Radio interview, 2GB Ben Fordham Live

E&OE transcript
Radio Interview
2GB Ben Fordham Live

Veterans’ Legislation Reform Consultation Pathway

BEN FORDHAM: Look, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but I must say that we are getting good feedback already from some of our veterans over the Federal Government overhaul of outdated laws to determine how soldiers receive compensation. We're being told that this will allow the shameful backlog to be cleared, and it is a national shame. 

The Royal Commission into Veterans Suicide uncovered evidence that delays in this department were linked to people taking their own lives. They fought for their country, and then they were caught up in red tape, and we've told you stories about veterans receiving a knock on the door; their gardener or cleaner hadn't been paid for months, so the services were about to end. 

Well, what about 32 year old Jesse Bird who committed suicide in 2017 after being ignored by the Department of Veterans' Affairs for months on end. This is something that impacts all of us. We all have a duty to make sure these problems are fixed, and Matt Keogh is the Federal Minister for Veterans’. He's on the line. Matt, good morning to you. 

MINISTER KEOGH: Hi Ben, good morning. 

BEN FORDHAM: Let's go to the reaction, first of all. We've heard from a number of the people who have been contacting us for years in the Defence community. They're saying to us, and look, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but they're saying to us they think you might have got this right. 

MATT KEOGH: Well, Ben, I'm very, very happy to hear that people are responding positively to this, and that's the sort of feedback we like to get when we start a consultation process around legislative reform, but no doubt we'll get other views as well. But that's the whole point of going about it this way. We've announced what we think is a good way forward, but we want to hear directly from veterans and families who have been or would be affected by this legislation, as well as others involved in the system. That's why we've set this out, to make sure we get those views, so that those people who are most affected are heard. 

BEN FORDHAM: The feedback that we've had previously is that people feel like they're a lost sock in the dryer; they can't find their way out, they're not sure that their claim is actually being addressed, so your whole mission here is to streamline everything?  

MATT KEOGH: It absolutely is, and I completely understand why veterans and advocates can feel completely overwhelmed by what they've had to confront, because as you mentioned, this legislation, three different schemes have built up now for more than over a century, they all sort of have interrelationships and people bounce between different pieces of legislation depending on the nature of their claims. We want to streamline that into one ongoing scheme, so using, of the three, the most recent scheme as an ongoing scheme, closing out the older two. People would still keep their entitlements under those schemes, they'd be grandfathered in, so no loss of what they've got access to already, but that's the model that we're consulting on now, so that it is simpler for the veterans to understand, the advocates to understand, but also it's simply for the Department to administer, which goes to that backlog in claims that you were just talking about, how long it takes to get through these claims to help our veterans. 

BEN FORDHAM: Yeah, there's a high mountain in front of you, because the Department of Veterans’ now has a backlog of 42,000 claims, so am I right in saying that these are claims that haven't even been looked at yet, and then you've got 60,000 in total, about 20,000 of those are being processed, is that right?  

MATT KEOGH: Yeah, that's right. So around 20,000 claims are being processed at any one time, and as we bring on more staff, which we're doing right now, which was our election commitment to bring on 500 more staff, we are able to process more claims at one time. But there is a bit of a lag because we've got to train those new staff, and because these systems are so complex, it takes a bit of time. So we're now in that 42,000 claims number that have not yet been allocated to someone to process. 

We're trying to move through that as quickly as possible. We saw claims, the number of claims continue to increase when we came in to Government, so that number got higher after we came in to Government, and it's now starting to come down again. It is a bit higher now than it was when we were first elected, but it's now heading in the right trajectory. 

BEN FORDHAM: Here's an example: Charlie says to me, "I'm a veteran, and they take forever to reply to correspondence. I'm still waiting on a reply to a letter from six months ago". 

MATT KEOGH: Yeah, and I'm really sorry, Charlie, and I really understand how frustrating that can be, and I know even just as a local MP, you know, I get these sorts of matters coming to me from my constituents, and it really comes down to issues around - we need to keep people focused on processing these claims, and sometimes if we're providing a lot of up updates to people, it takes people off the main job, but I completely get how frustrating that is, and of course, a simpler system, and being able to get through this backlog as quickly as possible will mean that the level of service provided to our veterans and understanding and replying to updates and everything else can be improved, and that's what we want to deliver on ultimately. 

BEN FORDHAM: All right. Would you mind if I pass Charlie's details along to your office?  

MATT KEOGH: Not at all. Always happy to look at those matters. 

BEN FORDHAM: All right. Realistically, when should we be judging you on your performance in fixing this issue, because I don't want to be unrealistic about it. I'm wondering whether in a year from now whether we're going to be able to have a conversation, Matt Keogh, and say, all right, well, job done. 

MATT KEOGH: Well, the Royal Commission set out for us as one of its recommendations a target of getting rid of this backlog by March of next year, and I'd love to get rid of it earlier of course, Ben, but we'll keep working on it as quickly as we can, but I guess that will be a timeline that people are going to hold us to, and that's what we're going to try and achieve, and we've got to work with Defence to understand what sort of claims are going to be coming to us over time as well, but I understand that that's what the Royal Commission set us, and I hope we can deliver by then. 

BEN FORDHAM: Job well done so far, and yeah, let's hope that we can move on it throughout the year, and as you say, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the problem's going to be solved in the short term. Thanks for jumping on the line, and let's keep talking. 

MATT KEOGH: Thanks, Ben, look forward to it. 

BEN FORDHAM: Matt Keogh, the Federal Minister for Veterans, and we're guided in a lot of our coverage on this issue by the veterans themselves; we’ve got a large number of them who contact us and we talk to them, and that's why we often have a lot of information before others do on these issues. So they're saying, based on what they're reading and hearing from Matt Keogh, they think this is a good start. 

So we need to be positive about it while still recognising that it is chaotic for people who are waiting in a queue and don't know when their number's going to be called.

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