Handley and Repatriation Commission (Veterans' entitlements)

This matter concerned an appeal by Barbara Handley against a decision of the Repatriation Commission that her deceased husband's death was not war-caused. The veteran had accepted war-caused conditions of post-traumatic stress disorder and sensorineural hearing loss. The applicant sought a war widow's pension, arguing that these conditions contributed to her husband's death, which occurred when he was struck by a motor vehicle. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine whether the veteran's death was war-caused.

The central legal issue was whether the veteran's accepted war-caused conditions, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder and sensorineural hearing loss, caused him to suffer information-processing deficits and neurocognitive impairment, leading him to fail to adequately perceive or respond to the motor vehicle that fatally struck him. This required the Tribunal to consider the application of section 120 of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 (Cth), which governs the determination of war-caused deaths. The Tribunal had to assess whether the material before it raised a reasonable hypothesis connecting the death with the circumstances of the veteran's service, as established by High Court precedent in cases such as *Bushell v Repatriation Commission*.

The Tribunal found that the evidence, including statements from the applicant and friends of the veteran, suggested that in the period leading up to his death, the veteran had become vague, disoriented, confused, and prone to periods of detachment. These observations, coupled with the veteran's accepted war-caused conditions, supported the hypothesis that his cognitive and processing abilities were impaired. Applying the principles from *Byrnes v Repatriation Commission*, the Tribunal determined that the material before it raised a reasonable hypothesis connecting the veteran's death to his war-caused conditions. As the Commission had not satisfied the Tribunal beyond reasonable doubt that there was no sufficient ground for this determination, the Tribunal set aside the previous decision.

The Tribunal set aside the decision under review and substituted a new decision finding that the death of the veteran was war-caused. Consequently, the applicant, Barbara Handley, was found to be entitled to a widow's pension with effect from 17 February 2015.