Veterans protesting against the planned closure of the Repatriation General Hospital have hit out at suggestions from ex-service community leaders they will be viewed as “whingers” for opposing the Weatherill Government’s plans.

Veterans SA director Rob Manton last week revealed senior members of the Veterans’ Advisory Council had made a public show of support for plans to offload the site for private health and supported accommodation because chair Sir Eric Neal was “concerned the argument had been skewed by a few people who were advocating for saving the Repat”.

“The veterans community was potentially being seen in a bad light, and there were those who would refer to them as ‘whingers’,” Manton told InDaily.

But Augustinus Krikke, an ex-Vietnam army medic who is leading a small band of protestors camped out on the steps of Parliament House, says the comments merely emphasise that the Repat issue “has become the officers against the diggers”.

“The only veterans they’re talking about (who support the planned closure),to my mind, are the veterans that have the cushy jobs, the Old Boys’ Club,” he said.

“The grassroots veterans – the ‘baggy-arsed diggers’, as I like to call them – are coming out signing the petition and making noise in support of the Repatriation General Hospital.”

Krikke says the group has been camped out for 30 days – with the provisional assent of Speaker Mick Atkinson — and “we’re gearing up for another 30”.

“We’re just getting settled in,” he said.

Krikke, no stranger to dividing veterans with his outspoken views, said it was “unfortunate” that the issue had “become an ‘us and them’” scenario, but that he made “no apology”.

“I didn’t want this, but we’ve caused a rift in the RSL and we’ve caused a rift in the RAR (Royal Australian Regiment) Association … because of a rift (between) the Veterans’ Advisory Council and the ordinary veterans community in SA,” he said.

Krikke said the likes of Veterans’ Advisory Council member Mike Von Berg and Veterans’ Affairs Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith “can make all the noise they like”.

“The fact of the matter is if the Australian Medical Association and the Salaried Medical Officers’ Association are stating that closing the Repat would have detrimental effects to the health services in SA, why are they contradicting what the service providers are saying?” he said.

Von Berg last week lamented that “there’s a lot of emotion tied up because of the attachment to Daw Park”.

“I don’t think we can have emotion tied to a lack of change, a lack of review … What I’d like to see achieved is the best possible health outcome for veterans,” he said.

“I can tell you, if we got get shafted by the Government I’ll be the first bloke sitting on the steps of Parliament House.”

Health Minister Jack Snelling told InDaily while “obviously there are people who disagree with what we are doing with the Repat, there are many veterans that I have spoken to – particularly younger veterans – who believe the healthcare needs of veterans have changed significantly since the Repat was built in the 1940s”.

“More than four out of five veterans currently use hospitals other than the Repat and many I have spoken to are in favour of building a new centre for excellence for Post-Traumatic Stress and improving the healthcare for veterans right across our health network,” he said.

The widening rift in the veterans’ community over the changes comes as Lyn Such, the widow of the late MP for Fisher Bob Such, ramped up her own criticism of the planned closure of Daw Park Hospice, on the Repat site.

The former Liberal-turned-independent, who died last year of a brain tumour, spent his final days at Daw House, which the Transforming Health review determined “cannot meet clinical standards as a stand-alone unit when medical, surgical and rehabilitation services relocate to other sites”.

Lyn Such argues Labor would not have pinched her late husband’s southern suburbs seat by just nine votes in a December by-election, nor subsequently secured a five per cent swing in the previously-safe Liberal seat of Davenport, if voters had known of their plans for the Repat site.

“This was always going to happen … they knew it was going to happen well before the by-elections in Fisher and Davenport,” she told InDaily.

Such was publicly supporting independent candidate Daniel Woodyatt in the three-way Fisher contest, and argues “if we’d heard about that … we could have really made it an issue”.

She said the environment and service at Daw House was “fantastic”.

“(Bob) was only there about five days,” she said.

“They’re not high-care beds (but) the terminally ill don’t need to be in a hospital … they’re just where patients can get good pain relief. They don’t need high care, they just need to be made comfortable.”

She said spending finals days with loved ones in such an environment was “also important for families”.

“They don’t need to be in a hospital,” she said.

“If (Labor) had been upfront and honest before both by-elections, the outcome would have been very different.”

However, Snelling told InDaily “any suggestion the Government had decided on anything to do with Transforming Health before the by-election is incorrect”.

“Cabinet did not decide on the first set of proposals until February, when we released our proposals paper, with the final decisions made in March after consulting with the community,” he said.