Bailey and Repatriation Commission (Veterans' entitlements)

This matter concerned an appeal by the Applicant against a decision of the Repatriation Commission affirming a decision of the Veterans Review Board. The Applicant, a former member of the Royal Australian Navy, sought to establish that his condition of cirrhosis of the liver was war-caused, entitling him to certain veterans' entitlements. The dispute centred on whether the Applicant's excessive alcohol consumption, which led to his condition, was a consequence of his service, particularly during periods of operational service in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine whether the Applicant had discharged the onus of proving, on the balance of probabilities, that his cirrhosis of the liver was war-caused, applying the principles established in *Deledio*. This required the Tribunal to assess whether the factual basis of the Applicant's hypothesis – that his increased and continued heavy drinking post-service was a result of stress and anxiety experienced during operational service – had been disproved beyond reasonable doubt by the Respondent.

The Tribunal found that while the Applicant provided evidence of stressors during his operational service, this evidence did not establish that these stressors led to increased or continued heavy drinking post-service that caused his cirrhosis. Instead, the Applicant's own admissions indicated a consistent pattern of excessive drinking that commenced from his posting to HMAS Anzac in 1961, before he undertook any operational service. This pattern of problem drinking, described as binge drinking and heavy drinking, continued unabated until his diagnosis in 2015. The Tribunal concluded, based on the Applicant's evidence of consuming a significant quantity of alcohol daily from a young age, that the factual foundation of his hypothesis was disproved beyond reasonable doubt.

Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the Applicant's condition of cirrhosis of the liver was not war-caused. The decision of the Veterans Review Board was affirmed.