The NZ Veterans Advocate
The Tā Harawira Gardiner (2022-2025) claim and appeal against a Veterans Affairs decision was successful in the High Court (twice) and Veterans Entitlements Appeal Board (twice).. It has opened the way for more claims to be accepted by VA. Another more recent appeal has been successful based on the Gardiner rulings and precedent. That appeal also opened the way for US precedent to be considered. A few other claims, also based on Gardiner, have recently been accepted by VA.
Details of the claims and appeals will be published in future newsletters.
The late Sir Wira Gardiner’s claim is his Koha to Veterans, his legacy, and is now potentially available to all eligible claimants of all generations. But while the Koha has opened the door a bit wider, more needs to be done.
THE NZ VETERANS ADVOCATE
The NZ Veterans Advocate is a group set up to lobby and advocate for further improvements to veterans’ support. If you are concerned to improve the lot of veterans, you might consider joining the cause.
At the moment it is a Facebook Group with over 400 members and growing.
We have also created a YouTube channel. Just getting started.
And because numbers count when you want the Parliament to act, we’re building a membership base, and hopefully a mass lobby, through the Facebook group, and through a newsletter email list. We don’t intend to flood the zone with emails – mostly one a month, and occasionally one or two more. And they won’t be too long!! Note that if you opt in and subscribe, you can always unsubscribe later.
RSAs and individuals can subscribe here
THE CAUSE
In March 2018, as required by the Act, Professor Ron Paterson delivered his “Warrant of Fitness: An Independent Review of the Veterans Support Act 2014” to the House of Representatives. In 2020 several of his recommendations were implemented by the House in amendments to the Act. He made a final important recommendation that is now overdue:
“A further review of the Act, and its operation, takes place within five years of this report, or if statutory amendments are made in response to this report, the first review takes place within five years of the date when the changes come into effect. “
The group’s first activity therefore is to lobby and convince the House of Representatives to commission another completely independent and in-depth consultation and review of the VSA 2014, so that veterans and their families can be heard, and their concerns addressed.
Towards that aim we are planning to meet and lobby ministers and local MPs, and we’re urging our members to lobby their MPs to promote the need for another review.
Later, if that doesn’t work, there may be a petition to the House of Representatives.
THE ISSUES
These are just a few of the concerns veterans have expressed and need to be investigated.
- The problem of long wait times for claims to be processed by VA needs to be top of the list.
- The last three years of consultation and research have revealed that there are inequities in the Veteran Support Act 2014 that need to be eliminated. Specifically, veterans with qualifying service after 1 April 1974 (Scheme 2) are served less generously than those before April 1974 (Scheme 1). Scheme 2 veterans need to be treated at least as generously as Scheme 1.
- And unlike the Americans and Australians, not all who serve in NZDF are eligible for veterans’ benefits. Veterans after April 1974 who do not have qualifying operational service have to go to ACC.
If you are concerned to improve the lot of veterans, you might consider joining with us.
Disclosure & Declaration of Interest:
I was the lead advocate in the four-year long Gardiner claim and appeal through the Veterans Entitlements Appeal Board and High Court, and I have now started The NZ Veterans Advocate. I am motivated to ensure that my oldest and closest friend’s Koha to Veterans endures, that the momentum continues, and that more advances are made in the veterans’ cause.
Ross Himona
Advocate
