulnerable members.
Bruce is not gone
Bruce Ruxton was a fighter. He was hugely controversial, even in his time, but he tirelessly fought agencies, departments and governments on behalf of all veterans. You knew you could contact Bruce and get a response. And he knew his calls would be taken by Prime Ministers and Premiers. He fought hard and gave so much of himself to the RSL.
Bruce Ruxton died in 2011, leaving a legacy of dogged advocacy and service to Australian veterans and their families that remains an example of what can be achieved.
Bruce Ruxton was a fighter. He was hugely controversial, even in his time, but he was known for always being available to veterans was famous for his influence and his ability to seize the attention of Prime Ministers, Premiers, and bureaucrats alike.
Ruxton showed us how to do it, and now, if ever, is the time to rediscover our voice and make sure we are heard.
*Not his real name.
