Doorstop Interview - Rockingham, Perth

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
ROCKINGHAM, PERTH
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16 2025

SUBJECTS: Goldsworthy Veterans Hub.

MADELEINE KING, MINISTER FOR RESOURCES: Good morning everyone and welcome to the Goldsworthy Veterans, or the future Goldsworthy Veterans and Families Centre here in Rockingham. And I really want to thank the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Matt Keogh for coming down here but also for his very hard work in making sure these really important hubs for veterans and their families become a reality here in Rockingham, which has one of the highest proportions of veterans that have served our nation and served it so well for so many years. I want to acknowledge the presence here of Duncan Anderson, the CEO of RSL WA, and also Magenta Marshall, the state government member for Western Australia. This is such an important announcement for such an important centre that will support the wellbeing of former service members as they transition out of the Defence Forces and into community life. And they've provided so much value here in Rockingham as they've served. And what will become increasingly important as Rockingham and HMAS Stirling will be the heart of Aukus, which is in the nation's great interest for the very long term. And that's why having a Veterans’ Hub here in Rockingham is very important for those that will serve our nation into the future. So with that, I'm going to hand over to Minister Keogh to say a little bit more about the Goldsworthy centre.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Well, thanks, Madeline. It's great to be here with you as local federal member and Magenta as the local state member for Rockingham. And of course, Duncan Anderson, the President of the WA RSL. Today is a significant milestone in the delivery of the Family and Veterans Hub here for the Rockingham region. And it’s part of the $5 million commitment that we gave as a government to providing a Veterans and Families Hub in this region, knowing that it's got one of the highest concentration of serving personnel and veterans of any region in Australia, of course, with Australia's biggest naval base, HMAS Sterling, right on its doorstep and many veterans and their families living in the community here and around this area, thousands and thousands of them. And making sure that they are properly supported in accessing services which have sometimes been diffuse and complicated to understand how they access, we have been committed as a government to making access to supports and services for our veterans, their family, that indeed the serving personnel easier. And we've done that through a whole range of initiatives. Of course, we've introduced significant legislative reform when it comes to the veterans entitlement system, moving from three different very complex systems to, from the middle of next year, having just about one straightforward veterans compensation rehabilitation system. Of course, we getting on with the job of implementing the Royal Commission's 122 recommendations as well. But critical to that, and as we came into government back in 2022, we committed to rolling out additional Veterans and Families Hubs around the country. And today, with the announcement of this location for the Goldsworthy Veterans and Families Centre here in Rockingham is a very important milestone on that journey for Western Australia, and particularly the southern suburbs of Perth. Supporting the serving personnel veterans and families here with a one-stop shop where they will be able to access services and supports on site, as well as being able to be connected to other supports and services that they've made. Making sure that there’s somewhere for family members that might not know what supports are available to them to come to access those supports, to be connected to the providers that can assist them, and of course, for serving personnel and their families as well. The work that the RSL has been doing is not just about the site selection, though it's been consulting with the veterans community across the area, working with ex-service organisations like legacy, working with Soldier On, working with other support organisations that support veterans and their families, to make sure that what they're able to bring together here is a hub that will provide opportunities for them, for those other organizations to be able to work out of to provide services from and to be a warm, friendly and coordinated environment for our veterans. To be able to walk into, maybe not even knowing what service they need, but knowing they need some help, and to be able to access that here. That's what we're committed to as a government. And of course, this hub will be part of the network of hubs that we're building out across the country, and will be buttressed by the new wellbeing agency that we're creating within the Department of Veterans Affairs as part of our implementation of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran suicide as well. It's a really exciting day. It's a very important milestone, and we look forward to it opening in the middle of next year. I'll now hand over to Duncan to say a few words as well.

DUNCAN ANDERSON, RSL WA CEO: On behalf of RSL WA it's really, really proud to lead a consortium of service providers that are adapting to the changing needs of our veteran community. The RSL has been in as part of the national fabric for over 100 years now. And we have adapted and changed, and this is just another example. This adds immense value to our already existing network of sub branches and points of access for services and support across Western Australia. This hub speaks to wellbeing, and we will be not only have access to welfare support, but more importantly, wellbeing activities like yoga, children's playground, art, gaming, will form part of what we delivered here. We genuinely appreciate the support of the federal government in making sure that we can reach more veterans and families here in Western Australia. And again, it is incredibly it's a great privilege to lead as part of the ESA community here in Western Australia and helping our mates. Thank you.

KEOGH: Any questions?

JOURNALIST: Minister, we often say in TV show, don't tell. We kind of need to use our imagination a little bit today. But can you talk us through, you know, what's going to be here for in terms of (indistinct).

KEOGH: Absolutely, what we see here right now is the bones of what will become a really friendly and welcoming hub for our veteran community here in the southern suburbs of Perth, and particularly supporting our veterans here in Rockingham and surrounding HMAS Stirling. What we'll be able to see here is going to be clinical rooms that will support access to clinicians, medical psych, but it gives you that versatility of how you utilise those rooms. There's going to be a gaming centre. One of the things we've just seen is an explosion of veteran gaming as a way for people to unwind, but also to connect with each other virtually. And we're seeing in hubs around the country that this is actually really important element that veterans really want and that they really gravitate to. So having that opportunity is really great. Having the flexible program space, whether it's for the delivery of yoga, whether it's for the delivery of seminars, no doubt it'll help with transition programs as well for those that are transitioning out of defence and into civilian life, it gives you great flexibility of the programs that you can run there a friendly, open environment with couches and chat one available. A kitchen where people can just make a coffee, have a brew, have a chat to another veteran, share an experience. It's not just about the if you like, the staff here, being able to connect a veteran to a service. It's also about veterans being able to share information with one another, as well. Being able to access those different sorts of medical supports that are here. Also to support children and families. So having a room that's a friendly room for kids that you know there's an area for them to play in, so that conversations can be had with mum or dad or family together about what support they need, where kids feel welcome and are able to do something and be engaged while they're here is incredibly important. So having that versatility of spaces, spaces where other ex-service organizations, so not just RSL but Legacy, Soldier On, other advocate services can come in and work out of and provide services for veterans, all their families, as well as incredibly important. And you see all of that will come together. You know, this concrete jungle right now being able to be turned into a playground and a barbecue space, and potentially with a sauna. You know, those are different elements that all come together, that attract veterans, their family members, to be able to come to a space that they consider to be friendly, to be welcoming, where they're not on guard and that they're in a better space, to have a conversation about what support they might need, and then be connected to those appropriate supports.

JOURNALIST: How long are you expecting it to take for it to be open and ready to go?

KEOGH: So I'm told by RSL that they're tracking for this to be open by the middle of next year, maybe earlier, which would be great. Usually, what we see is a bit of a soft launch with these hubs to make sure they're up and running before they're formally open. But middle of next year, which I think is a really great outcome.

JOURNALIST: Do you think these hubs sort of signify a shift from obviously, the sub-branches are incredibly important for community and things like that, but putting wellness at the heart of veterans experience?

KEOGH: I wouldn't say it's a shift. I would say it's adding to. So the traditional RSL sub-branch networks and other ex-service organisations that are out there play an incredibly important role in supporting the veteran community and families and then camaraderie. Madeleine spoke earlier about her dad, who was a veteran, he’d come down the RSL on a Friday night. We still see that happen, and it's an incredibly important way for people to connect. But to be able to have a place where people can connect, but also access more formalised services and supports, where they might not even know what support they need, but the people here are able to connect them with what they need, is a really important addition to that. And with the recommendations coming out of the Royal Commission that we got last year, government has acknowledged that, and that's why we're doing the work now around co designing a wellbeing agency to sit within the Department of Veterans Affairs to look at that wellbeing approach. So not just about how does the department make sure that you can go see a doctor, and we pay your bills for that. Or that you get compensation for an injury. But how do we support the overall wellbeing for veterans and families? The hub can play an important and do play an important role with that, and we'll work closely with that wellbeing agency once that's up and running as well.

JOURNALIST: And was this hub in particular promised in ‘22? Is it on track? You know, being mid next year? Is that what was originally hoped?

KEOGH: Yeah, so these were hubs that came out of an election commitment that we took in 2022. And they're big undertakings. It's a $5 million funding to the RSL to deliver this part of that. Then at the beginning, what we were really conscious of, and we really put a premium on, was engagement with the local communities to make sure that each hub delivers on what the local community needs. So the first stage is consultation, and it takes time to make sure that you mature that so you deliver the right program. And we knew that, as we've seen with many government capital development programs, it does take a bit of time to do the consultation, identify the right sites, get them open. We've had some open already, which is great, and some continue to be rolling out over that same sort of time frame. So we're not really surprised by the time frame. Getting it right is what's critically important.

JOURNALIST: We've heard criticism from some veterans that this should have been coming soon. It's taken too long to get to this stage. What would be your response to that?

KEOGH: Look, I think the veteran community has a very legitimate gripe that there's a lot of services supports from government that have not been delivered in the way that they should have been delivered in a timely way and been accessed. And that's something I was very conscious of when I came when we came into government in 2022 and I became the Minister. And we've been trying to move quickly to make positive change in that area, recognising those concerns, And we've done that by making sure the Department of Veterans Affairs is now the best resourced that's been in three decades. We've got through the backlog of claims, some 42,000 claims not even being looked at within the Department of Veterans Affairs, and we've cleared through that. We're improving the time that it takes to process claims through DVA, making sure we can provide better services, whilst we're also getting working with our partners like RSL WA to deliver these hubs. So improving service overall is really important, and we've got to do that in a way that actually delivers improved service and delivers on the outcomes that veterans want. Not all of that can happen straight away. We've also had the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide going on for the previous three years. We got the final report of that last year. All of these things tie in. They take time, but we also want to make sure we get them right for our veteran community.

JOURNALIST: Given this project was a 2022 election commitment, should it not have been announced and kind of getting the ball rolling a lot sooner than it is now, given we're still a year away from …?

KEOGH: Yeah, so one of the things you find with these sorts of programs is that you're with all of these hubs, you're either building a new building or taking over an existing building. And funnily enough, none of these places are ever zoned the way that they need to be zoned. And those take. Time with local government and everything. Just take time, but you've got to get it right, and you've got to start with that consultation process first, so that when you're going to local government, when you're getting planning, when you're getting designing done, it actually fits what people want. So you're providing that coordinated service that delivers on the outcomes of veterans and even, frankly, they deserve. And so RSL has been leading that work, and we're really happy to see where the outcome is heading, and looking forward to it opening middle of next year.

JOURNALIST: I'm not sure if you will, but do you have an update on how the emergency living in Cannington is going?

KEOGH: It's progressing, which, you know, we're really happy to be able to provide that additional funding for them as well at a federal level. So it's a great example of the private sector coming together with the state government and the federal government. I know the City of Canning as well is really supportive of that development, and I think we're looking forward to seeing some pretty rapid progress on that. But I don't have a particular date that I can give you at this stage, but I very much look forward to it when we're all there together.

JOURNALIST: And just to Duncan as well, I suppose, can you tell us, you know, the minister's said It’s not so much a shift, but adding to but, you know, being able to make this a family-friendly centre. How important is that to veterans?

ANDERSON: It's central. So if for too long, it's just being the veteran in the spotlight and anyone that's served, and myself included, and many others here today know that sitting behind that person is a family. And not just a direct family, but extended families. And so if families don't feel welcome, you've sort of missed the point. And probably speaking back to some of the earlier questions about timeline, if we don't get that bit right, we've missed the point. So we would much prefer and have, in this instance, made haste slowly, because if we don't get the families in, then we're winking it up.

JOURNALIST: And can you talk through the name and how fitting it is for the area?

ANDERSON: Yeah, so Lieutenant Commander Goldsworthy was the most highly decorated naval officer of the Second World War, and it's absolutely fitting to not only recognise a highly decorated leader within that conflict, but it draws direct connections to the Naval roots of this area. And I think anyone who does not recognise and respect just how ingrained the naval psyche is down in this area, again it probably isn't doing it right. So the Goldsworthy Centre was absolutely fitting for that time. And indeed, the patron of the Goldsworthy Centre, being Ken Burley, is absolutely fitting. To have an Army guy down here as much as I'm Army and we don't like Navy and Air Force is, it's just not right. So that's the background. And really proud that we can do him and his family the justice and have it recognised.

JOURNALIST: And with, you know, Aukus on the doorstop, how important is that have this hub to future proof things in this area for the RSL

ANDERSON: We've taken steps to not rely on that. I think the RSL more broadly probably needs to look up and assess the situation for what it is, and I'm speaking nationally here, and make sure that we're sustainable without having to rely on things coming in from the outside. Putting that to one side, it would be an incredible privilege to be able to support families from other nations. So how good would it be for an American naval officer, naval sailor, who brings their family and relocates to Western Australia, and suddenly they've got a place where they feel welcome, where they're connected back into their homeland services. It's certainly something we're very happy to do, and we'll continue having discussions with the state and federal government through the submarine agency. And hopefully we can indeed provide that service here, because, quite honestly, if we're able to generate revenue from that, we're able to put more money back into veterans and families. I mean, that's all we do. So if we can provide a service and generate revenue, we can do more stuff.

JOURNALIST: Just to Madeleine, issues of the day. You’ve (indistinct), your reaction to that?

KING: Well, this is a great appointment in my view. So Simon Trott has been named the CEO of Rio Tinto. And Simon, although born in South Perth, I believe he's grown up in the beautiful wheat belt town of Wickepen. A great West Australian who has worked for Rio for 25 years, has done the fly and fly out. And only people that have done fly and fly out the resources sector really know how hard that is. So I think his elevation to this role is going to be, at once, good for the workforce, but also good for Rio, which is headquartered in London. So to have a Western Australian running this now global resources company that can tie its London headquarters to where the bulk of its wealth, and it's two thirds of Rio's revenue comes from the Pilbara in Western Australia, is really a very, very good thing. And I'm glad this appointment has been made to link for the hopefully very foreseeable future London with the Pilbara.

JOURNALIST: Talking of the headquarters, Gina Reinhardt overnight suggested that they could move their headquarters from London over here to Perth. Do you back those …?

KING: I would not disagree with Miss Reinhart on that assessment. As I said, the bulk of Rio Tinto’s revenue comes from the Pilbara. I also think BHP, why wouldn't they relocate from Melbourne to Perth, given the bulk of their revenue also comes from the Pilbara? But of course, these are commercial decisions. The more global companies that are based in Western Australia and particularly Perth, the better, I say. So let them come.

JOURNALIST: On critical mineral reserves, have you designed the task force yet for that? Have you decided who will be sitting on that?

KING: We're still working through that. It will have a number of interests covered, so to speak. Just like we're talking about the design of the Goldsworthy Centre, we want to get this right. And a strategic reserve has been talked about as many different things as stockpile, but also a way of stabilising price. And the truth is, the reserve can actually play a number of roles. But we do want to get it right, because there's significant investment of the Australian Government so therefore it is a significant investment of the Australian taxpayer, and they deserve to have their funds applied in the best way, in the national interest. And that's what the strategic reserve is all about. Creating a national asset for all Australians that will underpin the rare earths and critical minerals industry that is vital for renewable energy, but really the pivotal strategic role of rare earths is in defence applications, which we see here all the time in Rockingham, through the work of the Royal Australian Navy and others at HMAS Sterling.

JOURNALIST: Have you got any idea of which critical minerals will be part of that stockpiling? Could we see them being kept here in Western Australia?

KING: Well, I wouldn't want anyone to get too excited about the stockpiling aspect, as if there's going to be a shed such as this one full of piles of critical minerals and rare earths. Because these are really low volume commodities. So, you know, a stockpile, in a physical sense, could amount to not much more than a boot for, you know, of a car. So it's not, people are starting to think about it like the old style wheat stockpile, or wool. There's just not in the same realm whatsoever. So stockpiles where, if we need you have, indeed a physical stockpile, will be where they need to be, and where it works the best in the national interest. I think the more important part about the reserve is how it works in pricing and price setting. And we saw just this week, the Department of Defence in the US announced its really important investment in the Mountain Pass refinery and mine in the US, and they've set up a price floor which helps stabilise the rare earth price. So we're obviously looking at that really closely as well.

END

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