Radio Interview - ABC Brisbane with Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
ABC BRISBANE
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG ZONCA AND LORETTA RYAN
WEDNESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Veteran services, Veteran suicide risk, DVA liability claims.

HOST, CRAIG ZONCA: And to this, it was a battle waged on the home front by those who know all too well how to fight. Our veterans embarking on a campaign to get the Federal Government to scrap its caps on allied health services. And last week they won.

HOST, LORETTA RYAN: Yes, but what was sacrificed in the process? Matt Keogh is the Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel. Minister, good morning.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Good morning.

LORETTA RYAN: You're a hard man to get hold of, we've worked out it's been about a year and seven days since you were last in the studio with this, and at the time you had a big job ahead implementing the 113 accepted recommendations from the Royal Commission. A cap on allied health wasn't one of them though. Did you get a bit side tracked?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, what we announced as part of the Budget, that measure was around increasing fees for allied health practitioners which was part of a recommendation, Rec 71 of the Royal Commission, and looking at changing the administrative burden that went with allied healthcare, we proposed a change there, we were consulting on that, we've heard what veterans have had to say and we're not proposing to   we're not going to go forward with that threshold.

But we are keeping the increase in fees for the allied health practitioners. That's really important because some were withdrawing their service, they were saying we're not going to service veterans anymore, so making sure we're paying them better so veterans get better access to service is still very important.

LORETTA RYAN: But you conceded initially in Parliament you got it wrong?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, look, we've been doing the consultation as we committed to do when we announced this budget measure around the mechanics of how the system would operate. We've been listening to veterans and practitioners and we've heard the response, and we've taken that threshold off the table, that's right.

CRAIG ZONCA: If it was so wrong, Minister, why did you and your Labor colleagues dig in as much as you did to try to get it over the line?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly, we saw that there was a benefit for the vast majority of veterans who would no longer have to use the treatment cycle that exists currently, having to go back to see a doctor every 12 sessions of allied health, and so we thought we had a better way there of working forward, but we've, you know, gone out and we've listened to the community, and that's, you know, we were concerned as part of that debate that we had going on that veterans were becoming a political football, and we never want to see that happen, we're concentrating on delivering better outcomes for our veteran community.

So we've taken that off the table. We'll keep the fees increase, which is important to maintain that service delivery for our veteran community, because that's been waning, and that was a concern of the Royal Commission, that's why it had that recommendation, and that's meant that we've been also able to move forward with legislation surrounding the Royal Commission, getting recommendations implemented, which is critically important.

CRAIG ZONCA: Yeah. So politically, it did play out, make headlines, you know, right across the political spectrum. This was MP Michael McCormack after your party voted down Senate amendments to scrap it, 86 to 46.

[Excerpt]

MICHAEL McCORMACK: Yesterday, we actually, in this place, we trashed democracy. 86 to 46 was the vote when the amendment came back from the Senate in relation to scrapping the cap, and over in the Upper House it was 35 20 last Thursday to scrap the insidious, the unfair, the unjust and un Australian cap on our veterans, and you know what, veterans across Australia, they'll have a look at who voted, who voted not to scrap the cap. They will remember.

[End of Excerpt]

CRAIG ZONCA: Other Members of Parliament, you know, former Defence member herself, Senator Jacqui Lambie, was also a fierce opponent.

[Excerpt]

JACQUI LAMBIE: I'm begging you, Prime Minister, drop the bloody cap. Drop it, mate. Veterans have had enough. Leave us alone.

[End of Excerpt]

CRAIG ZONCA: So that's some of the political response on this. Sometimes silence is louder than the words though, veterans willingly parting with something so sacred as their service medals in protest over this initial move from you and your Department.

As their Minister, what did you think of that?

MINISTER KEOGH: I met with those veterans, as I met with veterans around the country engaged with the ex service organisations and also the allied health professionals around this measure, that was very important.

I think, you know, part of what you were playing just there were the problems that we were seeing in the Parliament coming from this issue being treated as a political football. Amending legislation not relevant to allied health to try and drive an outcome created real risk. You know, we don't want veterans to be a political football, we've been clear on trying to deliver good outcomes for veterans.

Now we've taken this off the table, but it's also meant that we've been able to pass two critical pieces of legislation through the Parliament which is seen as being able to directly implement 20 recommendations of the Royal Commission by passing that legislation, but also it underpins 20 further recommendations of the Royal Commission.

And that's what's critically important here, is being able to drive forward on all of these recommendations. There was 113 recommendations of the Royal Commission that we agreed or agreed in principle.

Just the other day, on the second anniversary of the Royal Commission's final report, I announced that we were upgrading our response to 15 of those recommendations, which we had said at the time of our initial response that we would do further work on those recommendations we noted. There was 17 noted recommendations back then, we've now got that down to eight noted and 113 being implemented up from   agreed or agreed in principle, up from 104.

So we're continuing to do that work, and we're on track to have two thirds of those recommendations implemented by the end of this year.

CRAIG ZONCA: Okay. Just on that, Minister, and you said you didn't want this to be a political football this issue, but it became one, and part of that was you were really digging in your heels for a number of months over it. You spoke about trying to implement those recommendations. Do you expect to be able to do that sufficiently, you know, have you lost the room, the veteran community? Do they continue to support you given what transpired over this cap issue?

MINISTER KEOGH: I don't think anyone should be under an illusion that it was all one way traffic on that measure; we certainly had people that were very supportive of the measure, but you know

CRAIG ZONCA: Well, I don't know a veteran who was supportive of the move, Minister.

LORETTA RYAN: There were 10 leading organisations who banded together over this though.

MINISTER KEOGH: And worked with the Government on working how this would work through. But the important thing here is that when we look at the Royal Commission's recommendations, 122 of them, we're moving forward, we're agreeing, agreeing in principle on 113. We'll have two thirds implemented by the end of this year, but that's on the back of some of the biggest reform to veterans' entitlement legislation in many, many decades that we were able to get through the Parliament and start it on 1 July this year.

Moving from having three different schemes into having a single scheme going forward now, makes it easier for people to understand how it works, what they're entitled to, makes it quicker and more simple for deviated process claims, which has been a great frustration in the veteran community, how long it can take for claims to get processed through DVA. We're bringing down that processing time by resourcing the Department, but as well as making the legislation work better.

So I think we've been working very closely with the veteran community across a whole range of issues, and we'll continue to do that, engaging with them and listening, which is what we've demonstrated here, and moving forward to make sure we get the better outcomes that our veterans and their families deserve.

CRAIG ZONCA: Do you believe you have the support of the veteran community, because we've had veterans tell us on 612 ABC Brisbane it's time for you to go as Minister. Do you deserve to stay in the job?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, I'm very grateful for the constructive way in which veterans across the country and veteran organisations work with me and work with the Government on what we all have as our objective together, which is to make the changes that are necessary to improve the way the systems work to make sure that veterans and their families, and indeed people who are still serving in the Defence Force, are getting the sorts of supports, access to services, compensation that they need and deserve in a timely way.

LORETTA RYAN: Matt Keogh is Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans Affairs, on 612 ABC Brisbane. It's 25 past 7. Minister, we've just seen the release of a report into suicide rates across the country. Have you seen any improvement in veteran numbers?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly it was very pleasing to see that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released yesterday does show a downward trend in rates of suicide amongst our veteran community, but they are still higher than the Australian average, and any death is one too many, and I think it's important that we start from that position.

But it is pleasing to see that we are seeing a downward trend, you know, in those numbers, but what's also important in those numbers is that they really allow us to focus in on where are we seeing the greatest issue, where do we need to focus our efforts, and it points to that point of transition when people are leaving the Defence Force, going into civilian life, and especially when they do that on an involuntary basis, particularly if they're medically transferring, something's happened to them during service medically, which means they have to leave.

LORETTA RYAN: Yep.

MINISTER KEOGH: You know, that can be a completely life changing event for somebody, not just because of injury but because obviously their concept of being in the Defence Force then radically changes and making sure that people get the support that they need at that point is really, really important, but following from there as well.

And so the new Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency that we've just established this year goes to that. It will be providing those service points across that transition time, but going forward from there as well, and provides linkage of people to a broad range of wellbeing support services available in the community, whether they're broad community support or veteran-specific, working with them to connect them, which is vitally important, making sure that we are able to maintain connection, maintain   get people access to the services that they need when they need them.

LORETTA RYAN: So true. But Minister, the report did find that male veterans medically discharged face a 138 per cent higher suicide risk than the average Australian male, 138 per cent higher. For female veterans it's 92 per cent. How are you tackling those highly vulnerable cohorts?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, these are really troubling, troubling statistics, and whilst it's great that we're seeming to see some improvement, they're still very problematic and concerning to people, and that's why we had a Royal Commission, that's why we called for the Royal Commission when we were in Opposition, and it's why we're working so swiftly on implementing these recommendations from the Royal Commission.

LORETTA RYAN: But they're dying as we're waiting. I mean how many veterans are dying while dealing with DVA?

MINISTER KEOGH: So that's why it's so important that we're moving so quickly. So if you think about the Royal Commission handed down its report in September of 2024, by December of that year we've handed down our Government response. That's probably the quickest response you've ever seen to a Royal Commission.

LORETTA RYAN: Okay. So that's why you're moving quickly, because you're basically saying they are dying while dealing with DVA?

MINISTER KEOGH: No, I'm saying that we're moving quickly on implementing the Royal Commission recommendations that are about dealing with the issue of suicide amongst serving members and our veteran community, and we recognise, as we did when we called for the Royal Commission, that seeing the rates of suicide that we are seeing are terrible, they are a national tragedy. It's why we're working so quickly on implementing those Royal Commission recommendations.

It's also why it's pleasing to see that there is a downward trend. And part of doing all of this has been making the investment into DVA so that DVA operates more quickly and provides support to our veteran community more quickly as well, and that's what we've been doing, and we've significantly reduced the processing times within DVA to support our veteran community, but also

LORETTA RYAN: How long? How long does it take for a claim to go through?

MINISTER KEOGH: So, at the moment, if you were putting in a claim, this year we've seen that claim times have come down to about 130 odd days being processed, and about 40 odd of those days are waiting for additional information from the veteran. So DVA's time on an initial liability claim is a bit over 90 days.

So that's a significant improvement from what we were seeing of taking well over a year on an initial liability claim with DVA. Now that claim

LORETTA RYAN: We've had listeners tell us they've been waiting five years.

MINISTER KEOGH: And what I'm talking about is what we're seeing for claims right now. We've had veterans who were waiting that long, that's right, that is the system we inherited when we came into government, which is a huge, huge problem, and that's why we applied the additional resources into DVA, it's why we've made our systems work in a more streamlined way, and it's why we undertook this huge piece of work of amending the legislation that supports our veteran entitlement system, so that we have a more straightforward approach to supporting our veteran community, harmonising it

LORETTA RYAN: Yep.

MINISTER KEOGH: Simplifying it going forward. And that's reaping the results. We've still got to do more. No one is saying the system is perfect.

CRAIG ZONCA: Minister, we'll have to leave it there with news on our doorstep. Really appreciate your time today.

MINISTER KEOGH: Wonderful to be with you.

CRAIG ZONCA: The Veterans' Affairs Minister, Matt Keogh, on 612 ABC Brisbane.

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