There is a renewed push for Canberra to have its own veteran wellbeing centre, but the Commonwealth has stopped short of confirming whether there are plans for a centre in the territory.
The federal government has funded eight centres across Australia, which provide health and wellbeing support to veterans and also connect veterans to support services for transition, employment, health and social connection. The centres are run in partnership with ex-service organisations.
ACT Veterans Minister Emma Davidson said the territory would benefit from a centre, which would provide support for veterans and those transitioning out of services.
"We've got about 26,000 veterans in Canberra and we've actually got, per capita for our population, we've got the highest proportion of all DVA clients of all the capital cities in Australia," Ms Davidson said.
"The ACT is got a really diverse veterans population as well so we've got a whole lot of people who are serving members and some of them while they're here are starting to plan their transition out of service.
"Having a veterans wellbeing centre here, it services more than just the ACT population, it's the whole of surrounding NSW as well which is huge."
Ms Davidson said a centre in Canberra would provide unique support due to the fact there were many service personnel living in the territory who were planning to leave and the centre could provide specialised support for this cohort.
"[There are] all these currently serving members who are in Canberra who are thinking about their transition and what we want to do is provide a place for them where they can go and get connected with ex service organisations," Ms Davidson said.
The federal government has already committed funding for centres in Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Wodonga, Nowra, south-east Queensland and Tasmania.
Ms Davidson said the federal government were willing to engage in discussions about the centre in Canberra.
The ACT government undertook a feasibility study with the federal government in 2020. The study has been completed but has not been publicly released.
"We both really want our veterans to be supported to be an active part of our community and to have good wellbeing," Ms Davidson said.
"Us being able to work together to deliver this would be really good for our veterans community in Canberra and really good for our city as a whole."
A Department of Veterans' Affairs spokeswoman said work was underway with the ACT government on how support could be improved for the veterans' community in the territory.
But the spokeswoman did not say whether the study would be released of if the findings supported a centre for Canberra, only that further work was being undertaken.
"The key to establishing each veteran wellbeing centre is listening to the local community to design a support system that works for them, in the best location," the spokeswoman said.
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"The ACT feasibility study was conducted during the first round of COVID-19 restrictions and engaged a select sample of the ACT veteran community.
"DVA is working collaboratively with the ACT government regarding this report and how it can help improve support and services to the ACT veteran community."
Solider On Australia has been running a temporary support centre in Canberra in recent years but the organisation's chief executive Ivan Slavich said it was important to get funding make it permanent.
"We're calling on both the current government and the opposition that we need $5 million allocated to Canberra for a wellbeing centre," Mr Slavich said.
"It takes time to plan these things, it will literally take a few years to make this happen unless we can find an existing location and there isn't a lot of existing community centres in Canberra that we can just move into."
