Radio Interview - 2GB Breakfast with Ben Fordham - Thursday 18 May 2023

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2GB, BREAKFAST WITH BEN FORDHAM
THURSDAY, 18 MAY 2023

BEN FORDHAM: It's a quarter to eight. You're listening to Ben Fordham on 2GB and you're about to listen to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs Matt Keogh who has just dropped by the studio. He happens to be in town.

Mat Keogh, good morning to you.

MINISTER KEOGH: Ben, great to be with you and with all your listeners.

BEN FORDHAM: Yeah, thank you for swinging in. We've spoken to you a few times because before you got the job we were highlighting a number of issues in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, so I thought we'd get an update because you've been in the gig for a year now.

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, nearly a year, that's right.

BEN FORDHAM: Nearly a year. So, first of all, we won't start with the most important one. I want to start with the one that was frustrating a lot of veterans where all of a sudden they had people who had been working for them, they might have been mowing the lawn or a carer who said, "Hey, I haven't been paid" and then that put the veterans in a very difficult spot. I think that's one of the first things you wanted to fix, right?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, and I think it's the first thing you and I spoke about nearly a year ago as well, Ben, and it was frustrating veterans, their families, but also those service providers. We threw a lot of effort at that when we first came in. We've now got that's basically working as it should be. We're now getting 90 per cent of those invoices paid within 20 days. That backlog's been worked through.

We're continuing to work on it but we're now also working on how we can improve the system that sits behind that, so it works more efficiently so we don't see it blow out again.

BEN FORDHAM: Okay, so 90 per cent are paid within 20 days?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yep.

BEN FORDHAM: And that's for all of the people who are helping out

MINISTER KEOGH: In home support.

BEN FORDHAM: in home support and everything else.

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah.

BEN FORDHAM: Okay, that's good. The other big one is all the people who are just waiting in a line for their claim to be assessed in some way. Now I think when you took over there were 41,000 people waiting in that line.

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah.

BEN FORDHAM: How many are waiting in the line today?

MINISTER KEOGH: So it was just under 42,000 and when we came in that crept up, that continued to go up to over 45,000 by September. We've now got that down to 36,000 as we've been bringing on the additional staff into the Department. Obviously there's a lag. You've got to hire those people and you've got to train them. But we're now starting to see the dividends to pay of that effort and we're continuing to hire, we're continuing to train people so that we can get that down as fast as we possibly can, but we're now seeing that it's heading in the right direction. That's really important.

BEN FORDHAM: I was running through some of the public service numbers yesterday and when I was going to your Department I said well they need all the help they can get because we know that from all of the veterans. So am I right in saying the Department of Veterans' Affairs now has more than 3,000 workers, is that right?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, overall, that's exactly right. And we've got nearly 300 that are working on the claims processing and, you know, every week we get more that complete their training and are able to work on that.

We're also being confronted by the same issue that many employers around the country are, which is shortages of staff to employ. So it's taking us a bit longer to hire some of the staff than we would like, but importantly we're also moving them from being labour hire to becoming public servants, which gives them job security.

BEN FORDHAM: Yep.

MINISTER KEOGH: It means we hold them longer, so we invest in that training, we get to keep trained staff instead of churning through staff which was also what was happening under the last Government. So you couldn't get any traction on processing those claims before.

BEN FORDHAM: Okay. So when it was at its worst it got up to how many thousand on the waiting list?

MINISTER KEOGH: Over 45,000 in September.

BEN FORDHAM: 45,000 in September. You reckon down to 36,000 now?

MINISTER KEOGH: That's right.

BEN FORDHAM: So that's tracking well. What kind of goal are you setting now for where you'll be by the end of the year or this time next year?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, so there's two parts to claims. So the first part we call initial liability, which is what makes sure that a veteran gets access to all the health care supports that they need for whatever their condition. The second part is what our results on getting a compensation pay out. So you have to do the first part before you can do the second part.

The first part, I'm hoping to get that resolved by the end of this year. The second part will take a bit longer. This all comes from the complicated nature of the legislation that supports the three different schemes for veterans' entitlements. And we're going through a process at the moment where we've got a proposal we've been consulting on to move to just having one single scheme going forward to make it simpler for veterans, their advocates, and the Department so we can process claims even faster as we move forward.

BEN FORDHAM: We had a case recently where there was a veteran who needed an operation and then there were question marks over whether the insurance company liked the surgeon that he had lined up and everything. Thankfully you stepped in on that one and said, "Just make it happen". It's so heartbreaking for these people where they're already going through hell and then they have someone thinking, "Oh well, we're not sure whether we're going to be going ahead with your surgery".

MINISTER KEOGH: Look, it's a complicated process and the legislation doesn't make that any simpler. We also need to do, and we continue to do work with surgeons and GPs and medical professionals to make sure they best understand that system so that they can get the best support for the veteran they're working with as soon as possible as well.

BEN FORDHAM: Okay. Well you've got some news you're announcing today. What's the news?

MINISTER KEOGH: We are. So this is an increase to the veterans' access payment which is paid to GPs. I've spoken to you; I've spoken with many people who are aware that a number of GPs have been saying they're no longer going to service our veterans who have a gold card or a white card because they can't charge a gap.

BEN FORDHAM: M'mm.

MINISTER KEOGH: And that's despite the fact that GPs get paid 115 per cent of the Medicare schedule, so they get more than a normal GP would for bulk billing. But the veterans' access payment is to further incentivise that. That's been tripled as was announced in the budget last week so that GPs will be getting even more money, to make sure that given their rising costs, and they had their rebates frozen for quite a while as we know. They've been it hitting business pressures as well and we want to make sure that they are getting some additional income so that they're not coming out of the system and withdrawing service, which some have been doing, to our veterans, because our veterans need to get that access and they don't want to have to change GPs because their GP says, "Oh well I'm no longer going to service a veteran" and then they've got to go and repeat their story to a whole new doctor and rebuild that history. So a tripling of that veterans' access payment, which means in a metro area that's an additional $23 to a GP for a visit from a veteran and it's even higher in rural and remote areas.

BEN FORDHAM: All right. Well you've got a big mountain to climb, and I appreciate you updating us on it because you know how hard it is for the veterans out there. What feedback are you getting? Because I'm sure that there'll be people saying right now, "Well, you know, he's planning on making these changes and it's going to take a long, long time", I mean you can't make this stuff happen in a flash, can you?

MINISTER KEOGH: You can't make it happen straight away but certainly we've taken the approach that there's been a number of inquiries over time. There was a Senate inquiry, there was a Productivity Commission Inquiry. We had the Interim Commissioner. We've now got the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide all making recommendations, a lot of them the same recommendations. So instead of starting from scratch we're trying to build on top of that body of work that's already been done so that we can move as quickly as possible but still bringing veterans along for that journey. Consulting with their organisations, consulting with veterans directly, which is what we've been doing. And importantly most people have said to us, "You're doing the right thing and heading in the right direction". Certainly there are things people say, "Oh, on this technical issue we think you should this a bit differently" or whatever.

BEN FORDHAM: Sure, sure.

MINISTER KEOGH: But they're happy that we are actually grabbing the bull by the horns and saying we want to change the legislation to make it better.

BEN FORDHAM: Well you know I'd be hammering you if you hadn't sorted out that in home care issue.

MINISTER KEOGH: Rightly so.

BEN FORDHAM: And you have managed to sort that out and you're also on the right path so far as doing something about the waiting list. I mean I don't know; you've gone from 41,000, it went up to 45,000, you do say there's a lag on getting the achievements through, down to 36,000. I mean it's never going to be zero. But the more you can speed that up the better, but I'm going to base this interview based on the results so far and all I can see is the waiting list has gone from 45,000 at its worst to now 36,000, still too many but it's headed in the right direction.

Are you disappointed that Joe Biden isn't coming to Australia? It sounds like he's brushed us.

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, look, it would have been lovely to have Joe here but for anyone who does follow American politics, boy is that crazy stuff. I completely understand why he's got to go back to sort out their debt ceiling issue.

BEN FORDHAM: He'll sort out the debt ceiling, they always do. If he wanted to be here, he'd be here.

MINISTER KEOGH: Look, it is the absolute story of brinkmanship with what's going on over there at the moment, but absolutely, if the US were to default the ripple effect that that would cause through our economy and the global economy would be terrible. So I'd much rather that we get that sorted for the sake of deferring a visit to another time.

BEN FORDHAM: We appreciate you dropping in and let's do it again and get another update soon.

MINISTER KEOGH: Look forward it, cheers.

BEN FORDHAM: Good on you. The Minister Matt Keogh joining us in the studio.

ENDS

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