AISA: Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Veterans’ Affairs
From 1 March 2026, all information requests between Veterans’ Affairs and MSD must operate under the processes specified in the Approved Information Sharing Agreement (AISA) between Veterans’ Affairs and MSD — these are the AISA Operating Procedures.
Before the AISA, there was an existing agreement, which was a Memorandum of Understanding (a MOU) between Veterans’ Affairs and MSD. It contained procedures outlining how Veterans’ Affairs and MSD would interact when discussing common clients. This MOU has been retained, but updated.
The MOU and the AISA’s Operating Procedures will now operate together and govern areas like collaboration, privacy obligations, operational processes, and information sharing between the organisations. They outline what information can be shared between Veterans’ Affairs and MSD, and how Veterans’ Affairs and MSD will share, receive, use, and protect veterans’ information.
The AISA Operating Procedures allow MSD to share the following information with Veterans’ Affairs:
- If an individual is an MSD client
- Contact details
- MSD entitlements
- Work status.
They allow Veterans’ Affairs to share the following with MSD:
- If the individual is a Veterans’ Affairs client
- Veteran status
- Veterans’ Affairs entitlements.
The updated MOU and AISA aim to deliver more accurate and fairer entitlements. They will help Veterans’ Affairs pay the correct entitlements to veterans, which will reduce the risk of underpayments, overpayments, and any unnecessary debt. The improved accuracy will help both organisations reduce identification errors and duplicate payments.
The AISA protects the privacy of veterans. The AISA and its procedures are approved by the Privacy Commission.
