Radio interview – ABC Central Victoria with Prue Bentley

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
ABC Radio Central Victoria
Statewide Drive
Tuesday, 29 August 2023

SUBJECTS: Veteran Support, Government response to Royal Commission Interim Report

HOST, PRUE BENTLEY: We do have the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh with us now. Matt Keogh, good afternoon to you and thank you very much for joining us.

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

PRUE BENTLEY: Now, you heard from Doug Steely there, he has obviously had an incredibly long series of issues with the DVA stemming from quite a lot of incompetence from my understanding of his dealings with the organisation. When you hear that, when you hear him say, "Look, I just want to sit down with the Minister and go through my issues" can you see why people are so frustrated?

MINISTER KEOGH: Oh, certainly I can see why people are so frustrated, and it's why when we were in Opposition we were strongly calling for the establishment of the Royal Commission that's ongoing now into Defence and Veteran Suicide. We can see the blow‑out of claims in DVA, because it was chronically under resourced, to be able to process the claims of veterans, and it's why we, in coming into Government made commitments about trying to fix that, and it's why we've responded so quickly to the Interim Report of the Royal Commission to get on with the job of making the life of veterans and families better by responding to them and servicing them better.

So when we came into Government, shortly after, we saw the claims backlog go up to 45,000 claims, so they were claims that hadn't yet even been allocated to a staff member in DVA to assess. We now have that down to just over 30,000, we're tracking to get through that backlog next year as we said we would, and we've been doing that by bringing on hundreds of additional staff into the Department. The Department is now the best resourced that it has been in three decades in an effort to make sure that veterans are getting the supports that they need and deserve, and I hear what Doug says when the sort of attitude that some veterans have received from, whether it's Defence or DVA in the past had not been the correct one, but I'm very confident now, and I've always been clear with the Department myself that we need to be taking a compassionate approach to dealing with and supporting our veterans, making sure that we are making it simpler for them to get through the claims process. That's why the first recommendation from the Royal Commission is about simplifying the law, and that's a task that we have taken on and are pursuing right now.

PRUE BENTLEY: So when you here that Doug was told once, "We're not here to help veterans, we're here to administer the Act", how does that make you feel about the people who are working in your Department?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly, many veterans have expressed a similar sentiment, that they've heard this in the past, and it's very unfortunate that individuals have made that, you know, given statements like that. It is certainly not the approach being taken now and not my expectation that that's the approach being taken now in how we are supporting and servicing veterans in making sure they get their claims processed, that they get the medical support and the health support that they need, and any compensation that they're entitled to as well. That is not what the Department is about now, and it's not what veterans should expect, and clearly they deserve better than that.

PRUE BENTLEY: Look, it is wonderful to hear that you are now trying to resource the Department better and get through that backlog of claims. People like Doug though, having ‑ I mean our chat was quite long this afternoon, and his story seems to be emblematic of the situation of so many veterans who have been trying to get support for so long, and his is very long and complicated, and over time people have lost his documents, they have refused to talk to him, he has sent letters of complaint, he has complained to the Ombudsman, he has tried to speak to people, and he has tried to keep his cool while he's doing that. But he is so frustrated, and nothing yet has been sorted out for him. His situation is still ongoing after 15 years. What do you say to that, when you ‑ I know you're trying to get the resourcing in there, but somebody like Doug has been stuck in the system for so long.

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, I can't speak to Doug's individual circumstances. I don't know his circumstances, I don't know what the conditions are that he may be pursuing and why he's had difficulty with those claims being accepted in those circumstances, and it may be a myriad of reasons in his individual circumstances that go to that, and it sounds like, from what you've said, that he has actually accessed all the avenues of review and appeal to make sure that all the eyes that should look at these things have looked at them, but as I said, I don't know his case, but what we do see more broadly is certainly this frustration that causes many veterans to just give up. And that has been borne of a system that is incredibly complex, of legislation, that's sort of grown and grown and grown over the last more than a hundred years, and there are now three different schemes an veterans can fall under one, two or even all three of those schemes, and it's why we've taken on the task of simplifying that, moving to one ongoing scheme, and I've been spending, you know, the whole first half of this year crisscrossing the country, holding round tables, going to RSLs, meeting with veterans, meeting with families, meeting with health professionals, both physical and mental, legal experts that work in this space to consult on how do we make the legislation work better, how can we make it simpler, so that veterans don't experience that frustration.

And look, Doug's experience, and the experience of so many, as we've seen highlighted through the Royal Commission to date is why in responding to the Interim Report of the Royal Commission I also gave an apology in our Parliament on behalf of Government, you know, successive parties, different Governments over time, who have clearly got it wrong. You know, there haven't been the right resourcing, the correct approach hasn't been taken to supporting veterans and families, we're seeing the effects of that played out in the Royal Commission before us. It's not what the people who put on our uniform, fight under our flag, put themselves in a position, not only where they could be injured physically or mentally, but may ultimately pay the ultimate sacrifice for their service, they deserve all of the support the Government can give them, and we want to make sure that the system enables that now.

PRUE BENTLEY: We're speaking with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, who has been in Melbourne speaking with veterans and hearing their stories. Matt Keogh, would you commit to having a look at Doug's case, or even speaking with him? He is ‑‑

MINISTER KEOGH: Look, I'm happy to have a look at, if you can give us Doug's details ‑‑

PRUE BENTLEY: We will.

MINISTER KEOGH: ‑‑ if Doug's happy with that, then, you know, I'm happy to look at what his circumstances are and reach out to Doug so we can understand ‑‑

PRUE BENTLEY: I think you'll agree that 15 years dealing with multiple different types of people, just to try and get his pension correct, is unacceptable. Can we move on to just some of the things around the hearings and the Royal Commission. Not a lot of the evidence, as I understand it, is currently able to be tabled or used as part of the Commission because of parliamentary privilege, which protects certain reports that could be material to it.

Julie‑Ann Finney, who lost her ex‑serviceman son to suicide says this should be changed for full transparency in order to make sure that what needs to be fixed is fixed. Should that be the case?

MINISTER KEOGH: Yeah, that was an issue that was raised when we came in to Government, the way the previous Government had been working with the Royal Commission on this, and it was included in the Interim Report, and the presiding officers of the Parliament, who are really in charge of parliamentary privilege, not us as a Government, have clarified those matters with the Royal Commission to be clear about how they can access and use materials that would otherwise be subject to parliamentary privilege in their ongoing inquiry as part of the Royal Commission. So that issue has been resolved with a change of approach with the new Government.

PRUE BENTLEY: And how can we be sure that this Royal Commission will be acted upon. The Commission Chair, Nick Kaldas has slammed the inaction on this issue. It's not something that has been a secret for many, many decades, and despite warnings and multiple inquiries we're still seeing very similar scenarios coming up for veterans. So what kind of guarantee can you give the Australian public and the veteran community that the Royal Commission will be enacted upon?

MINISTER KEOGH: Well, certainly, you know, we called for this Royal Commission to be commenced when we were in Opposition. We certainly see the very real need for the Royal Commission, and we really want to see the outcomes and the recommendations that come from it. Without knowing what the final recommendations are, I can't comment on those, but what I can do is point to our record, which is the Royal Commission handed down its Interim Report in August last year, in September I provided the official Government response to that Interim Report indicating that we would be pursuing nearly all of the recommendations there and some of the recommendations we weren't following because we had actually already implemented them. And we are getting on with that job.

The recommendations there that go to information access, for example, for loved ones of members of the Defence Force that have committed suicide, we have already now implemented, we got on with that job very quickly. We've increased the resourcing to the Department, as the Royal Commission called for, we're adding more staff so that we can get through that backlog as quickly as possible, and I've started the process of legislative reform, which was the first recommendation of the Interim Report of the Royal Commission.

So I think people should take heart from the approach that we have taken to the Interim Report of the Royal Commission, that we do want to improve the situation that veterans and families find themselves in, where the system hasn't worked previously, that's why we're committed to the Interim Report recommendations and are getting on with that job, and we look forward to seeing the final report's recommendations. I'm sure the final report will not make for fun reading, but it's important, and that's why we're looking to see what those recommendations are so that we can get on with the job of improving the lives of veterans and families.

PRUE BENTLEY: Minister, thank you for your time today.

MINISTER KEOGH: Thank you.

PRUE BENTLEY: Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, who's been in Melbourne for the hearings in the Royal Commission Into Veterans' Suicide.

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