Doorstop interview, Northern Adelaide Veterans’ and Families’ Hub, 16th June

MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Today is an exciting milestone in the expansion of the Veterans’ and Families’ Hubs across the country as part of our commitment at the last election in awarding the grant, $50,000, to Lives Lived Well, working with Legacy to build that business case for the Veterans’ and Families’ Hub here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. You know, Matt and I have done, a big forum at one of the local pubs with a whole range of different veteran organisations. That was a really good opportunity and it really spoke to what we've been trying to say and make sure people understand about the Veterans’ and Families’ Hubs that they have to meet the needs of the veteran community in those places. And we've identified locations like this because they've got high concentrations of veterans in them.

Across the northern suburbs of Adelaide, there's over 10,000 veterans that would benefit by having a Hub up here. I know Lives Lived Well are already working on a Hub that's being set up in the northern suburbs of Brisbane as well. Looking forward to getting to an opening for that soon which will be great to have that service to start being delivered up there. But now with this grant, you guys can start doing that more detailed work around building up what the service delivery will look like, through these northern suburbs, through the area that Matt represents, servicing these nearly 11,000 veterans up through here which is really important.

And, you know, Matt did some really great work. We had that forum at the pub, which was really good. Very frank and fearless advice was being given to me as the new Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, but then also the work that you did, meeting with those organisations again, putting together that report to me, which we've provided to Lives Lived Well to assist them in building that business case as well. So they've got the benefit of that consultation and feedback that you led with the local community. I think that's really important so that they are able to meet that local need, which is really important and to provide that diversity of services. And I think it's really great to see the partnership with Legacy. That really speaks to one of the things we are trying to emphasise with these Hubs, which is the “and families”.  We know that for a lot of veterans, the thing that actually connects them to services to support them is when they have their family members access a hub or access a service to support veterans and families. It’s through that initial engagement that then the veteran gets drawn in and finds out about what can be available there to assist them, but also recognising that families, whether their veteran is still with them or is no longer with them, need their own supports as well.

And Legacy's been doing that for a hundred years now. This is the centenary year of Legacy. I was very proud to be part of the torch relay in Western Australia, as part of that centenary celebration. We're very proud, as a Government, to be supporting the centenary celebrations for Legacy and that partnership with Legacy, but then also working across the rest of the ex-service organisation community through Adelaide. Particularly up here in the northern suburbs, and the local sub branches and so forth is really important and looking forward to seeing how that business case develops over the next few months. Very happy to be awarding the grant to get that off the ground, with a view to then moving toward funding the actual Veterans’ and Families' Hub up here. So congratulations and thank you.

MEMBER FOR SPENCE MATT BURNELL: Thank you very much, Minister. I'll say a few words. It's a very exciting announcement on the basis that for a very long time, veterans have felt left behind out in the northern suburbs. With the consolidation of the RAAF base Edinburgh, we've got more than 6,000 people on base now. That is going to contribute to a very quickly expanding veteran number in and around Spence, and I think that that's an important thing to note. This isn't just about delivering services for veterans that reside within the boundary of Spence. This is about providing services for those that are in Makin, in Hindmarsh over on the Western suburbs, as a northern central point for people to come and get the services that they need and for their families to get the services that they need. This announcement today is an extremely important first step in delivering those services for our veterans and their families so I welcome today's announcement. I'm very excited that Lives Lived Well, in partnership with Legacy, will start to undertake this work. And I'm very, very confident that, hopefully in the next short while we're going to be able to deliver a really significant legacy piece for the northern suburbs for our veterans.

STUART ALTHAUS, NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIVES LIVED WELL: Thanks very much, Matt. Really appreciate it. So from Lives Lived Well, we're absolutely over the moon. This is our second one that we're now putting together. As a veteran it is very important and Minister, you hit the nail on the head. Families are an integral part of the veteran community and it's just so great to see that this initiative is coming through the way that it. At Lives Lived Well, we're an organisation that is very fast becoming a national organisation, and we are looking forward to working with the Department and the veteran community, with our partners, Legacy, to get this up and running as quickly as we can. Watch this space.

MINISTER KEOGH: Absolutely. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: How will the community voice of Spence be really utilised in the continuation of this Hub, seeing it through to final construction?

MATT BURNELL: You might be aware, but we did three consultation phases. One out at the Stretton Centre in Playford, one at the Salisbury Hotel, and then we did our final one out at Gawler, the Civic Center. Through that process, the most promising thing is the further we got through, the more people we were having coming from across the entire state, to be perfectly honest, wanting to have their opportunity to contribute to the input process. That's given us a very clear understanding of what veterans from across the entire gamut are looking for. So for our Vietnam veterans, and our new contemporary vets, probably the single biggest thing that came out of that was that there is a very clear need to have services that have a focus towards families. Because whilst we have veterans needing a range of different services, quite often the problem and the barrier that stops them from being able to participate is the lack of ability to have someone there to care for children whilst they're getting those acute services that they might be needing. So, I think that's one of the key findings that came out of that. It is, very clear that veterans want to be heard. And we made that very clear in our submission to the Minister that there needs to be an ability for our veterans to give feedback. I've had a very good relationship with Rob for quite a long while now. I'm very confident that if our veterans are saying that they need more services, they're going to have that listened to in the way that we would expect, and that those services will be accommodated in the best way possible.

MINISTER KEOGH: That’s been all of that work of Matt's that’s now been provided to Lives Lived Well to support the development of the business case work that they're doing now. But as part of the ongoing requirement under the guidelines is that consistent engagement with the veteran community. So, you know, up here you've got Legacy, you've got the RSL, you've got the Vietnam Veterans’ Association, you've got other organisations, local sub-branches, and the obligation is on the operator of the Hub to maintain those connections, to make sure that they're constantly meeting the need as it is in the community. I have no doubt, having met with the community here and around the country, it's common across the veteran community, they'll always be vocal about saying what's hitting the mark and what's not hitting the mark. Having that connection with Legacy in developing this project will be critical in providing that feedback as well. So I think that's going to be an important part in each of these around the country and certainly we've got that.

STUART ALTHAUS: Yeah absolutely. I think the important thing is yes, consultation has occurred, it doesn't just stop now. It is a continuous process, and again, that's our commitment with Lives Lived Well – to continue that and make it better and better as we go through. So it'll be very much a test and adjust as we go through.

MINISTER KEOGH: The new thing that we've done as a Government is to also create a sort of a background structure to these Hubs so that there is sharing of information between [the hubs] as they're set up so that, they can benefit from the positive learnings that they've seen as in terms of setting up and, hey, this thing's working really well. And also learning that, you know, some things may not work as well. They can share that around the country so that they're not just, as they've previously been set up, as quite autonomous and they operate autonomously. It’s good to have that information sharing which also informs the learning for the Department as well as we roll them out going forward.

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