Radio interview, 2CC Canberra Live with Leon Delaney

E&OE transcript
Radio interview
2CC 1206 Canberra Live with Leon Delaney

50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War

Leon Delaney: Joining me now, the Federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh. Thanks for joining us today.

Matt Keogh: Glad to be with you, here, Leon.

Leon Delaney: It’s an important historical occasion, and 50 years, of course, is a very long time, but I imagine for the people who lived through it, it probably still feels pretty fresh in some ways.

Matt Keogh: I think that’s absolutely right. It is very fresh for those people that were part of it, but also for their families as well, and for many Australians that were paying very close attention to Australia’s activities in Vietnam at that time, and it has an ongoing presence, I think, in the Australia psyche, which is why it’s very important that we do appropriately commemorate Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War this year with the 50th Anniversary. As you said today was the official proclamation of the end of Australia’s involvement in the war, but we did still have Defence Force personnel involved in Vietnam through 1973, 50 years ago, and so this is an important year to commemorate the work and operations of those Defence Force members.

Leon Delaney: And so today marks the beginning of a year-long series of various different commemorative events to recognise Australia’s contribution during that conflict. But with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight, what is the legacy of Australia’s involvement in Vietnam? What was it all for?

Matt Keogh: Well, I think one of the very important legacies that’s come out of Australia’s involvement and working with the veterans from Vietnam is that we have come to have a much better appreciation of mental health issues generally, but especially those that impact on our serving men and women. We’ve developed the concept around and now have a much better understanding of PTSD, for example, and Australia, because of the way in which it’s sought to look after its veterans has been a world leader in providing assistance, support and treatment for mental health conditions and PTSD, especially for veterans, and that doesn’t just benefit those veterans that participated in Vietnam, but it’s had an ongoing benefit now for our contemporary veterans as well.

Now, that’s not saying we get everything right as it is, but we have learnt from what has occurred there, and the way in which we have been assisting those veterans, and I think a great embodiment of that, for example, is the Open Arms ‑ Veterans and Family Counselling Service, which had its start in the early 80s as the Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service.

Leon Delaney: Now, of course, at the time it was not a popular war, it was politically divisive, there were marches in the streets, there was a lot of protest activity, and by no means a popular war at all. And as a result of that, when Australian service personnel returned from the conflict, they weren’t terribly well treated, either by members of the public or in some instances even by the government. It was almost as if the government was a little bit embarrassed, and wanted to see them swept under the carpet, and that went on for quite a long time, didn’t it?

Matt Keogh: Certainly, the veterans that returned from Vietnam had great difficulties upon their return, and to some extent that reflected some of the experiences that Second World War veterans experienced when they returned in terms of the engagement they had from people who had fought in the First World War.

One of the great benefits that our contemporary veterans have been able to receive is that Vietnam veterans have learnt from that experience, and indeed it’s many of our Vietnam veterans now who are the advocates that provide assistance to our contemporary veterans in accessing Department of Veterans’ Affairs assistance and entitlements.

So there has been a great learning from that, but I think the key take away from that is that regardless of how people may think about the actual engagements themselves, what’s important is that we commemorate and thank the people who participated for their service to our nation, and not just them, but their families as well who have supported them in that, not just when they were on operation, but since they’ve returned home as well, and that’s the important part of these 50th Anniversary commemorations, is it’s about acknowledging the 60,000 Australians who served, but over 3,000 of whom that were wounded, and of course the 523 that tragically lost their lives.

Leon Delaney: So, what’s being done this year to commemorate the anniversary and to provide further assistance to veterans on an ongoing basis?

Matt Keogh: So there’s a range of activities that are going to be occurring across the year, obviously acknowledging today is a very important part of that. This year’s Anzac Day School Awards are going to be focused around Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, that’s an essay writing competition, there’s a number of resources that are being provided out to schools to educate them. There’s a documentary series that will be airing on the ABC later in the year about Australians’ involvement in the Vietnam campaign, which is an all very important element of that, and part of supporting these commemorations is we’re encouraging local ex‑service organisations to apply for Saluting Their Service Grants to enable the support for them to hold their own local commemoration activities throughout the year as well around this 50th Anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, but it will all culminate on Vietnam Veterans’ Day itself, the 18th of August, where there will be a major commemoration service at the Australian National War Memorial.

Leon Delaney: And of course, even now, after 50 years since the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, we’re still confronting many of these very same issues, aren’t we, and as we speak, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides is continuing its work. We’ve learnt some shocking things in the last couple of years, haven’t we?

Matt Keogh: We absolutely have, and as I said, we’ve come a long way from the way in which we engaged with and supported veterans in the 1970s to now, but there’s obviously a lot more work still to be done. We’ve received the interim report from the Royal Commission back in August, which I think is when we last spoke about some of these issues, and in September the Government provided its formal response to each of those 13 recommendations, and we’ve been cracking on with making sure we’re addressing those recommendations. We’ve removed staffing level caps across the Public Service, we’ve started the engagement of the 500 additional staff of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, we’re working on the new policies around access to information for the family members of loved ones that have taken their own lives, we’ve created some protocols to better enable Defence personnel to provide evidence to the Royal Commission that might be of a classified nature, and we’re improving the claims processing service within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and there was $87 million committed in the budget in October towards that program, and at the moment we are in the process of looking at what can we also do to improve the legislation that underpins the entitlement program for veterans to make sure that that operates in the best way as well.

Leon Delaney: I read today that at the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict 50 years ago in 1973, that moment marked the first time since before the Second World War in 1939 there Australia did not have forces actively deployed in combat somewhere in the world. It’s a long period of time, isn’t it; from 1939 all the way through to 1973?

Matt Keogh: It absolutely is, and the Vietnam War was Australia’s longest conflict in the 20th Century, and when you think about all of our veterans, it’s worth remembering also that last year was the 75th Anniversary of Peacekeeping operations, and we had Australians involved in Peacekeeping operations somewhere around the globe for each one of those 75 years. So Australia has a pretty active tempo in terms of making sure that we’re engaged in the world around us, and that shouldn’t be forgotten by anyone, but you’re right, that continuous war‑like engagement did come to an end at that point, and we went through a period there until the first Iraq war, largely when we didn’t have to have those active engagements, but we’ve subsequently, of course, with East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq, had Australia’s longest ever military engagements overseas, and taking the learnings from our engagement with Vietnam veterans and subsequently has been very important for how we can continue to improve our engagement and support for our contemporary veterans now.

Leon Delaney: Yeah. So people who want to be involved in the commemorations throughout the course of this year, where can they find more information about what’s going on?

Matt Keogh: So there will be more information on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs website, which is dva.gov.au/ Vietnam Commemorative Service, which of course is a very long URL for people to type in, but they can Google DVA Vietnam Commemorative Service, and find out information about the various services that are going to be undertaken, and anniversary of particularly milestones that will also be commemorated through the course of this year.

Leon Delaney: Indeed. Matt, thanks very much for your time today.

Matt Keogh: Great to be with you, Leon.

[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