Young and Repatriation Commission

[2007] AATA 55

Administrative

Appeals

Tribunal

 

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2007] AATA 55

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No W2005/193

VETERANS' APPEALS  DIVISION		)
Re		RONALD GIBSON YOUNG

Applicant

And REPATRIATION COMMISSION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Deputy President S D Hotop

Date9 February 2007

PlacePerth

Decision

The Tribunal sets aside the decision of the Veterans’ Review Board dated 22 February 2005 and, in substitution therefor, decides that:

·   the applicant does not suffer from post traumatic stress disorder;

· the applicant suffers from major depressive disorder, and alcohol dependence, and that each of those conditions is a war-caused disease, within the meaning of s 9 of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (Cth), with effect from 28 June 2001.

The matter is remitted to the respondent for a reassessment of the rate of the applicant’s disability pension on the basis of this decision.

..........[Sgd S D Hotop] ..........

Deputy President

CATCHWORDS

VETERANS’ AFFAIRS – veterans’ entitlements – disability pension – applicant served in Australian Army from July 1967 to July 1969 – applicant rendered operational service in Vietnam from April 1968 to April 1969 – applicant suffers from major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence – applicant does not suffer from post traumatic stress disorder – material before Tribunal raises reasonable hypothesis connecting applicant’s major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence with circumstances of his operational service – Tribunal not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that no sufficient ground for determining that applicant’s major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence war-caused – applicant’s major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence are war-caused diseases – decision under review set aside

Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (Cth), s 5D, s 9, s 120 and s 120A

Byrnes v Repatriation Commission (1993) 177 CLR 564

Repatriation Commission v Cooke (1998) 90 FCR 307

Repatriation Commission v Deledio (1998) 83 FCR 82

White v Repatriation Commission (2004) 39 AAR 67

REASONS FOR DECISION

9 February 2007	Deputy President S D Hotop
Introduction

1.      Ronald Gibson Young (“the applicant”), who was born on 14 May 1947, served in the Australian Army, pursuant to the National Service Act, from 12 July 1967 to 11 July 1969, and his Army service included service in Vietnam from 30 April 1968 to 9 April 1969 (being “operational service” for the purposes of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (Cth) (“the Act”)).

2. On 28 September 2001 he made a claim for a disability pension under Pt II of the Act in respect of the following disabilities which he claimed were war-caused:

·“hearing loss/ tinnitus”;

·“PTSD”; and

·“alcohol abuse”.

3.      On 12 February 2002 a delegate of the Repatriation Commission (“the respondent”) determined that the appropriate medical diagnoses of the applicant’s claimed disabilities were, respectively:

·bilateral sensorineural hearing loss;

·depressive disorder; and

·alcohol dependence or alcohol abuse.

The delegate went on to decide that the applicant’s bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was war-caused, but that his depressive disorder and alcohol dependence or alcohol abuse were not war-caused.

4.      On 22 February 2005 the Veterans’ Review Board (“VRB”) varied…