Interview, ABC North Queensland with Jess Naunton

E&OE transcript
Radio Interview
ABC

JESS NAUNTON: Living in the largest Garrison city in the country, we know far too well the challenges our ADF personnel and veterans face in the transition to civilian life. It’s one of the core reasons behind why we are seeing a Royal Commission unfold right now. And whilst a lot of what we have heard from the inquiry has spotlighted the barriers and red tape around accessing timely services required, a new report showcases the need to celebrate the positives when it comes to our ex-ADF accessing education, employment and income.

Federal Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh joins me now to discuss this more. Good morning, Minister.

MATT KEOGH: Good morning, Jess. Good morning, listeners.

JESS NAUNTON: Now, it’s not often you hear about the positive experiences of our ex-ADF re-joining civilian life. What do you make of this new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare?

MATT KEOGH: That’s very right, Jess. Understandably, we often focus on the things that don’t work well for our serving personnel and veterans, but it’s really important that we do promote what does work well and for the vast majority of our serving personnel, people leaving Defence, our veterans, they have really positive outcomes. And the Department of Veterans’ Affairs partnered with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to look into the wellbeing characteristics of our ex-serving ADF members, and it showed that across employment, income, education, housing – much more positive outcomes for the vast majority of our former Defence serving members and, in fact, better outcomes than we see across the general Australian population.

JESS NAUNTON: Now, the data from the report focuses on the 2016 census data. Is it now outdated, Minister, when you compare it to what we are seeing and hearing I guess six years on?

MATT KEOGH: I think in terms of trends it won’t be outdated, and obviously we needed to start with a set of data and this work was commissioned some time ago, because it does take a while to build up the datasets that we see and to do that investigation into understanding the impacts on our serving personnel, and I think we’ve seen some really good outcomes in this report. But that will be added to then by the information we’ll receive in about October, which will be the next tranche of data from the 2021 census, which was the first time that we asked people if they were serving or had served in the Defence Force, and so that data will then build on top of this information as well and start to give us a much better picture of the overall outcomes for our ex‑serving and current serving Defence personnel.

JESS NAUNTON: Minister, were any of the, I guess, key findings in this report came as a surprise to you?

MATT KEOGH: I wouldn’t say that they came as a surprise, but they were certainly a positive reinforcement of a lot of the information that people report to me anecdotally. That whilst, understandably, as I say, there is a focus on veterans where things have not worked well, there are great outcomes for the vast majority of people who have served in our Defence Force. And seeing that in the statistical information in this report bear fruit I think is really important about how we as a nation perceive our Defence Force, perceive our veterans, understand the great benefits that they provide not just when they’re serving, but also once they have finished serving and returned to civilian life and are back as part of our broader community, and that they are great contributors to our community and having positive lives.

JESS NAUNTON: Now, we are seeing the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide unfold right now and the interim report showcased more than 62,000 DVA claims are yet to be processed since about June this year was that estimate. How does this government hope to address this?

MATT KEOGH: Yeah, look, that backlog of claims within Veterans’ Affairs is a huge travesty, and it’s why we took a commitment to the election to employ an additional 500 staff in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs so that we can get cracking on bringing that backlog down. Because it’s unfair on the veterans; it’s unfair on the serving personnel whose claims they are waiting so long to have those claims processed, so we're bringing on board and have started that process of engaging those 500 additional staff for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs so that we can get through that. In fact, you can apply for a job now. So, if anyone’s out there looking for a job, they can help our veterans by applying to work with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs so we can address the backlog.

JESS NAUNTON: The report also indicated a culture of tribalism and exclusion within the ADF, which I realise not everyone agrees with, but regardless, these are significant issues that this new government has to tackle and confront. How challenging is that going to be?

MATT KEOGH: Certainly the report raised a large number of issues and it spoke about a number of concerns that it had about things occurring in the Department of Defence and I think it very deliberately decided it was not going to make recommendations about issues within Defence in the interim report it handed down a few weeks ago. Those recommendations were largely looking at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. But I’ve been working since day one in this role with the department to make sure that we always have in front of mind our serving personnel. We need to recruit more of them. We need to retain more of them. And we need to make sure that when they do decide to transition out of Defence, they are doing so in the best conditions possible because it’s in our national interests to do so.

JESS NAUNTON: Do you think we need to look more into how the transition begins on base too, though, Minister, because a lot of veterans and ex‑serving personnel that I’ve spoken have this overall feeling that they’re getting left at the gate?

MATT KEOGH: Absolutely. And that’s why we’ve seen the Joint Transition Authority stood up, and there’s still some more work to do on the Joint Transition Authority and that was identified by the Royal Commission, and I’ve been engaging with the Department around that already. Certainly, also in the last few years, we’ve actually seen some considerable changes in the way that transition process is managed and the opportunity, in fact, the encouragement to serving personnel to lodge their claims with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs when they occur, when injury arises, not waiting until they’re transitioning or waiting until they’ve left so that they get that more seamless support.

And part of the backlog we now have in the ADF is because we have had some success in encouraging people to bring those claims forward whilst they’re still serving. That’s a good thing that that message has been heeded, but, obviously, as I say, we’re now bringing on additional staff to make sure that we can process those claims properly as well.

JESS NAUNTON: Now, last week, the Federal Government hosted a national Jobs and Skills Summit. What were some of the takeaways that are relevant for our Defence and veteran communities?

MATT KEOGH: So, there were two, I think, really important takeaways for our veteran community from the Jobs and Skills Summit last week. One is the addition of a $4,000 one-off increase to the income bank for those on pensions. So, in the case of veterans, it’s for people on the service pension that are over retirement age. This enables them to do more work, earn more money, before they start losing their pension, which serves two purposes for veterans. One, obviously it means from the country’s point of view we can get more access to skilled labour at a time when we’re experiencing a skills shortage, but it means for veterans themselves it makes it easier for them to go back to or remain in work whilst receiving their pension. That’s really good from the mental health outcomes for those veterans as well as, of course, allowing them to generate additional income. So, it’s a win–win there.

The other thing is around working-age veterans, and it is about improving access to jobs and training placements and pathways. So, this is 1,000 digital apprenticeships which will be in the Australian Public Service targeted to First Nations people, people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, but also veterans. We want to target these groups, and it’s making that opportunity available to enter the public service through a digital apprenticeship, reducing barriers for employment for them.

JESS NAUNTON: And just, finally, Minister, whilst I have you, there was a commitment by Labor in the last Federal Election, $4.5 million to the Oasis Townsville to develop a piloted phone app to help this transition of our Defence Force members into civilian life. When is this funding expected to be rolled out in Townsville?

MATT KEOGH: That is right. That was an election commitment, and we took a number of commitments to the election and it’s partly why we’ve brought forward having this new Budget process in October of this year so we can recalibrate all these matters around our election commitments going through the Budget process in October, so we can start rolling things like the NAVIGATOR app out, and a number of other commitments that we made at the election, as early as possible rather than waiting until a normal cycle of budgets in May.

JESS NAUNTON: Well, Federal Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh, thank you for your time this morning.

MATT KEOGH: Great to join you, Jess. Thank you very much.

END

Authorised by The Hon Matt Keogh MP

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