Williams Andrew: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16080. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): In this Parliament today as veterans’ affairs spokesperson for New Zealand First I tabled the following letter from Viet Nam veteran and medic John “Doc” Mountain and I would like to now read this letter to the House: “The Honourable Speaker and Members of Parliament. In October 2013 party representatives stood in this House and lavished praise upon New Zealand veterans who trained to serve in the armed forces. These men and women—ordinary NewZealanders—were prepared to do the extraordinary in the service of their nation. They were proud to be deployed without hesitation into harm’s way. In October 2013 MPs promised unqualified support to war veterans. However I and many other military personnel both current and veterans express our bitter disappointment at the ongoing failure of MPs to honour this promise.Unsatisfactory outcomes include theNepata brothers’ claim for further compensation being declined and the recent unfavourable decision and despicable treatment of Jason Pore an SAS trooper disabled in combat whilst serving our nation. Jason Pore received his injuries in combat but was cast aside like unwanted flotsam without the compensation he was so deservedly entitled to. We believe that distressing outcomes such as these imply that the Ministers and members are not in possession of the full facts and are not receiving the comprehensive advice needed to provide the support veterans have been promised.The military is the only occupation where one loses basic human rights accorded to normal citizens thereby effectively nullifying any means of redress. Military personnel are required to sacrifice their lives in the execution of their military duties on the orders of an immediate superior. Surely such a profound commitment requires an equally profound response. Men and women in the armed forces must be able to have faith that no matter what happens they and their families will be looked after. We ask the House to consider the ongoing miscarriage of justice regarding declining war disablement pensions based on incomplete military medical records linking the claimed condition to the claimants’ service. This claim rejection practice continues to be applied by Veterans Affairs New Zealand (VANZ) in spite of the Crown’s formal acknowledgment that medical records were poorly maintained and that Defence let veterans down.During Tribute 08 a welcome home parade for Viet Nam veterans in a public apology by the Crown to Viet Nam veterans the then Chief of Defence and now Governor-General Sir JerryMateparae made a public apology to assembled veterans and Government visitors. He said: ‘I acknowledge here your concern about the maintenance of your personal and medical records. I believe your expectations around the integrity and completeness of your files were both fair and reasonable. NZDF let you down.’ He then went on to say: ‘You should not be concerned that this situation will affect you as you are protected by the War Pensions Act which provides that any benefit of doubt will be upheld in your favour.’ In such cases any benefits of doubt of a linkage to service are to be upheld in the veteran’s favour as provided under sections 17 to 18 of the War Pensions Act 1954.” In conclusion John Mountain said: “We implore members of this House to honour this promise and revisit these inequitable situations. We respectfully request that any such claims be reviewed and that those declined on the basis of missing medical records be accepted.”Attached to that letter was an Official Information Act response from Veterans Affairs New Zealand that showed that in the period 2010 to 2013 some 7412 claims were accepted but 6953 were declined—almost 50 percent were declined. Of those a significant percentage was declined on the basis of the medical records being inadequate missing or incomplete. Those veterans deserve better. We have challenged the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs to take this up to look into this properly and to find out why many of these veterans’ claims are being declined and why so many of them are not receiving their due entitlements in terms of additional disablement payments. New Zealand First will be following this through with the Minister and with the ministry because we do believe that there are many thousands of veterans out there who have been hard-done-by through this whole process. It is time that this Parliament honoured its promise as it has in the past and honoured the commitments that Sir JerryMateparae made in Tribute 08.