Grab a brew and settle in - because understanding

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I am a Veteran Advocate forged through lived experience: hard, unfiltered and earned the long way.

My journey began in October 1999, when a life-changing injury during a training exercise set the trajectory for what became the roller coaster of my life. My very first DVA claim was approved in under 24 hours and I naively believed that was how the system worked. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

What followed was sixteen years of battling Government bureaucracy—stonewalling, shifting goalposts and at times what felt like outright denial of my service. At one point I was told by DVA that I was “entitled to nothing.” With no other choice, I taught myself the law, stood alone and self-represented in the Federal Court, relying on the rarely used ADJR Act.

This fight brought me before Justice Anthony Besanko—the same judge who would later preside over the Ben Roberts-Smith VC matter. He saw through the inconsistencies being put forward. My mode of discharge was overturned and I was finally entitled to a Class A pension. 

I was convicted in 2016 in the District Court of South Australia for dealing with a document in a way I should not have, this related to my previous work as a mechanic—an action I maintain occurred without any intent to cause harm. While I disagree with aspects of the judgment, I accepted the outcome and served my time on a good behaviour bond.

By this stage, I had undergone seven knee operations and could no longer serve in my trade as a mechanic. But the battle was far from over, I attempted to end my life after months of abuse from DVA Adelaide Staff over issues surrounding incapacity payments and post operative care.

What followed was a long process of lodging the many related claims that had been ignored or dismissed, I was ghosted and stonewalled. Once again, I found myself up against the legal machinery of DVA—a system with effectively unlimited resources to challenge individual veterans.

For more than a decade, I’ve stood before tribunals, state courts and federal courts over a dozen times for my own matters alone, overturning the majority of the decisions made against me. Throughout this journey, I faced what I experienced as repeated administrative failures, lost documents, inconsistent communication and processes that leaves veterans feeling unheard and unsupported.

Since I began advocacy in  Mid-2017, I have worked with four sitting Senators and contributed evidence and testimony to Senate inquiries and Productivity Commission reviews, I also had the opportunity to sit with the then Secretary Liz Cosson in Canberra and discuss my clients issues and with positive outcomes ensured. 

Through these avenues, I have raised my concerns about how advocacy can be met with resistance, including my belief that, at times, SYSTEMS and AUTHORITIES can be weaponised and used in ways that can discourage and or silence those who speak out.

These experiences—the injury, the struggle, the legal battles, and the ongoing bureaucratic challenges—have shaped me into the advocate I am today. 

I stand for veterans because I know what it feels like to be DISMISSED, DISBELIEVED and forced to fight for the support we deserve earned in uniform.

I don’t speak from theory. I speak from survival.

My advocacy is grounded in lived experience, legal understanding and an unwavering commitment to ensuring no veteran ever has to face what I did—alone or against the very system meant to support them.

I am not here to play politics.
I am not polished or refined.
I am here to fight—for truth, fairness and dignity for all Aussie veterans.

And I will not back down.

John Simmons