Veteran advocacy regulation: Strengthening protections for veterans

Submission Date: 22 May 2026

The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) in response to the Consultation Paper Veteran advocacy regulation: Strengthening protections for veterans (Consultation Paper).

The Law Council is grateful for the input of the Law Society of South Australia and the Military Law Committee of the Law Council’s Federal Dispute Resolution Section in responding to the Consultation Paper.

The Consultation Paper seeks views on options to address concerning practices in the commercial veterans’ advocacy sector. The purpose of these reforms would be to:

• restrict exploitative fee practices by commercial veteran advocacy providers;
• ban overseas hosting of veteran information by advocates;
• protect veterans from misleading and deceptive conduct, advertising and behaviour; and
• ensure advocates charging fees are properly trained, insured and conduct themselves ethically.

The impetus for the current consultation is the Australian Government’s acceptance¹ of key recommendations in the November 2025 Senate Standing Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee (Senate Committee) Inquiry Report on Issues relating to advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support (Inquiry Report).² The agreed recommendations that are the focus of the present consultations are:

Recommendation 1. That DVA explore potential legislative action to curb harmful and deceptive business practices in the commercial veterans’ advocacy sector, including but not limited to the imposition of fee caps.
Recommendation 4. That DVA investigate solutions to address the specific national security and personal privacy risks posed by offshore commercial advocacy providers and offshore data handling.
Recommendation 7. That DVA work closely with the Institute of Veterans’ Advocacy (IVA) as it becomes operational to ensure that it provides effective professional oversight and regulation of the veterans’ advocacy sector.³

This submission responds to the background discussion and the questions in the Consultation Paper, and draws upon some broader matters raised in the Inquiry Report and by the Law Council in its 8 October 2025 submission to the Senate Committee.⁴

^{1 Australian Government, Australian Government Response to the Senate Standing Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee Inquiry Report into Issues Relating to advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support (11 December 2025).
2 Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, Parliament of Australia, Issues relating to advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support (Inquiry Report, November 2025) (Senate Committee Inquiry Report).
3 The Law Council notes that the Institute of Veterans’ Advocacy has now been established and began accepting applications for membership from in February 2026: Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Institute of Veterans’ Advocacy, now accepting membership applications (News, 23 February 2026).
4 Law Council of Australia, Submission to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, Parliament of Australia, Advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support Advocacy services for veterans accessing compensation and income support (8  October 2025).}

Last Updated on 26/05/2026

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