Press conference - Location revealed for Northern Adelaide Veterans' and Families' Hub

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
ELIZABETH VALE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
THURSDAY 6 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Location revealed for Northern Adelaide Veterans’ and Families’ Hub.

JOURNALIST: Matt Burnell, how do you feel about the Hub today, what you've just seen?

MATT BURNELL, MEMBER FOR SPENCE: Oh look this is fantastic, we are in a health precinct right here at Elizabeth Vale, specifically at the Playford Health Hub where our new Veterans’ and Families’ Hub is going to be located. When you look out through the windows the view is spectacular, it has a soothing element to it because you see rooftop canopies from trees, it really breaks the eye line as you look out across the horizon and I think that that is going to help immensely with getting people in that right headspace when they come into this facility to get the services that they're looking for. It's a welcoming environment, that's what we were looking for from the outset was to make sure that we landed a Hub that made veterans and their families feel welcome when they walk through the door. That is clearly what you get when you walk through the doors here at this new location. So it's a very very big day, a proud day for myself, I'm extremely happy that we've landed it here in the northern suburbs for our veterans and their families and our current serving personnel to have close access to the services that they need in their time of crisis or just the point in time where they just need a bit of support. This will make a huge difference to our community, to our veteran community and I couldn't be prouder.

JOURNALIST: So it sounds like you opened this building itself last week. So it sounds like this is a pretty growing precinct. Do you want to just step us through that?

BURNELL: Yeah, look this is a vision that goes back around 17 years. There was a decision made by the Playford Council to expand or to re-look at the Lyell McEwin Hospital Precinct and develop what is now the Playford Health precinct and really expand the service offering here in the northern suburbs for our entire community. Bringing the services that people often only find in the CBD to the outer suburbs to connect with community and say actually you're worth it. That's what this Playford Health Hub does as part of the broader precinct. It brings critical services to the northern suburbs for the community of the northern suburbs.

We're about to turn the sods for the Women's and Children's Hospital Foundation Perinatal and Wellness Centre. There is expansion of mental health facilities. This is a growing health precinct. It makes absolute sense to have a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub right here amongst all these fantastic services. It gives our veterans, their families and current serving personnel the best opportunity at getting the help that they need.

JOURNALIST: I know you've been involved in a lot of the consultation all the way through. Do you think this hits the mark? Have they ticked all those boxes?

BURNELL: Yeah, look this has not been an easy road. There's been a lot of robust discussions. The Minister knows he's been on the end of some of those receiving phone calls when we were discussing location. But I couldn't be prouder of where we've landed. I'm so thankful we've had those robust discussions to land where we have because this is really going to open the doors of opportunity for our veteran community and that's what this is really about. Affecting real change on the back of the Royal Commission for our community and saying you are worth it, that's what this facility delivers.

JOURNALIST: Now Minister, what’s your reaction to checking this place out for the first time today?

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: It's wonderful to see the location now for the Veterans’ and Families’ Hub that's going to be in the northern suburbs of Adelaide and to see a plan and a Hub that is located so close to other services that will also support veterans. It means that we end up with a Hub within a Hub, a Hub that will provide services itself but also be able to connect veterans and family members to other services within a precinct of health services as well as to connect them to other supports. Being able to do that work around social connection is incredibly important and so having a design for a Hub that has not just those more formal counselling spaces but those informal spaces for social connection, for activities, for work or, for all of those different things that veterans as a group or as an individual or with family or family groups being able to come together and doing it in a way that's highly accessible not just to the other services but ensuring that it's accessible to veterans and families, good public transport connectivity here as well as having I think 20-odd parking bays in the car park right here that are dedicated to the Hub meaning that it's easy for veterans and families to access no matter where they're coming from because when we look at the northern suburbs of Adelaide we're supporting some 11,000 current and former serving personnel and their families.

JOURNALIST: And how does this fit into the broader Hub network?

MINISTER KEOGH: So as a government when we came, when we were elected in 2022 we had a commitment to significantly expand what were wellbeing centres to be Veterans’ and Families’ Hubs across the country and this northern suburbs Veterans’ and Families’ Hub is one of those Hubs that we are delivering and it's great to have got to this milestone of having identified the location and that it'll be open in just a few months time. And we're very close with the remainder of our Hubs as well. They're all currently in the process of finalising due diligence and negotiations on their locations and we're looking forward to being able to announce those locations in just a few months which will see a huge increase in the spread of this Hub network that will be supporting veterans and families right across the country. 
 

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