Press conference - Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants - Glenelg North

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
GLENELG NORTH, ADELAIDE
TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2025

SUBJECTS: Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants.

LOUISE MILLER-FROST, MEMBER FOR BOOTHBY: So welcome here to the William Kibby VC Memorial Men's Shed. This is a really important facility in our local area, particularly for veterans, but for the entire community. There are a number of community events happening here, celebrating and recognising the service of our veterans over many, many conflicts. So I'm here today with the Minister Matt Keogh and also with Sean who is a veteran, a local artist who will be doing a fantastic mural, and Edward his son who's come along today who may be helping with the mural as well, I understand. So it's my absolute pleasure to welcome the Minister and to invite him to speak.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Thank you, Louise and thank you, Sean. It's great to be here today at the William Kibby Veterans’ Shed to be announcing the first round of the 2024-25 Saluting Their Service Grants. Nationally, 55 organisations will be sharing in $770,000 worth of grants around the country to support projects to recognise and commemorate the service of Australia's Defence Force men and women through war, conflict, and peacetime service. And there is a wide variety of programs that are being supported through this grant round to ensure that current Australians are able to share in the stories and understand and properly commemorate the service of our Australian Defence Force members. And a great example of that is the grant of $9,923 coming here to the William Kibby VC Veterans’ Shed to fund the development and painting of a mural that will share the stories of local Defence members to the community here in Adelaide and South Australia to enable the sharing of their stories and become a focal point for the community to understand the nature of that service. William Kibby VC is from this community, there are others that have served as nurses during the Second World War all the way through to contemporary veterans that will be recognised and what the great work that the shed does, is not just supporting the veterans that are members of the Shed, but also engaging with the broader community and school groups so that they can learn about Australia's Defence history and the service of those that have put on Australia's uniform is incredibly important for building that sense of community and understanding, building that commemoration, and the mural that will be painted here is a key part of that and we're very proud to be able to deliver the grant to support this organisation but also to deliver the whole $770,000 that's rolling out to the 55 organisations nationally as part of round one. The next round is closing on the 5th of February so I also encourage ex-service organisations and other community groups that are looking for funding support to enhance their commemoration, their capacity to share the stories, to educate the Australian community about the service of our Australian Defence Force those in their community or broader national projects to please apply for a Saluting Their Service Grant through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and that next grant funding round closes on the 5th of February and I'd really like to invite Sean Halfpenny who's the artist who will be developing this mural here to just say a few words about the mural he's developing and the stories behind it. Thank you very much.

SEAN HALFPENNY: Thank you very much. It's a great honour to be a part of this project it means a lot to me to share my story a little bit but more the people that have come before us that are from this community and really just put something up there that just continues the legacy that they've left and hopefully gets a bit more exposure for the things they've done in the past and just remind everyone these great people before us were a part of this community so I'd just like to thank everyone involved for giving me the opportunity to do this and I really will be working hard and tirelessly to do you all proud, so thank you very much.

JOURNALIST: Sean, are you able to tell us a little bit about your service?

HALFPENNY: Yeah, yeah sure. I was in the Army for about five years Royal Australian Regiment so I was an infantry soldier and I deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and yeah since returning from military service not so long ago I started painting as therapy to be honest, so this has all been a big surprise for me and it's really turned into not only a passion and hopefully a career in being an artist but very much so therapy for me. So it does mean a lot to be able to share my art with the community and hopefully a wider community as well so yeah again, just thank you very much.

JOURNALIST: So with your paintings that you've actually been doing, have you produced anything that we've seen before?

HALFPENNY: I'm not sure, so I definitely did quite well in an art prize the Napier Waller Art Prize and a painting called ‘The Gentle Soldier’ that was displayed in the, sorry I'm pretty nervous, but it was displayed in the Parliament House in Canberra during an exhibition during the final stages of that art prize. I was accepted as a highly commended finalist so as a part of that it was on exhibition in the Parliament House I think until it was at least six months I'd say and then following that the War Memorial actually purchased that piece and that would be a part of their permanent collection so that's some of the art I've done. My art is also on social media, so on TikTok and Facebook and stuff so yeah if you follow those channels you can definitely see some of my art but yeah -

JOURNALIST: With your experience with artwork and helping you with therapy, how important is this program to you? How important is this announcement today?

HALFPENNY: Well for me it means a lot. It definitely displays the power of art and how it can be therapy and definitely a channel for hopefully a new career, but I think it's very important. When the War Memorial told me that they purchased one of my paintings, it wasn't all about selling a painting. It was more about, I know that's going to be there forever and my kids and will see that long after me. I think it's just really important. Paintings last forever. It's great that you hear stories about past service men and women, but it's not as visual as art. People can look at that for a long time and it just creates more exposure and recognition for what people have done, I think.

JOURNALIST: Okay Minister, I'm sorry this is a pretty easy one, but how important is a program like this?

MINISTER KEOGH: I think a program like Saluting Their Services is incredibly important because it is a way in which we can ensure at a local community level, like here or at a national level, we are continuing to tell the story of Australia's involvement in conflict, in war, but also peacetime service. As the generations move through, it's important that we're able to continue to commemorate that service that is over 100 years ago, but also that service that is much more recent. Every community has a story to tell and representation in our Australian Defence Force. Whether it's through a mural like here, which will share local stories, or whether it is through documentary or books, or upgrading a local war memorial, or adding a new plaque to a local war memorial, it's about ensuring that across the country we continue to remember them, that we don't forget those that have put on Australia's uniform and those that have made the supreme sacrifice, but also that we remember the stories of the impact that it had on those people's lives and on our communities around Australia, and that's why this grant program is so important. I think when we look at the program here, the mural that is going to be painted here at the William Kibby VC Veterans’ Shed, it's a great demonstration of the power of art, not just to tell a story, not just to share a history, but also the way in which art can provide a very therapeutic basis for understanding and moving into a phase of life after Defence service. And I think Sean's story, as a veteran himself, as someone who has been into a war zone and understood and seen that, to then be able to come back to use art as a form of therapy, but also to use his skills to be able to share a story and to allow his community to understand that story more broadly, of not just service in more recent times like Afghanistan, but going all the way back through recent conflict, all the way back over decades and centuries, is incredibly important as well. We think about the service of William Kibby VC himself. He was part of the battles at El Alamein. He died there, as did my great uncle. These are shared stories across Australia, and being able to share them across generations through something like a mural here where schools come and participate in services like Remembrance Day that are organised by the Veterans’ Shed here, enables those stories to be shared and remembered for generations to come as well.

JOURNALIST: $770,000 for round one. Are we looking at what's the total for round two and possibly three?

MINISTER KEOGH: So there's several million dollars that are part of the program overall that will roll out between across to the end of the financial year, but each round is based on the applications that are actually received and are assessed as we go through. So, but there's several million dollars that are dedicated to this grant program over the financial year, and there's two different categories of grants. For a local community, they can receive up to $10,000, but for a regional or state-wide or national program, they can receive up to $150,000 grant as part of Saluting Their Service, and the next round closes on the 5th of February.

JOURNALIST: With several million dollars part of the overall grant, are you expecting that to be used up? Are we expecting there to be a surplus?

MINISTER KEOGH: This is a grant program that is always oversubscribed and it's wonderful to see so many organisations, especially ex-service organisations around Australia, that are looking to continue and enhance their commemoration of Australia's Defence Force members, our engagement in war, conflict, and peacekeeping. And we see some really great projects supported through this grant program. So many, unfortunately, we can't fund them all, but it's wonderful to see all of the different programs where people are applying because they recognise and understand the importance of commemorating and holding the flame for the memory of those that have passed in service, but also those that have suffered from injuries, visible and invisible, as we go forward as a community together.

JOURNALIST: The program is important, is $3 million enough if it's oversubscribed?

MINISTER KEOGH: What we see, what is really good is the way in which we can work with the people that have applied for these grants over time. Sometimes grants aren't successful because they're not quite developed enough to be successful in their first application. The Department gives feedback to those organisations so they can look at how they can develop that, but because this is a program that rolls out year after year, we are literally spending millions and millions of dollars over time to make sure that whether it's at a veteran shed like we are here in Adelaide, whether it is a small community war memorial in regional Australia, whether it is a documentary series that will be shown in schools across the country, it is a program that supports making sure that we properly commemorate and respect the service of all Australian Defence Force members from over a century, through to those that have fought in our most recent conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
 

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