Press conference - Veterans’ and Families’ Hub Funding Announcement, Veteran Immigration Case, Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, China Relationship

PRESS CONFERENCE
ADELAIDE, SA
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
THURSDAY, 18 JANUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Veterans’ and Families’ Hub Funding Announcement, Veteran Immigration Case, Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, China Relationship

MEMBER FOR SPENCE, MATT BURNELL: Well thanks for coming out today, my name is Matt Burnell, I’m the Federal Member for Spence. Today's a really auspicious day. In 2022 we went to the election with a commitment to deliver a Veteran and Family Wellbeing Hub here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. Today's announcement is really important as a next step in delivering on that Veterans Hub. And I'm joined today with the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Matt Keogh along with Stuart from Lives Lived Well and Rob from Legacy. So we'll hear from them in a minute. But this is a momentous day in delivering better outcomes for our veterans and their families here in the northern suburbs. I'll hand over to Matt Keogh.
 
MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: Thanks, Matt. It's great to be with you here for this important announcement, not only in your capacity as the local member here in Spence, but also yourself as a veteran and I really want to recognise your service and your advocacy for the veteran community here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. And today, I'm very proud to be able to announce that the Federal Government will be delivering a grant of $5.445 million to Lives Lived Well to develop a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide to service the nearly 11,000 veterans and families that are across Adelaide’s northern suburbs. This will be a Hub that will build on existing services provided across the northern suburbs by organisations like Open Arms and also other ex-service organisations. But critically, the Veterans’ and Families’ Hub to be developed by Lives Lived Well, in conjunction with Legacy will work with the ex-service organisations across the area to make sure that there is a central location for the provision of services to our veterans’ community and their families. And it will mean that there is a central point for those services but also an opportunity to refer out to other services that are available to support our veterans. We know that families are often first responders to veterans that are in need, to their veteran family member. And making sure that we have a Hub that is responsive to servicing the needs of veterans and families means that those families can access the services and supports that they need and are often the conduit for their veteran member being something able to access those services after a family member starts accessing services and support as well. Now delivering this over $5 million grant to Lives Lived Well to develop a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide delivers on an election commitment from the 2022 election. This is part of the Albanese Labor Government delivering on a better future for veterans and families across Australia. And in particular here in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. And we're very proud to see this development commencing, working in conjunction with the ex-service organisations across the Northern Suburbs, working together to make sure we provide better coordinated support for our veteran community to improve their lives and those of their families. I'm very happy now to hand over to Stuart from Lives Lived Well who'll talk a bit about the work that they are doing, the work they're going to do here and building on the work they're already doing with the Hub that they're operating in Caboolture and then we'll hear from Rob from Legacy as well.

LIVES LIVED WELL BOARD MEMBER, STUART ALTHAUS: Thank you, Minister. My name is Stuart Althaus. I'm a member of the Board at Lives Lived Well and currently serving member of some 46 years. Lives Lived Well is delighted to have been awarded the opportunity to establish and operate the Northern Adelaide Veteran and Family Hub helping in short, helping to ensure veterans and their families in the region to have access to integrated and flexible support. Through the business case process Lives Lived Well has worked closely with Legacy South Australia in Broken Hill and other ex-service organisations, including the RSL, and TPI. By doing this, we've gained insights into local needs, and - and what service delivery is all about, particularly in the Northern Suburbs. A special thank you to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for recognising the importance of these Hubs, and supporting our plans to launch an accessible, responsible, responsive and high performing Hub. Moving forward, our commitment extends to ongoing collaboration with a consortium of expert organisations and local providers, including where we are today at Open Arms. Together, we will make a Hub a comprehensive, one stop shop for critical services for our veterans to help address these diverse needs of veterans and their families. This will include services spanning transition, employment, social connection, advocacy, and mental and physical health support. Through the consultation process, we've understood that for veterans there is an obvious need to have services that also focus on families, hence the involvement of Legacy South Australia. Drawing from our experience in North Brisbane, where we established the ub last year in Caboolture with a particular area for children, we are well prepared for this new Hub in Northern Adelaide, ensuring veterans and their families have access to the tailored support that they need. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mitchell, our CEO and his dedicated team for their efforts putting this together, both here in Adelaide and also the Queensland Hub. Again, we sincerely thank the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for their continued support. We are enthusiastic about this Hub, and the positive impact that it will have on the lives of veterans and their families in the region. Thank you. And I now hand over to Rob from Legacy.

LEGACY SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND BROKEN HILL PRESIDENT, ROB ELEY: Thank you for that Stuart. And I'm Rob Eley. I'm the President of Legacy South Australia and Broken Hill. Well a wonderful announcement today for the Northern Suburbs and beyond signifying the start of the establishment of the Northern Veterans’ Hub here in Elizabeth. The Legacy Club of South Australia and Broken Hill is very proud to be one of the many agencies that will be supporting Lives Lived Well and Open Arms in the Northern Veterans’ Hub. Legacy sees this as a great opportunity to provide a local point of contact to the families of our veterans who have given their life or health in the service of our Nation. As a veterans’ family support organisation, we only look after families. And having a local port of call in the Northern Suburbs ensures that we can be there when we are needed most. Being a staunch advocate of our veterans’ families and a 40 year veteran myself, I know the world we have lived here, and I also understand the importance of our families accessing our services locally. We look forward to seeing it set up and running and having Legacy representatives in this space supporting our Legacy…our veterans’ families.

JOURNALIST: So the widow of veteran Drew Kilcott – it’s Chilcott sorry - has been told she can't stay in Australia and raise the child due to visa issues. Will you be taking this to the Immigration Minister on her behalf?

MINISTER KEOGH: I'm aware of the reporting of that matter. And obviously we want to make sure, just as today's announcement about establishing a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub is all about, that we provide the best support to veterans and their families here in Australia. I’m aware of reporting about that matter and have engaged with the Minister for Immigration on that issue, but it's a matter for him to resolve.

JOURNALIST: How is the Government going to – is it going to implement the recommendations from the Veterans’ Royal Commission?

MINISTER KEOGH: the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide is incredibly important. It's something we called for when we were in Opposition to make sure that Royal Commission was established. And when we received the interim report in August of 2022, we provided the Government response in September the following month, because we regarded this as so important. We've now taken action on all of the recommendations, the 13 recommendations in that interim report. We've invested in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as the Royal Commission asked us to do, it’s now the best funded that it's been in three decades, we've been conducting consultation, in regard to legislation reform to make sure that we simplify and harmonise the legislation that supports our veterans’ entitlement system, we've made it easier for family members to access information about their loved ones that have taken their own lives through Defence and through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. We've passed legislation to make it easier for defence personnel and for veterans to provide evidence to the Royal Commission. And we've expanded the powers of the Royal Commission so that they can take more evidence more quickly. And crucially, we've seen a dramatic drop in the backlog of claims that we inherited when we came into government with DVA. We've invested in DVA, so that we now have an additional 500 staff processing claims. This means that that claims backlog has fallen from over 44,000 claims, now down to around 10,000 claims. We're seeing it continue to fall and we look forward to that backlog being removed in the coming months, so we return to our business as usual situation in supporting our veterans and processing their claims.

JOURNALIST: And just one more thing, what do you make of the Chinese Ambassador’s comments blaming Japan for the sonar incident with the Australian Navy?

MINISTER KEOGH: I note those comments and note that he's made them some months after that incident occurred. And the Government stands by its position from when that incident occurred.

JOURNALIST: Bringing it back to this announcement today, you know, Spence has one of the highest numbers of living and working veterans. Can you kind of talk us through the decision to open the Hub in the – in the Elizabeth area specifically?

MINISTER KEOGH: So as part of our commitment at the last election to deliver 10 new Veterans’ and Families’ Hubs around Australia, we looked at where are the areas of the highest concentration of veterans in the country, and certainly the northern suburbs of Adelaide in the electorate of Spence is where we see nearly 11,000 veteran families living and working. And that's why we knew this was a critical area to deliver a Veterans’ and Families’ Hub. It's why we've worked in consultation with the veteran community here. Matt Burnell, the Member for Spence and I held a forum with the veteran community here to make sure that we heard their views directly about what are the sorts of services that they will need in a Hub delivered in this area. Lives Lived Well, working with Legacy, working with RSL and other organisations in the area have been doing consultation work to make sure we deliver the sorts of services and coordination that's required to support the families of veterans and the veterans themselves, right here. The Base is just down the road. We know that these Hubs are important not just for those that have served, but those that are currently serving and supporting their families as well. That's critically important in a community like this one, and we'll see the Hub be developed in consultation with all of those organisations making sure that the services are targeted in the areas that they’re needed in this community just like with all of the Hubs around the country being targeted to the different veteran communities in different places. Okay, thanks very much everybody.

JOURNALIST: Thank you.

MINISTER KEOGH: Okay, thanks very much everybody.

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