Advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support
Submission Date: 8 October 2025
The Law Council of Australia welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee’s inquiry into issues relating to advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support (the Inquiry).
We note the Inquiry’s terms of reference refer to the representation of and advice provided to veterans and families seeking access to compensation and support from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (the Department). This submission will comment on:
- the appropriateness of commercial entities, within and outside Australia, providing advocacy services, including the charging of fees or commissions on statutory entitlement payments; and
- representation of veterans at the Veterans’ Review Board (VRB), including by legal practitioners.
The Inquiry follows consultations by the Department in 2024 on the proposal to establish the Institute of Veterans’ Advocates. In a submission dated 23 October 2024, the Law Council provided support for this initiative while noting the importance of ensuring that legal practitioners are not required to become members of the proposed Institute to provide advocacy services to veterans.1 That position reflects the highly regulated nature of the legal profession, and the desire to avoid dual regulation. For more information, see the Law Council’s Lawyer Regulation in Australia (2024) paper at Appendix A.
In response to the terms of reference, the Law Council notes the following:
- we continue to recommend removing the prohibition on legal practitioners and persons holding a legal qualification representing veterans at hearings before the VRB; and
- whilst we appreciate the important role of both voluntary and remunerated veterans advocacy services, we are concerned about the potential for paid advocates to be providing non-qualified legal advice and for vulnerable veterans to be misled about the advocacy services available to them.
Last Updated on 10/10/2025
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