Minister for Veterans' Affairs | |
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Department of Veterans' Affairs | |
Style | The Honourable |
Appointer | Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Australia |
Inaugural holder | Edward Millen |
Formation | 28 September 1917 |
The Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs is The Hon. Dan Tehan MP, since 18 February 2016. Tehan also serves as the Minister for Defence Materiel and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC following a rearrangement in the First Turnbull Ministry.
In the Government of Australia, the minister oversees income support, compensation, care and commemoration programs for more than 400,000 veterans and their widows, widowers and dependants; and administers the portfolio through the Department of Veterans' Affairs.
The minister is also responsible for the following agencies:
The portfolio was created by Billy Hughes. It was called Minister for Repatriation from the appointment of the first Minister, Edward Millen on 28 September 1917 to deal with ex-soldiers returning from World War I. Stanley Bruce chose not to include a Minister for Repatriation in his ministry (1923–29), but his successor James Scullin restored it, and it has continued ever since, under different names. Gough Whitlam changed the portfolio title to Minister for Repatriation and Compensation in 1974; Malcolm Fraser restored it to its original title in 1975, and then changed it to Minister for Veterans' Affairs on 5 October 1976, Peter Durack being the last minister under the old title and the first under the new.