{"id":882790,"date":"2026-09-07T03:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T03:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882790\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T03:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T03:04:14","slug":"australia-news-live-government-promises-hefty-fines-for-social-media-giants-ahead-of-digital-duty-of-care-bill-veterans-to-lay-down-medals-in-escalation-of-healthcare-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882790\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia news LIVE: Government promises hefty fines for social media giants ahead of Digital Duty of Care bill; Veterans to lay down medals in escalation of healthcare fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government is \u201cdeeply engaged\u201d with the concerns of veterans, Health Minister Mark Butler has insisted, as a group of veterans <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/politics\/federal\/veterans-to-lay-down-medals-in-escalation-of-fight-with-albanese-government-over-healthcare-cuts-20260906-p60uso.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">prepare to lay down their service medals<\/a> outside Parliament House in a new escalation of their campaign against the Albanese government\u2019s changes to veterans\u2019 healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>The Coalition of Veterans\u2019 Voices is demanding the government abandon plans for a $5000 annual cap on allied health treatment, end what it describes as \u201clow-balling\u201d in the veterans\u2019 health system and establish an independent inquiry into the handling of claims by the Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Veterans John Armfield, Dr Tim Nelson, Ian Lindgren, Melanie Annand, Gordon Traill and Sean Smith will lay down their medals during a protest at Parliament House.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788750254_489_22b4bc6836e00f7098177e4a052dedd5efd90bdd.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>Veterans John Armfield, Dr Tim Nelson, Ian Lindgren, Melanie Annand, Gordon Traill and Sean Smith will lay down their medals during a protest at Parliament House.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know how important veteran services are to people who\u2019ve put on our uniform, and I know this is an issue deeply felt in the veterans\u2019 community,\u201d Butler told ABC radio this morning.<\/p>\n<p>He said the government was making several \u201csubstantial\u201d changes to healthcare access for veterans, but he understood \u201cconcern and anxiety\u201d over the $5000 annual cap on allied health treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is \u2026 a consultation process open till the end of October. The minister\u2019s been deeply engaged in that. These changes aren\u2019t scheduled to take place until mid next year, and we want to make sure that the changes operate in the best interests of veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government is \u201cdeeply engaged\u201d with the concerns of veterans, Health Minister Mark Butler has insisted, as a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-882790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}