TV Interview - ABC News, Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas

E&OE 
TELEVISION INTERVIEW  ABC NEWS CHANNEL, AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
WEDNESDAY, 1 JULY 2026 
 

SUBJECTS: New quicker veterans entitlements system; Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency; budget

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Now the Government is rolling out huge changes to the veterans compensation system, with the new financial year today starting, of course, it's July the first. I spoke to the Veterans' Affairs Minister, Matt Keogh, about it a short time ago. Minister, welcome to the program.

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

KARVELAS: You're making some big changes to the veterans system today. Why the change? Why are the changes so significant?

KEOGH: Two reasons, because we're doing two big things. The first has been the change to the legislation that underpins the whole entitlement systems for our veterans. We've had, up until this point, three different schemes under three different acts, been very complex and some veterans have fallen under all three of those schemes. And the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide said, frankly, this is crazy. It's adding to the stress of veterans, it's contributing to suicidality in the veteran community. You need to streamline, harmonise this, simplify it. and that's what we've done and from today, instead of having three different schemes, one scheme going forward, enhanced benefits for veterans, simpler and therefore quicker to process their claims as well, which is really important.

KARVELAS: Well, that's really key in terms of processing these compensation and rehabilitation claims, just talk to me about how you're going to reduce delays and what the metrics are for where you want to get it to.

KEOGH: Sure, so when we came into government, there was about 42,000 claims that the Royal Commission talked about as the backlog that hadn't even been looked at by staff in DVA. We made a significant increase in the staffing and resourcing across the Department of Veterans Affairs to make sure we could get through all of those claims. They've all been processed. Now, when a claim comes in that's looked at within 14 days, it's assessed to say, look, is everything here? Do we need more medical reports? Do we need other information? Get onto that quickly. And we're getting through new claims coming in in about four months now. That's a lot quicker than the over a year it was taking when we came in. But of course, we want to continue to bring that down. With the new scheme going forward, we have a number of claim types and areas where we're able to process them very quickly now through the system, because we accept that those conditions are linked to people's service and so we can process those more quickly. So, it'll speed up the process a lot.

KARVELAS: Ok. And of course, you mentioned suicide. Of course that is, I think, many of our viewers would identify that as one of the biggest issues that the veterans community has faced, and it's obviously devastating for the families that have to deal with the aftermath of that. So, how will those reforms help veterans experiencing, you know, suicidal thoughts and also those like deep risk of suicide, beyond, ok, you streamlined, it's easier, that should help. But specifically for veterans in that situation.

KEOGH: So, this makes the system easier and quicker, so they get access to the healthcare they need, rehab, treatments, compensation. But the other thing that we're doing that starts today is the new Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency. And if you like, that deals with all those other areas that are not just strictly sort of health and rehab and treatment. They're around looking at employment and education, access to housing if that's what's needed. There's a lot of services out there. The Royal Commission recognised this. But veterans didn't know where to go. They didn't know how to access it, what was the right place to go. The purpose of this agency is to provide that point of connection. People can go to the website to find a service, they can call the agency, they. They've got more complex needs to be connected to the right services that they need where they are.

KARVELAS: Okay, so in terms of the success of how this will all go, how are you going to measure and see tangible improvements? Is it about, you know, and this is a crude description, but seeing an actual reduction in suicides of veterans? Is that the way that you will assess whether this new system is working?

KEOGH: Well, certainly across the board, when we look at implementing the recommendations that came out of the Royal Commission, there was 122 in the Final Report. And a quarter of them we had implemented by the end of last year and we're on track for two thirds to be implemented by the end of this year, including the new agency and simplifying the legislation. I think when we look across the board, getting those things implemented, we absolutely hope that that contributes to seeing a decline in the rates of suicide we're seeing. 

KARVELAS Are you watching it, though? Because obviously we all hope. But is that what you're going to be measuring to make sure that that is the case, so that if there needs to be more done, you will intervene?

KEOGH: Certainly for some time we've been tracking those numbers and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare produces regular reporting on that. But one of the most important recommendations, what the Royal Commission said was its most important recommendation, was setting up this statutory oversight body, the Defence and Veterans Service Commission, which oversees our job in implementing the Royal Commission's recommendations, but will provide further feedback to government and if more is required. And that's why that body exists and it's been up and running since September last year so that you've got that constant eye on what do we need to do to improve service to veterans to make sure that that national tragedy, really, that is the rate of suicide amongst our veteran community, comes down.

KARVELAS: On another issue, the federal budget introduced this $5,000 annual limit on veterans allied health expenditure, but they can apply for more funding, but it's kind of cumbersome. One veteran told the ABC the cap was a betrayal. The opposition want you to repeal it. Are you re-looking at this issue?

KEOGH: So, unfortunately, the opposition has created a lot of fear in the community by not really reflecting the entirety of what we've proposed here as part of the budget. There's a $5,000 annual allocation, but there will be a way for veterans that have a clinical need to access more services to be able to do that. But to put that $5,000 in context, the median use of allied health services by a veteran in Australia is about $1,900. So, looking at about one in 10 veterans, that would potentially go over that $5,000. And what we've said is we're going to work with the veteran community and the healthcare providers to make sure we have a good system that works efficiently, so that if they are going to go over that amount, they've got access to a way to do that without any break in service.

KARVELAS: What does that mean though? Like in real terms “without a break in service”, does that mean you bolster it?

KEOGH: It means that we don't want to wait until they hit the $5,000 cap and then have to wait for some sort of approval. We obviously want that to kick in earlier so they don't have any delay in accessing services that they actually need. What's been happening at the moment under the current system is a veteran has to go to a GP to get a referral for an allied health service and then after every 12 services go back to a GP and get another referral. We're getting rid of that. So, for that vast majority of veterans that are well under the $5,000, that's stripping away something that was really getting in their way in terms of accessing services. But importantly, these changes enable us to pay allied health professionals more. What we've been hearing from the Royal Commission, from veterans and from the providers was that they are not going to service veterans if we didn't increase the rate in which we paid them. So, by increasing what we pay them, and it's the biggest increase in two decades, it improves accessibility of allied health services for the veteran community as well, and that's really important. 

ENDS

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