Australia Proud Of Repatriation System

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31880, 7 January 1969, Page 12

Australia Proud Of Repatriation System

Australia considered it had the equal of the best repatriation system in the world for its servicemen, the Australian Minister in Charge of Repatriation (Senator G. C. McKellar) said in Christchurch yesterday.

Last year the Australian -Government spent $2OO mil- < pion in pensions for former i servicemen, including 110,000 t veterans of the First World 1 War, he said. ; Australia thus spent as i much on the same number of i men as the United Kingdom. 1

Senator McKellar said re ; cent legislation increasing war pensions, the introduction of the system of the benefit of the doubt and the absence of any means test made the Australian repatri-! ation scheme highly satisfac-! tory to former servicemen. 1 The system of the benefit of the doubt meant that an l ex-serviceman did not have to i prove the incapacity was the! result of war injuries. A totally and permanently! incapacitated serviceman now 1 received 533 a week, was en-l titled to additional benefits for the education of his children and had all his medical expenses paid. Senator McKellar said there were now 10,000 young men back in civilian life after 1 completing their national serI vice. Of the 8000 Australian serI vicemen in South Vietnam 4000 were national service--men. !