Press conference - Edmonton, Queensland

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
EDMONTON, QUEENSLAND
TUESDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2025

SUBJECTS: Veterans’ Acute Housing Program; Tackling Veteran Homelessness in Cairns; Tariffs

MATT SMITH, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT: Good morning, my name's Matt Smith. I'm the ALP's candidate for the Federal Seat of Leichardt. We're here in Edmonton today with RSL President Ken Willoughby, Aidan from Access Community Housing and, of course, Minister Keogh. Our veterans have done a great deal for Australia. They've put themselves on the line. They come home and try to return into that civilian life. The Anthony Albanese Government is today investing in our veterans by providing transitional and emergency housing where we're standing right here. There will be three new, brand new one-bedroom units and another three-bedroom units just up the way there. These units represent an investment in our veterans, giving them support at the times when they might need it most. The RSL has been advocating for things like this for years and I'm very proud to stand here with Minister Keogh to be able to help deliver these critically needed flats for our veteran community. There are over five and a half thousand veterans in Far North Queensland and this is showing our support and love for them. I'll hand over now to Minister Keogh, who has more of the details on this program.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Thank you, Matt. It's great to be here with you up in Cairns and to see the great work of your advocacy for the community up here. One of the things we know when we've been engaging with the veteran community and we've been looking at the Reports, the reviews, the Royal Commissions that have been going on is that veterans are three times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population. And that, of course, is a huge cause for concern and that's why in opposition Labor committed through our Housing Australia Future Fund to provide $30 million nationally to support homeless veterans and veterans at risk of homelessness. And that was by creating a scheme which would fund not only the additional housing required to support homeless veterans but also wraparound services to provide veterans with that extra support that they may need to get on their feet. And through that $30 million program, we have now announced $24 million in grants going out to support the building of new homes and extend home access as well as $6 million to support those wraparound services. And here in Cairns, we're providing $1.65 million to Access Community Housing to build six units to support homeless veterans in the community here in Far Northern Queensland. There are over 5,500 veterans in Far Northern Queensland. And we want to make sure that where they fall on tough times, where they have difficulty in finding themselves homeless or couch surfing in need of a home, that they're able to access that. And so funding to Access Community Housing will enable them to build these units so that veterans can get access to those homes. But critically important as well is the partnership that Access has with RSL Queensland. That's about making sure that there is that additional support to those veterans to get them back on their feet as well. We provide support to veterans through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, but it's important that they get connected to those services and supports and can also access the additional supports through important organisations like RSL Queensland. So by providing the funding for the additional housing here and the partnership that will exist between Access Community Housing and RSL Queensland, we'll make sure that veterans that are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness are able to get a roof over their head, are able to get the support that they need and get back on their feet. And this is all part of how we are delivering on a better future for our veteran community here in Australia. It goes with the legislative reform that we passed the Parliament just last week, improving our veterans entitlements legislation by moving from three separate and complex schemes to having a single scheme going forward, which simplifies and harmonises the system for our veterans, makes it easier for them to understand what entitlements they have and makes it easier for them to access those by getting their claims processed through DVA. And of course it builds on the response that we provided at the end of last year to the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, where we have agreed or agreed in principle to 104 of the 122 recommendations and just last week we legislated the creation of the Defence and Veterans’ Service Commission, the permanent oversight body over the veteran ecosystem to make sure that governments into the future continue to deliver and support, deliver for and support our veterans. Now I'm going to hand over to Aiden from Access Community Housing to speak more about the building that's going to be happening here and just up the way.

AIDAN LANG, CEO OF ACCESS COMMUNITY HOUSING: Hi everyone, I'm Aiden Lang, the CEO at Access Community Housing. Access Community Housing has been delivering social and affordable housing for the Cairns community for the last 32 years. We've been really proud to have been able to support veterans in the past and we're really excited by this new opportunity to deliver six new homes specifically for veterans. These projects will be delivered here in Edmonton. We're currently working through the council approval process and we expect construction to commence by the end of next month and for our veterans to be in these new homes before Christmas. Our delivery partner for the project is Value Homes. They're a local Cairns builder. We've done work with them in the past and all of our projects have come in on time within budget and to a really high standard so we're delighted to be working with them again. I’d also like to acknowledge and to thank Ken and his team from RSL Queensland. They'll be our service delivery partner on the project. For us it's really important not only that we find the veterans who have the greatest need for these homes but also that they have the ongoing support so we get the most successful outcomes for them.

JOURNALIST: Can you tell us a little bit about these homes? Are they going to be houses or apartments or exactly what will they look like?

LANG: Yeah so there'll be six one bedroom units across three sites. They'll be fully accessible lock up garages. They'll look very much like standard homes. Yeah is that, does that answer your question?

JOURNALIST: Why Far North Queensland? Why is there a need? Why was this site selected?

LANG: Yeah so I guess we're in a housing crisis across the nation but in Cairns there is a critical need. These homes will be delivered as social housing. Our wait list in Cairns is about 2200 or 2300 social housing applications and as the Minister said earlier veterans are overrepresented in those numbers, three times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. At this site I mean, there’s not a lot of land available in Cairns but it was great to find a new housing estate like this and to sort of blend it in through the rest of the community.

JOURNALIST: Are we chatting to RSL?

KEN WILLOUGHBY, PRESIDENT, RSL FAR NORTHERN DISTRICT: Oh I'm happy to. Oh look I'll answer questions if this is all right.

JOURNALIST: Thank you, I mean you also don't have to if you weren't ready to speak. 
WILLOUGHBY: No that's fine. 
JOURNALIST: I just thought you were - could I just first of all grab your name and your spelling and your title?

WILLOUGHBY: Ken Willoughby, that's W-I-L-L-O-U-G-H-B-Y. And I’m the Far North Queensland District President, that covers an area from Cardwell to Weipa.

JOURNALIST: I was just really interested to ask you, you know, why are veterans overrepresented in this social housing wait list?

WILLOUGHBY: You'd have to ask our welfare officers in regards to this matter. But we, I think from, even from the First World War right through to Afghanistan, we've always had the issue of service personnel, now men and women returning home and this, they had this connection in the military and now it's gone and they wander. You know, then there's alcohol and drug abuse and so forth. So the idea of this project is to grab these people, I could fill them tomorrow, grab them, put them, put a roof over their head and ensure they are looked after. And that we can then transition those veterans over a period of 12, 18 months and hopefully give them back out in the workforce. Get a life.

JOURNALIST: You said that you could fill these houses if they were built tomorrow. I mean obviously there's a very high demand. What more would you like to see done to support veterans?

WILLOUGHBY: Well, projects like this would be great. I mean this is the first time in Far North Queensland we've had a project like this and I've got to thank Access Community Housing, the Minister, DVA for their support in making this happen. Once it's finished I'd like to see more but I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, just backing off that this feels like the very tip of the iceberg then, you know. Is it somewhat frustrating that you would see all these veterans come through that need so much more help than what they're given?

WILLOUGHBY: Yeah, really. I live in the Atherton Tablelands and I know there's veterans up there that are living in the scrap. And these houses by the way, the units, you don't have to be a member of the RSL, Queensland, to be put in there. All you have to be is next service man or woman, or war widow for that fact. So the more the merrier. As I said, I can fill these yesterday. But unfortunately it’ll be what, another 6-8 months? 

LANG: Yeah. 

WILLOUGHBY: Yeah, yeah. It'll be beautiful. Thank you.

MINISTER KEOGH: Any other questions? 

JOURNALIST: Yeah, of course. Okay, well we've obviously just heard that we need a lot more of this. Is this going to be happening across the state and country? What's next?

MINISTER KEOGH: So we're rolling out $30 million worth of funding across the country. And they're going into the areas where we see high need. So we've got programs rolling out in Western Australia and Perth here in Cairns to support Far North Queensland across the top end and into Darwin as well as through Victoria, for example, New South Wales, etc. as you would expect. And this is an important start in making sure that we're addressing homelessness when it comes to veterans that have a very specific need, because as I said, they are three times more likely to experience homelessness. What we also see is because of the nature of the services and supports that we can provide to veterans through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Open Arms, organisations like RSL Queensland, Mates4Mates, and others around the country. We are able to see veterans move on into more stable housing and get their sort of life back on track into employment more quickly than we may see with the general homeless population as well. So it means that with the housing stock that will be provided here and that we're rolling out across the country, veterans will be able to move into that. We can support them with getting their lives back on track and getting into more stable and ongoing accommodations so that housing becomes available again to support more veterans.

JOURNALIST: I have an unrelated question. 

MINISTER KEOGH: Has anyone else got a related question?

JOURNALIST: I think I'm good.

JOURNALIST: It will only be the one. Just got it from Canberra then, so lucky us. Trump has said there will be reciprocal tariffs. Are you worried we'll be punished for having GST?

MINISTER KEOGH: Look, I think we're seeing what is being said by the Trump Government in relation to these things evolve, but I think critically important has been the conversation that Prime Minister Albanese had with President Trump. He acknowledged the concern of the Australian Government, the Australian people, and that those things will be considered in what they are doing in terms of the tariffs that have been announced by the Trump Administration and we look forward to that consideration. Our officials continue to engage with the government over there about all of those things. Thanks very much everybody. 
JOURNALIST: Thank you guys.

END