Press conference – Darwin Veterans' and Families' Hub construction site

E&OE transcript 
Joint Press Conference
Darwin

Matt Keogh, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Luke Gosling, Member for Solomon
Paul Kirby, NT Minister for Veteran Affairs
Emma Whitehead, General Manager of Mates4Mates

LUKE GOSLING: Welcome to the Mates4Mates family and veterans hub here in Stuart Park and what will become an incredible asset to support our veteran service people and their families, obviously, very important. It’s great today to have the federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh in town. He’s a mate of mine. We work down in Canberra together to make sure that we’ve got the best resources and support for our veterans and their families.

We’ve also got Paul Kirby who’s the NT government Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and also Emma Whitehead from Mates4Mates. And we’re very thankful that with the funding from the federal government Mates4Mates have taken the next step in establishing their second veterans and families hub here in Darwin. We’ve already got the centre out – or the hub out in Palmerston, and work is underway to transform this space into an incredible hub to support veteran service people and their families.

As a veteran myself I’m really happy that we’re going to have more services, better services for our veterans and families. It’s really important. And that’s through the whole spectrum – from those who are just joining up to those who are Vietnam veterans and even a couple of World War II veterans that we still have in our community. And we saw that yesterday, it was great to have the Minister, Matt Keogh here to be with the Vietnam veterans and other veterans out at Bees Creek as we commemorated Vietnam Veterans Day, and obviously to have also Keith Payne VC winner from Vietnam with us.

So without further ado, I’ll hand over to the Minister. It’s great to have him here, and it’s great to have his support not only for Mates4Mates but for the other ex-service organisations we have in our community who are all going to work together. So we’re going to tackle all the challenges that we have been, so far away from a lot of mainstream services down south. Mates4Mates establishing this facility means that we, too, here in Darwin are going to have excellent facilities to work with the other ex-service organisations to support our veterans and families. So thanks very much, Minister.

MATT KEOGH: Thanks, Luke. And can I thank Luke Gosling as the local federal member for hosting me up here in Darwin for the last couple of days. As Luke mentioned, we went out to the Vietnam Veterans Association commemoration yesterday for Vietnam Veterans Day, a really great ceremony – solemn but also relaxed, and a great way to meet with the veteran community as well as – as well as going out to the Robertson Base this morning, meeting with some of the soldiers out there as well to understand not just the exercises they’re doing but also the lived reality of what confronts our defence forces every day as well.

But what’s really important about being here today is on this site, which is the new site for the Darwin Veteran and Family Hub, a $5 million commitment from the federal government with Mates4Mates providing the service here but also collaborating with other ex-service organisations and other service providers. It’s great to see what has been a long-awaited establishment of this site. We’re now months away. It will be up and running early next year seeing a breadth of services across social work, health services, rehabilitation, clinical services as well as connecting to other community organisations and ex-service organisations that can provide those opportunities for service and experience to our veterans community here in Darwin.

We had the census data come out just a few months ago. We know that in addition to being a major garrison city here in Darwin with our defence forces, we’ve got 10,000 veterans up here in Darwin as well, and making sure that they’ve got access to well-coordinated services to support them in what they need in their journey from Defence service into civilian life is very important. And that’s what this hub, this veterans and Families Hub will be able to provide, building off the work that Mates4Mates have already been doing out at their Palmerston site.

So it’s wonderful to be able to see this work now starting and to see how this will be all coming together. Talking to the Mates4Mates group here, meeting with Emma, meeting with ex-service organisations and other veterans as I have this week and to see how we’ll be able to bring all of this together in a service that’s tailored to our veterans here in Darwin, working with the ex-service organisations, Mates4Mates running this centre, collaborating, will be an amazing opportunity to make sure we’re giving veterans the services and the supports that they need and deserve. And I just want to thank everybody for being a part of this.

And I recognise, of course, Paul Kirby, the territory Minister as well. Great example of collaboration not just between ex-service organisations, between other services supporting veterans, but also the federal government, territory government. We’re all committed to delivering a better future for our veterans.

EMMA WHITEHEAD: Thank you. Look, I’m delighted to be here today to welcome Minister Kirby and Minister Keogh and, of course, the local member Mr Gosling to what is obviously currently a building site but early next year will be the second of two sites that make the veteran and family wellbeing hub here in Darwin. The existing site is based in Palmerston, and that’s been operational for about a year. And we’re seeing about 350 people there every month. It’s been hugely popular, and we’ve received really great, positive feedback about the service.

So Mates4Mates is really proud to be contributing to the linked capacity in the Northern Territory to support veterans and their families. So I would like to say a special thank you to the Ministers and local member for supporting this project to date. Thank you.

PAUL KIRBY: It’s really exciting to be here with Emma from Mates, with Matt and with Luke to see the progress on a site that will become a complex that Darwin hasn’t had ever before. So it’s really important for us to make sure that we do support our veterans. We are a garrison town. We know that we do have over 10,000 veterans in the Northern Territory. We know that’s a mix between Darwin and Palmerston, up and down the track as well. But to have a site like this in Darwin where we can have some professional assistance, some meeting places, some social spaces and some exercise spaces as well, it really will be a game-changer for veterans in the Northern Territory. We look forward to the progress over the next few months and look forward to it opening as soon as it can next year.

I congratulate Emma on the work that they’ve done. Some of the programs that they already run from the Palmerston facility have been really, really well taken up. We were talking earlier about whether it’s cooking classes or different types of art classes, whether it’s social gatherings, fitness collaborations, it really has been a great initiative.

We look forward to that extending more and more, and we look forward to connecting with all of the ESOs to make sure we get the best bang for buck that we can for veterans in the Northern Territory.

JOURNALIST: So how will this be funded and where does it come from in terms of Mates4Mates, federal government and territory? Can you break that down for us? [Indistinct]

EMMA WHITEHEAD: So the original funding for this project came from the federal government as a grant to build and refurbish a centre here in the Northern Territory. And it’s taken a while to get this centre. And so in that interim Mates4Mates has set up the centre that is in Palmerston currently operating for the last year or so. Once the buildings are developed Mates4Mates commits to continue operating out of these buildings for the long term.

JOURNALIST: Are there any services that will be offered at this site that aren’t offered at the Palmerston site?

EMMA WHITEHEAD: Yeah, the buildings are quite different, this site will have a small rehabilitation gym in it, so this will offer us the ability to do exercise rehab on site for clients. But also the site has got – is much larger, so we’ll be able to engage with more, other providers, whether they’re ex-service organisations or mainstream organisations to offer psychology services and other broad health and wellbeing services from the centre.

JOURNALIST: Has there been any setbacks in constructions so far [indistinct]?

EMMA WHITEHEAD: So the construction has been really smooth so far, and that’s – yeah.

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask a general question to the federal Minister, if possible? As a member of the cabinet, how important is exercises like Pitch Black given the uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific?

MATT KEOGH: Well, the opportunity of exercises like Pitch Black, which is going to be undertaken here in Darwin over the course of the next few days as well as other operations and exercises that are happening inland, are, firstly, a very important opportunity for our Defence Force to train and to make sure that they’re at their best and readiest state, but also a good opportunity to train with forces from other countries that are involved. So we’ve got around 14,000 personnel involved across four to five different countries in these exercises over the next few days and few weeks. And that means that we’re in the best state of preparedness. It means that we are testing our opportunity and capacity to interoperate with other defence forces as well. It’s giving our near neighbours and friends the opportunity to train their defence forces with us, which puts us in the best position to work with them, whatever we may face. So these are important exercises. And, of course, over the last few years the opportunity to undertake exercises like this, especially involving foreign forces as well, has been very constrained because of Covid. So being able to get back out into the field and into the skies with Operation Pitch Black and the other exercises that are occurring over the next week or so are very important.

JOURNALIST: Do you think it sends a sign to China?

MATT KEOGH: These are regular exercises that are occurring here in Darwin over the next few weeks. They occur every year or every couple of years, depending on the rotation. So the undertaking of these exercises are not about sending a message; they’re about making sure that our Defence Force is always in the most capable position that it can and should be.

JOURNALIST: Would the federal government [indistinct]?

MATT KEOGH: So we’ve made a commitment to 10 new veterans and families hubs as part of the last election. And they are around the country and we’ll be rolling those out progressively. We’re working with a number of organisations to identify best specific locations. There's obviously additional sites to the 10 that we took to the last election that people will be coming to us to speak about their need. And we're focused on the 10 that we announced at the election. And it’s important to recognise that they’re targeted around where we see the highest veteran populations around the country. So we’re making sure that we're servicing where the highest needs are.

END

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