Effectively, we have our legislation, which covers the legal entitlements enshrined in law for determining veterans benefits. It's beneficial legislation, which means we try to interpret the considerations in the veterans' favour. The legislation outlines the range of benefits that veterans are entitled to and are enshrined in law.
The role of the commission is to then oversee the department's implementation of the legislation, and, if you like, to also adjudicate around issues of policy interpretation. Where the law needs interpretation, and needs to have policy effect and a response to contemporary issues as they arise short of legislation, the commission acts as the authority to interpret those changes. Through the departments, through the delegates of the commissions who make the decisions on individual claims, there's a range of things that come up that don't require changes in legislation but do require interpretations.
Where the interpretation goes beyond simple interpretation of policy and requires changes in legislation, we go back to government, and the government then changes the legislation.
The commission effectively sits between the law and the implementation of the policy on a day-by-day basis.