EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Veterans' Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Amendment Instrument 2015
EMPOWERING PROVISION
Subsection 88A(2) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (the Act or the VEA).
PURPOSE
The attached instrument (2015 No.R48) varies the Veterans’ Affairs (Peacetime Service Eligibility for Non-Liability Health Care) Instrument 2014 (Instrument 2014 No. R18) (NLHC instrument).
The NLHC instrument enables the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) to pay for treatment of various mental health conditions of eligible members and former members of the Defence Force (entitled persons).
The treatment is known as “non-liability health care” because it need not be linked to any service of the entitled person.
The attached instrument varies the NLHC instrument to clarify the intention of a provision and correct a drafting error.
It is not the intention underlying the various paragraphs (e) in Part 2 of the NLHC instrument that a medical certificate/document must contain a statement that no more than 12 months has passed since the certificate/document was signed. Quite apart from the fact that such a statement would not make sense, any such situation is to be ascertained objectively. Accordingly to dispel any impression that a medical certificate/document is to contain the statement in question a semi-colon now appears after “disorder” in the relevant paragraphs as highlighted in the example below:
“(e) holds a certificate or other document signed and issued by an appropriately qualified person that states that the person suffers from an anxiety disorder [;] and not more than 12 months has passed since the date the certificate or other document was signed; and”
Paragraph (e) as it relates to “anxiety disorder” in Part 2 of the NLHC instrument contains a drafting error, namely the surplus words crossed out in the example below. The attached instrument removed these words to make it clear that under the NHLC instrument an anxiety disorder could be diagnosed by a general practitioner, a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist. In other words, under the NHLC instrument a medical practitioner is not the only person who may diagnose an anxiety disorder.
“(e) holds a certificate or other document signed and issued by an appropriately qualified person a medical practitioner that states that the person suffers from an anxiety disorder; and not more than 12 months has passed since the date the certificate or other document was signed; and”
CONSULTATION
No. The measures are minor and technical and have no negative impact. Accordingly interested parties could reasonably be expected to agree to them.
RETROSPECTIVITY
None.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED-BY-REFERENCE
No.
HUMAN RIGHTS STATEMENT
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
The attached legislative instrument engages and promotes the Right to Health contained in article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
By making it clear that under the NLHC instrument a medical practitioner is not the only person who may diagnose an anxiety disorder and that such a disorder may also be diagnosed by a clinical psychologist (a psychiatrist may also diagnose the condition) the attached instrument advances the health of a person in question in that it makes it easier for the person to be able to access treatment under Department of Veterans’ Affairs arrangements because the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder may be made not only by a medical practitioner but by a clinical psychologist as well.
Accordingly it is considered that the attached instrument is compatible with Human Rights.
Repatriation Commission
Rule-Maker