The Australian veterans’ affairs minister, Andrew Gee, was on the cusp of offering his resignation from cabinet following a major stoush over department funding days out from the federal budget.
In a major attack on the federal government, Gee called a press conference on Saturday morning to announce he would quit the frontbench after being refused $96m in funding before the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, finally intervened.
Speaking in Orange, a visibly emotional Gee said he had asked senior members of the government for the $96m to clear a huge backlog of 60,000 unprocessed veterans’ compensation claims within his department.
He said he was told he would only get about a quarter of that money in Tuesday’s federal budget.
Gee said he spoke to Joyce on Saturday morning and told him media was waiting outside his office and an announcement of his resignation was imminent.
“I told him … as a courtesy, I was letting him know as my leader that I was going to resign from cabinet,” he said. “That followed quite a bit of activity, and the end result is that the $96m to help process and clear this backlog ... is now going to be forthcoming.”
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, commended Gee for lobbying hard for his department but said he had “only recently come into this portfolio through the budget process” and did not properly understand how requests for funding were made.
“I appreciate and acknowledge and commend him for his enthusiasm to the task he’s understanding, as this government always has, the very pressing needs on veterans and the program of works that we are we are supporting both in this budget and subsequent announcements,” he said.
“It’s one thing to make an investment, but you’ve got to have the confidence that the investments that you’re making can then be implemented effectively.
“That’s the work that the minister will need to be doing to ensure that the investments we’re making can be backed up by the delivery of those investments, and I look forward to him to acquitting himself to those tasks.”
Morrison defended the Coalition’s record of funding the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, saying it “received 440 additional staff to bolster capability in the year ahead to improve their operations and the processing of claims”.
He did not confirm whether Joyce had briefed him that the minister would resign if he was not given the requested budget allocation for his department. But he said a budget submission from Gee “had come through” and the minister was “new in cabinet” and still understanding its processes.
“I’m not going to go into the details of our budget process. Submissions are made in the course of the budget. The budget was locked, it is locked,” he said.
“There was always the decision for further funding to be provided under this proposal, which it indeed will, and that was the indication that was provided during the budget process.
“Mr Gee is new in cabinet and is coming to understand those processes, and I appreciate that he does, and we look forward to getting on with those programs … he’s understanding the very pressing needs on veterans.”
Gee was elected to federal government in 2016 and became minister for veterans’ affairs in mid-2021. He currently holds the Nationals electorate of Calare on a margin of 13.3%.
Gee told the ABC it may not have been “the best career move” as a minister but he was pleased a “pretty dramatic morning” had secured the $96m in funding for veterans and their families.
“I feel glad that I’ve got a result for the veterans and their families ... It’s about making life better for them and, as I said, this claims backlog is a national disgrace,” he said.
“I couldn’t look them in the eye and do it and just pretend that I was OK with it and just go along for the ride and, what, line up at the parliamentary buffet?”
