Doorstop interview, $24 million Veterans’ Employment Program

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
BRAVO ELECTRICAL AND HVAC
DOORSTOP

MATT THISTLETHWAITE: I'd like to thank Chris and Alex and the team here at Bravo Electrical and HVAC for welcoming us to their small business here in Matraville for this important announcement that the Minister, Matt Keogh, is about out to make in a moment. This is a wonderful example of gentlemen who were in the Australian Navy and decided to establish their own business and employ veterans to provide skill, expertise and services to the Australian Navy and the Australian Defence Force to improve Australia's capability. The wonderful thing about this business is that almost all of the employees are veterans, and they bring with them the skill, the competence, the leadership qualities that make a business such as this a valuable proposition for the Australian Defence Force. I'm very pleased that my colleague and Minister, Matt Keogh, is here with us. He's come all the way from Perth to make this very important announcement about the Veterans' Employment Program. So, I'll hand over to Matt to make that announcement.

MINISTER KEOGH: Thanks, Matt. It's great to be here today and I thank Bravo for hosting us here today. I’m very pleased to be announcing our $24 million Veterans' Employment Program, which is delivering on a commitment that we made at the election to invest into this $24 million Veteran Employment Program. The thing about this program is it represents a shift in the approach that we're taking to ensuring better employment of our veterans. We don't want to see an approach that's about giving charity to veterans, we want to see an approach that's about supporting veterans but recognising the great skills and advantages that they bring to businesses. And Bravo, of course, here is absolutely a demonstration of that. 

Because what we see across our veteran community is that they have learned so much and had so much invested in them during their time of service. And so, they bring to any employer skills that are in high demand; teamwork, the capacity to work under pressure, leadership, agility. All of these are things that any business needs and wants. And of course, a business like this in defence industry clearly benefit from that information and understanding that someone who served in defence is able to bring to continuing to provide that insight and experience in servicing our defence through defence industry as well. And so recognising that shift, what we are announcing today as part of the Veterans' Employment Program are two grant programs. One is the Recruitment Advisory Service Grant, looking to develop service to support employers in understanding the great benefits of employing a veteran for their business and providing them support and understanding what veterans can bring to their business and how they can support veterans in their business. 

The other grant program is the Recognising Prior Experience Grant, and that is about making sure that all of that investment that's happened in a person whilst they've been in service, the experience that they have gained, the training that they've had in our Defence Force is recognised out in Civvy Street. And so, this is a program, a grant programme that will work with our university sector so that they best understand that experience and can recognise that prior learning, so that instead of having to start a degree from scratch, a person coming out of defence only has to catch up those final units to get that qualification. And this will also be expanding a program within defence to do the same thing in our vocational sector. So that someone coming out of defence isn't having to start an apprenticeship from scratch, their prior learning and experience is recognised and they can finish that qualification much more quickly than coming out into civilian employment that makes them more job ready, coming out into the civilian sector, being able to continue to contribute to sovereign capability in defence industry or continuing to contribute to the nation at large in any area of industry. Building on those soft skills, as I mentioned, of leadership, teamwork, agility, being able to work under pressure, our veterans bring great skills and experience. 

What this Veterans' Employment Program is about is making sure that businesses across Australia recognise and understand that and can then take best advantage of being able to employ a veteran coming out of our defence force to support their business. And so, alongside these two grant programs, there will also be an advertising campaign kicking off next year, making sure that industry, no matter what sort of industry it is across Australia, understands those greatest advantages to them that come from employing a veteran that come with such great skills and experience after having served in our defence force. So, thank you very much.

Authorised by The Hon Matt Keogh MP.

Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling provides 24/7 free confidential crisis support for current and ex-serving ADF personnel and their families on 1800 011 046 or the Open Arms website. Safe Zone Support provides anonymous counselling on 1800 142 072. Defence All-Hours Support Line provides support for ADF personnel on 1800 628 036 or the Defence Health Portal. Defence Member and Family Helpline provides support for Defence families on 1800 624 608