Thompson and Repatriation Commission (Veterans' entitlements)

The applicant sought a review of a decision concerning a claim for a war widow's pension following the death of her veteran husband. The dispute centred on whether the veteran's death from hypertension and ischaemic heart disease could be hypothetically linked to his war service, as required for the pension. The matter was heard by Deputy President J Sosso.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were to determine the preliminary, or antecedent, inquiries required before applying the established methodology for assessing claims under sections 120 and 120A of the relevant Act. Specifically, the Tribunal needed to ascertain if the applicant was the dependant of a deceased veteran, if the veteran had died, and crucially, the "kind of death" suffered by the veteran. This last point required an examination of whether any applicable Statements of Principles (SoPs) upheld a hypothesis connecting the veteran's death to his service.

The Deputy President applied the principles outlined in *Collins v Repatriation Commission*, which mandates antecedent inquiries before proceeding with the *Deledio* methodology. It was not contested that the applicant was the widow of a veteran who had served on HMAS Sydney, nor that the veteran had died on 28 March 2015. The death certificate listed myocardial infarction, ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and obesity as causes of death. However, the Tribunal found that the available Statements of Principles did not uphold a hypothesis that the veteran's death was related to his service. As the applicant failed at this third step of the preliminary inquiries, the Tribunal did not need to consider the subsequent steps of the *Deledio* methodology.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision under review.