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National | Veterans

Brett Te Wheoro: Outreach programme supports veterans

The Ministry of Veterans Affairs has an outreach programme to ensure military veterans, Defence Force staff and their whānau receive the support they need.

Online sessions have become a regular format and one of the online hosts, Brett Te Wheoro, is a project adviser within the ministry.

Te Wheoro, a veteran himself, now serves as an advocate for welfare and support of both past and present military personnel.

“My role is to enact and engage with our New Zealand veterans, help them understand whether they’re eligible and, if they are, encourage them to get in contact with us."

The goal of the outreach programme, Te Wheoro says, is to ensure all veterans get the support and entitlements they deserve.

“Our aim is to provide a friendly and supportive way for veterans to learn about support options. This might be a mixture of face-to-face and online things.”

Having hosted a previous online session for New Zealand veterans living across the ditch, with Australia “being the main country overseas where veterans are living,” Te Wheoro says they would like to see a veterans’ pension as well as eligibility for Australian White and Gold Cards, the country’s veterans’ support scheme.

“We had a great guy from the Department of Veteran Affairs in Australia who clarified the services and support that they provide but we also had a team from the Ministry of Social Development here explain about the veterans' pension and entitlements and, if they move back to New Zealand, how they get that.

“We usually have a few veteran advocates in Australia too, living on the West and East side, and they were great for veterans living there to make contact with them if they were unsure of their support.”

Veterans who are keen to find out more can follow the Veterans' Affairs New Zealand Facebook page or go to the website.