Radio interview - 6PR Perth Live with Russell Collett

HOST, RUSSELL COLLETT: Joining us to chat about some positive news for our veterans—they've done their work for us, and they deserve everything they get, in my view. Joining us is the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh. G'day, Matt.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Hey, great to be with you.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Great to be with you, mate. Some good news here that we've got a benefit going to veterans to give them easier access in regard to dental care.

MINISTER KEOGH: That's exactly right, yeah, yeah. So, we're doing two things that started from yesterday, first of January. One is about providing greater access to a broader set of dental assistance therapists because there are things that you can get done through a dental therapist, a hygienist, an oral health therapist—they're all registered with the dental board, but you haven't been able to access them directly through DVA. We've opened that up, which means accessibility improves and increases, so that helps veterans.

But the other key thing I think that many veterans will be interested in, I know many have written to me and spoken to me about this issue, is that for some of those really serious type of dental work that someone might need, like crowns or bridges or veneers, or what we call Schedule C items, there's a monetary cap. And what we've done is change the way that cap works so that veterans can get better access to the dental treatments they need. So, instead of it being an annual cap, what we've done is we've doubled the dollar value up to $5,980, and it'll apply over a two-year period instead.

So, it gives much greater flexibility to access those high-end dental treatments that our veterans will need. And so many of them have raised this issue with me, so we're really happy to make this change.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Yeah, no, good change. And I think the fact that our dental care plays such a big part in our overall wellbeing, it's often not really fully understood by people that it's vital to have good dental care if you want to have a good life moving forward.

MINISTER KEOGH: Absolutely right. And we see dental, you know, your dental health affects your overall health. We know that. It also can have quite an effect on your mental health because it affects how you present and therefore whether you're comfortable going out and, you know, socialising, doing things like that, and that's where making sure you've got presentable teeth is also important. But we also know on the flip side that mental health can affect people's dental health, you know, if they've got grinding, things like that.

So, making sure that we're able to provide better access to dental care by doubling that limit—it'll now apply over a two-year period. But it means instead of what used to happen was a veteran might access a particular dental service one year, they couldn't get the full thing done, they had to wait till the next year to try and get the next bit done. They can get the whole lot done in one hit within a two year period, and I think this will make access to those services much easier, and it'll help our veterans mental health as well, as I mentioned.

But for a range of other dental treatments where they could only use a, for example, a dental therapist if they were being supervised by a dentist, made that a lot harder, whereas we're now opening that up. So, for some of those other types of dental care, it'll be easier for veterans to be able to access the dental care that they need.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Absolutely. And talking about their wellbeing, you've got this wellbeing agency that will be opening up—

MINISTER KEOGH: That's right.

RUSSELL COLLETT: —the first of July this year.

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah. So, one of people, I'm sure people who are listening will be familiar with the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide that concluded late last year, or, sorry, late 2024. We've been working really hard on implementing the recommendations from that Royal Commission. In fact, a quarter, about a quarter of those recommendations were implemented by the end of last year, so just the end of last month.

But one of the big recommendations there, which is quite a new approach from the Royal Commission, is having a much broader wellbeing approach to supporting our veterans. And as part of that is establishing a new wellbeing agency, an agency that's responsible for broader wellbeing outcomes for our veteran community and their families. And so that will start from the middle of next—or, middle of this year, I should say. Middle of this year.

And also from the middle of this year will be the legislative changes that we introduced, which moves us from what were three very complex pieces of legislation supporting our veterans, and some veterans would fall under all three different pieces of legislation, making it even more complex to access health support, to access services. 
That all changes from the 1st of July as well. And so, there'll be just one single piece of legislation supporting all of our veterans, making access services much clearer for them, but also, importantly, it means that their claims with DVA will be processed much more quickly as well.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Streamlining the effect as such.

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, that's exactly right. And the Royal Commission itself said that the complexity of the system was contributing to suicidality, and it said Government really needed to simplify and harmonise the systems. And so that's what we've done by moving from three very different pieces of legislation to one piece of legislation going forward from the middle of July. So, we'll have the new legislation come in and we'll have the new wellbeing agency as well.

And for those who have been tracking this, the Royal Commission itself said its most important recommendation was to set up a statutory oversight body. And we legislated that early in 2025 and it started operations in September 2025. So, that's now there to provide—and it will do inquiries into Government; it will be looking over my shoulder and the shoulder of Government, making sure that we're implementing those recommendations from our response to the Royal Commission to provide those better outcomes for our veterans and their families.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Very, very good news. Now, there's growing pressure as we speak in regards to the call for a Royal Commission into the Bondi tragedy. Do you think this is just going to keep mounting as we go into 2026?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly, you know, I recognise that the people who are calling for that, why they're calling for it, certainly comes from a good place. And we as a Government are really committed to making sure that we work through all of those different issues that people are raising, you know, very understandably raising. You know, we're working closely with the New South Wales Government on the planned Royal Commission there.

We've already had the report from Jillian Segal, who did her work as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism with that report that she produced, which Government has adopted. And we've already implemented a range of things that were there from that report, and we're working through the rest of those things now. And of course, we've got our own inquiry looking specifically at whether there's been any breakdown in the work of our intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies at a federal level.

So, there's quite a bit of work already happening, and importantly happening very quickly. And that's what we were really committed to doing, was making sure that we were able to act quickly to identify, with the inquiry that we've set up, looking at the federal bodies, also working closely with the other Royal Commission that's looking at the police response and gun licensing and issues like that.

But we've already done that legislation around, you know, banning things like Nazi salute and hate symbols, introducing the first ever laws around hate speech, criminalising doxxing. We're now doing work with education institutions as well, and we want to make sure that we can continue to do that really important work through the adoption of the Segal report, making sure that we're doing the law reform that's needed as well, to crack down on preachers and leaders that are promoting violence, which is absolutely unacceptable. I think everybody agrees with that. Clearly there's been some gaps in the law. It's a tricky area of law. And we're working really quickly to develop those changes so that we can introduce powers to deal with that early in the parliamentary year.

RUSSELL COLLETT: And as a Minister of the Crown Matt, are we looking at implementing the entire recommendations from the Segal report?

MINISTER KEOGH: So, the Government's adopted the report, and it's outlined a number of steps that it's taking in relation to those findings that were contained in the report and the steps that need to be taken. So, for example, there was a number of recommendations that go to how do we improve education and improving the circumstances for people on campuses at universities. And we've set up the new National Student Ombudsman and it's going to be doing work together with Jillian Segal around making sure that those sorts of changes are implemented in our universities to make sure that people feel safe.

And that's an important element of how—that's an example of the elements that we're doing. But as I said, some of those things we've actually already done around hate speech and hate symbols were things that we had already done through the Parliament.

RUSSELL COLLETT: And as part of the Royal Commission in New South Wales, called by their Premier, Chris Minns, will there be an element to that Royal Commission that will look directly at why antisemitism is rising here in Australia?

MINISTER KEOGH: I understand that it's looking at, in particular, the police response there and, you know, how their authorities responded to what occurred at Bondi and whether there was any gaps in their processes in the lead up as well, and we're going to work closely with them on that. And I guess when we think about the responses to antisemitism more generally, which we obviously all need to ever be vigilant about, that's why we had Jillian Segal do that report; it's why we've adopted that report, and it's why we got about making changes to the law around hate speech, around hate symbols. And we're doing that work with the National Student Ombudsman.

There's going to be more work that we're going to have to do with the states as well. Obviously, the gun law thing is one that has to be coordinated at a federal and state level. School curriculums: if there's a view that we need to be doing more work around school curriculums, that's another thing that obviously needs to sit working with the Commonwealth and the states around those issues. I'm sure, given the nature of a Royal Commission, those sorts of things may very much come up in the evidence and the hearings that come forward.

RUSSELL COLLETT: And Matt, just before I let you go, do you think we'll see, as a result of both the inquiry, the Richardson inquiry, and, of course, the Royal Commission, where we may have more federal laws brought in so we have an overarching set of laws that will help diminish antisemitism here in Australia?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, we've already said that we will introduce stronger laws around the sorts of things that we're seeing being promoted by particular preachers and leaders in some communities which are not acceptable. And from whether it's promoting antisemitism or other forms of hate and violence, we want to make sure that our laws meet the mark. And we've passed laws already, but we've already said that we will strengthen those laws and improve those laws, and that's regardless of the outcomes of the Richardson review that we're conducting or the Royal Commission in New South Wales.

But obviously, we will take on board whatever recommendations come out of those two inquiries. I'm not going to prejudge either of those inquiries, but we'll certainly take on board those recommendations if they're made, and that's consistent with what we are already in the process of developing now in terms of better law reform.

RUSSELL COLLETT: Thank you for your time this afternoon, Matt. It's been wonderful for you to catch up with us on January the 2nd. Great news there about some of the benefits coming the way of our veterans, and we appreciate your time. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs.

MINISTER KEOGH: Lovely to be with you.

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.

Authorised by The Hon Matt Keogh MP.