Doorstop Interview — Legacy Far North Queensland, Cairns

MATT SMITH, MEMBER FOR LEICHARDT: My name is Matt Smith. I'm the Federal Member for Leichardt. I'm here with Minister Matt Keogh. Legacy plays an important part in our community, not just here in the Far North, but right across Australia. People who serve, who make that sacrifice, make that decision to represent Australia in some of the most dangerous places on the planet deserve support. But it is not just the men and women on the front lines. Whenever somebody is serving, inevitably their family is serving with them, whether through deployment or in those worst-case scenarios, when service personnel don't come home, or the transition out of the armed services into civilian life. And that's where Legacy has been so important for Australians for well over a century now. They've always been there for our service personnel and their families, and that tradition continues today. And that's why the announcements today, as part of a national program, is so important to the Far North. We have a large veteran community, we have a lot of people who have served this nation with distinction, and when they come home, the least we can do is provide them and their families the love and the support that they deserve to continue on the best of the rest of their lives in the best way possible. And with that, I will hand over to Minister Keogh, who'll discuss more about today's announcement, and we'll hear from Alfie and Beck from Legacy, and some of the fantastic work that they're doing, not just in Cairns, but right across the Far North.

MATT KEOGH, VETERANS’ AFFAIRS MINISTER: Well, thanks, Matt, and it's a great pleasure to be here in Cairns, up in the Far North of Queensland, to announce our package of funding through the Defence Community Grants Program. And through that program, Legacy Far North Queensland is going to receive over $83,000 for their Legacy Links program. And that is a program that supports the families of our serving personnel and veterans as they manage transition from full-time service into civilian life, as well as supporting Defence families more broadly across the Cairns and Far North Queensland region. One of the things we know is that the unique aspects of military service don't just impact on those that are in service, it impacts their families as well. And of course, families that are part of Defence are often moving, finding themselves in new communities or transitioning out into civilian life in a community that's not the one that they grew up in. And so being able to form connections, social connections, build new friendship groups, understand what are the services there to support and help them is incredibly important. And that's what the Legacy Links program provides here. And so we're very proud to be able to support that program to make sure that our Defence families and our veteran families are able to be properly supported by supporting each other, coming together as well as being connected into the community here on the ground, understanding what services are available to support them on their journey, whatever that may bring. And some of those might be specialist services to support our veteran families, but some of them can be ordinary, everyday services that a Defence member and their family haven't had to access before, until they've come to leave full-time service in our Defence Force, now this grant is part of a bigger $2.3 million Defence Community Grant that is part of our Defence Family Support Program, and this is about making sure that we're supporting our Defence families all across the country, given those unique aspects that military life can have in impacting upon families. And so we're seeing programs are going to connect families and children through opportunities, say with the Cowboys in Townsville, programs that support families that might be experiencing family and domestic violence through funding for a program in Western Australia. Camps programs of support, importantly not-for-profit organisations located across the country, especially in areas where we have got our major Defence bases providing a range of support, connecting those families to community and to each other, making sure that they can access the supports that they may need because of those unique aspects of military service and how they impact not just on those in service but on their families as well, so they've got additional support. And it's about us recognising that sometimes that initial, that additional support is required to support our families of those that serve in our Defence force. We ask a lot of those who serve in our Defence Force, and by doing that, we ask a lot of their families as well. And it's important that we provide these additional services through organisations on the ground, very often run by people that are Defence families themselves or the families of veterans who understand those special needs and are able to connect people to a broader community and to support one another through the programs that they run, whether it's for partners, whether it's for children, or for the whole family together. And it's great to be up here making this announcement, in particular supporting those families up here in Far North Queensland. So I might ask our friends from Legacy Far North Queensland to speak a bit more about Legacy Links. 

ALFIE SANTOS, PRESIDENT LEGACY CLUB FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND: Thank you, Minister. Look, we're just really happy to hear this announcement up here in Far North Queensland. Legacy links, it's the first of its kind in the country. It's a program that we brought into play up here, and where we now see 40 percent of the participants being in-service families. We connect with them on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, and then we put on programs throughout the school holidays. So, to have the $83,000 grant, for us it means a lot. It's part of what is our stepping stone to Legacy House, our major project up here for Far North Queensland. And we've been engaging with the Federal Government. We've had great support from the member for Leichardt here, Matt Smith, and also the Minister's office down south, as well as state government, who's already put the first million dollars towards that. So, Legacy Links will take place there, alongside all those wrap-around services that the Minister has mentioned, that's where we will see the veteran community, both current serving, ex-serving, and those families associated, get together and get that level of support that they need, but also that family connectedness that they're after, and that community connectedness. Open it up to questions, any questions?

REPORTER: Yeah, I suppose, for the Minister, why was the Far North an important recipient?

KEOGH: So, we've got some really important Defence bases up here, and, of course, we've got big Defence community. And one of the things that's important to recognise about that Defence community is a lot of that community is not originally from here. And so we've got people in Army, Navy, posting into Cairns who are not familiar with the environment, and so need to build community, need to build connection with other Defence families, but also into the broader community. That's really important for spouses, children, you know, they're in schools, they might be working, but building out that sense of connectedness and being able to know what are the services up here. How do I access something that I need when you're not from here is incredibly important. And again, you have families that decide to settle here, they might be leaving Defence, that Defence member, for the first time, is going to be experiencing civilian life predominantly, as opposed to full-time Defence service, and that family is going to then have a whole range of different needs. And so making sure that they can come together, share that experience together with other families going through that same journey of transition, and be able to be connected to services and supports that they may need that they haven't had to access before, or they might have been accessing a similar service through Defence instead of through the civilian world, knowing what's out there is really important. And so Legacy Links provides that point of connection and information for those families.

REPORTER: Minister, do you think your Legacy House deserves that newer and bigger space? And where is your government at with a potential funding allocation towards that?

KEOGH: So Matt's a big pain in my arse, which is what you want from a local MP, because he is lobbying hard, he is lobbying hard for Legacy House, for Legacy Far North Queensland. And it's been great to work with him and with the team here at Legacy to understand what their plans present. And we're going to have a chat after this about how that's progressing, and how we might be able to work with them. I do understand, you know, the importance of having that dedicated space that's bigger and able to provide better services, and we look forward to continuing to work through that.

REPORTER: Are you impressed by what they do, and do you think it would look a bigger in your space?

KEOGH: Certainly, you know, this program that we've just been talking about, Legacy Links, which is really unique in Australia and for Legacy is a great example of legacy FNQ really moving forward and demonstrating what's possible. It's always wonderful to see organisations like this doing something new and innovative and demonstrating to others what's possible.

REPORTER: Questions for Matt on different topics?

SANTOS: If we can stay on Legacy for a bit longer. Look, if I may, and just to compliment some of what the Minister's put out, in terms of Far North Queensland, or Queensland in general, the importance here. Defence intake on a yearly basis, we see more people going in per capita from Queensland into the Defence Force than anywhere else in the country. And we see that only about 100 (indistinct) that New South Wales puts up at around that 25,000 person mark each and every year as to who knocks on the recruitment door. So where do those people naturally retire, or where do they seek to go after Defence life? Back to Queensland, and Far North Queensland tends to be that attractive place. We've got over 11,000 veterans up here across the seats of Kennedy and Leichardt, and along with them come their families. So that's why it's critical for us to have this Legacy Links program, the funding that's been announced today, and, like I said, we're very grateful for that, and to continue to push for FNQ Legacy House. Because when our veterans and their families are coming down from the Tablelands, from the Cape, indigenous veterans and their families, when they need to come here to the medical hubs that they need to get support from or other services, other wraparound services, we need to be able to capture them, to support them, to provide them emergency housing, if that's what they need, whilst they're here. So that's part of the broader picture of Defence and the ties to the veteran community up here in the Far North. 

REPORTER: Alfie while you've got the floor, are there other programs you're seeking additional funding for?

SANTOS: No. At this stage we're comfortable with our Legacy Links program. We've got over 300 what we call beneficiaries. So war widows, children of war widows, those that have been left behind, but as well as veterans that walk through this door instead of the RSL door. The Minister has guided both Legacy and the RSL over the past few months in terms of putting up new MOUs where Legacy supports veterans. We predominantly focus on veterans' families, that's what we have done so for many years. We've done it up here for 94 years now. But if a veteran walks through that door there, we don't turn them away. We certainly point them towards the RSL, because that's the main focus of the RSL, but if they need us at that point in time, we will engage with them. I won't talk too much detail, but just recently we had a lady coming here, her husband, a Vietnam War vet, had just passed away, and she came in seeking assistance from the team, as she should. And at the same time, we had a veteran come in, failed marriage, and his young daughter had attempted suicide that morning. That will happen in the space of about three minutes in this office. So we want to be able to give them the dignity to have personal spaces to talk and to have those wraparound services where we can point them immediately and get the level of help that we need. So, once again, this grant goes a long way to providing that for those families.

REPORTER: So, what sort of uptake or results have you already seen through the program, and I suppose how are you hoping to expand that?

SANTOS: Yeah, look, I'll get Bec, our executive officer here at Legacy, to talk to that. Bec’s very shy in this space. She stood up the program. This is her baby, her dream, and she's just come back after having her own baby. But in terms of uptake, we've had a huge increase of those younger families, those serving families. Forty percent of the program is current serving families. Bec,did you want to give some numbers, some stats? 

REBECCA MILLINER, EXECUTIVE OFFICER LEGACY FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND: We launched this program back in 2024. We actually identified that there was a gap in service delivery within, within the broader, not just here in Cairns, but even in Australia, there's a gap for those transitioning families. There was no support. So there's a lot of support for a veteran with the transition piece, but we are noticed, and that was just through talking with the community, that there was nothing for the families. Since then, we've had the Royal Commission that's come out, and it actually identified that the families were forgotten about in this piece, and there's now been things that put into place to rectify that, which is fantastic. This program was sort of ahead of its time in that, which is really great that up here we were able to do that. And thanks to the funding, we're able to continue delivering on that. So, we've started the program up, and we had our transitioning families, and we had a lot of people from current serving families that were looking at the transition piece and going to transition, thinking about transition within the next couple of years. So they started to participate in the program and were able to form those connections with families that had transitioned. So they're able to have those conversations around, you know, what it involves, what it's like, you know. Because it's a really big change for those families, so for them to be able to connect in the same space, it just meant a lot to our community. So we saw that group grow really big. I don't remember the final numbers, I think it was, I don’t want to even say, there was quite a lot over the course of the 12 months, the number of participants we had. On average at every event, we would have had about 80 people come along. I think there's like 60 families, so probably more than that, in terms of numbers of people. But yeah, it was really well received. And we know that our community is thrilled to have this program continue. We did continue to do it because of how much it meant to the families. We just did it at a lower capacity than what we were doing it, but now we're able to take it back up again to the level that we were delivering it at.

SMITH: All right, any other questions?

REPORTER: Will small councils and communities struggle with disaster recovery with the changes to the disaster recovery arrangement?

SMITH: No. It is something that the state government is going to have to take on board, and I'm sure that Christy McBain had those conversations with the state government. I've been in touch with several of the mayors at the local councils to reassure them. We have never left any Queenslander in the lurch. And in fact, if you look back at the disasters that we've had, even quite recently, you showed that the federal government, the state government work hand in hand. At the end of Tropical Cyclone Naralle I attended Coen with David Crisafulli and David Kempton to survey what had happened. We are never going to leave Queenslanders in the lurch. This is a federal and state issue when it comes to disaster funding, and the local councils are not equipped to be dealing with that level of infrastructure repair, nor should they be. 

REPORTER: Are local mayors and local councils feeling comfortable with the changes to the arrangement?

SMITH: Some are, and some aren’t. And this is going to be a bit of a process that we work through, and we just have to reassure them that we have always got the back of Queenslanders come rain, hail or shine.

REPORTER: And last week, Jarod Bleijie said …

SMITH: He did, didn't he? 

REPORTER: … the state government was on the verge of a funding agreement with the federal government in relation to delivering the common use facility. Can you give us an update on what that might look like from a federal perspective?

SMITH: As you're aware, as everyone here in this room is aware, the common use facility is an incredibly important piece of infrastructure, not just for the shipping industry, but for Cairns in general. Our tourism industry is absolutely second to none, it does a lot of the heavy lifting and the diversification of the economy is something that's really important, and the common use of facilities, a big part of this, so is the expansion of CQ University. I've been advocating for that $180 million that's in the budget, both in Parliament and externally to everyone who listened, basically to let everyone understand how important this was. And I was very, very happy to hear those comments from Jarod Bleijie. I know that the Minister Mickleberg and Minister King have been working very hard to get together and make this a reality, and hopefully there'll be an announcement.

REPORTER: Could you give us insight into what, on you know, on the verge of an announcement might mean, or might look like?

SMITH: It means on the verge. The LNP state government and the Labor Anthony Labor government have been working really well, hand in glove, to make this a reality, and the announcement, should there be one, will be made in due course. 

REPORTER: As a former Councillor and Sport and Rec Officer, there's been some criticism towards the local council for lack of sort of public spaces or displays to watch the FIFA World Cup. There were those spaces around the city during the women's World Cup. You are aware of the criticism, and would you like to see some sort of open spaces?

SMITH: I hadn't heard the criticism, but of course yesterday was the Socceroos' first game took down Turkiye, which was fantastic. Everyone was really, really happy. But it was also Iron Man, so there was no public space available, you know? I was in Rene's tent, watching them all go by, and I heard the cheer coming out of the RSL club on that second goal there, when we knew we'd put them away. So that was really great. Look, any time you can bring people together to celebrate something like sport that really brings people together in terms of that cohesiveness is something that you want to see. The infrastructure exists, it would be fantastic if we rolled it out and got people, got them in behind the Socceroos, the way we got behind the Matildas, and really celebrate what is the global game together.

REPORTER: What do you make of the fire the liar campaign, particularly if Australians are digging out and making out that they're not being heard? What do you make of that angle with this current campaign, and the momentum that it’s gaining?

SMITH: I'll leave a One Nation campaign to One Nation. My job is squarely to make sure people are being heard, and that's why I'm here today. It's why I'm available publicly every week. We've got four community offices across various shopping centres this week, where people can just come up to me and have a chat. It's why I'm in community. It's why I travel up and down the Cape and the Torres Strait so much. I make sure that our people here in Leichardt are being heard.