Thread by @Dudebank

A thread on how LNP skullduggery impacts the #veteran space. This scenario specifically impacts injured veterans, medically discharged with serious physical & mental injuries & is related to the invalidity benefit they receive once deemed unable to continue serving. 1/a number..

About 7-8 years ago veterans discovered that the @ATO & @CommSuperCorp had been "withholding" amounts and "taxing" injured veteran invalidity benefits incorrectly. The worst cases were being overtaxed such that fortnightly in the hand was $250-$350 less than it should be...

A small core group of veterans read/researched through over one thousand pages of linked pieces of legislation before deciding they were correct. They then began campaigning. They discovered they could request individual determinations from the ATO - they did...2/may..

3/many...During Dan Tehan's tenure as MinVetAffairs the ATO handed down those individual determinations in favour of the veterans. So problem solved right? No - Tehan worked with Dep of Finance & ATO to eventually announce that veterans had accessed a "loophole" - he closed it.

4/not many more...#veterans don't lie down easily. Realising they were correct they began to communicate with MPs & Senators and veteran ESO...and also legal firms. They made their case to Senate Hearings & exhausted due process & the parliamentary system...so they went legal..

5/nearly there...the veteran's case being so strong the gov/ATO sent a team of 10 QC & solicitors to defeat the veterans. Long story short - that didn't work. BUT - not shy of pushing injured veterans into the mud more, the Gov appealed the court decision. The Gov lost...

6/just about finished...after approx 6 months of doing nothing (that is being in breach of the court order - the LAW) the CSC & ATO started paying injured veterans correctly BUT very, very slowly in in bits and pieces...THEN SUDDENLY - they stopped doing so...

7/the reveal...just as the Royal Commission into Veteran suicide commenced a media release by (the no way dodgy) Sukkarr MP announced that retrospective legislation would reverse the court decision AND *save* all those negatively impacted veterans of the court case...

8/8 The proposed legislation is unnecessary, catastrophically negative to injured veterans on invalidity benefits, is being tabled Wed & must be opposed.
Contact @mybroaintheavy or ME for more detail
@JacquiLambie @P_Thompson88 @ShayneNeumannMP @WilkieMP @AndrewBGreene

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The idea that there were any negatively impacted #veterans is made up and caused by @CommSuperCorp and @ato_gov_au. If they’d worked together the CSC wouldn’t have broken the law for 6-8 months & the CSC should have changed withholding amounts for all impacted...

Because they did not, fortnightly payments were less than they should have been (again) BUT at EOFY veterans would have got all of it back in tax returns. If withholding amounts had been addressed by @CommSuperCorp, f/n payments would have been as they should be.