Radio Interview, ABC Radio National

SUBJECTS: Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans' Suicides; new Institute of Veteran Advocates; DVA Advocate Register.

SABRA LANE, HOST: It's been a year since the Federal Government formally responded to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans' Suicides and we'll discuss progress on the recommendations with the Minister responsible, Matt Keogh.  The focus is also on the Albanese Government's decision to merge three departments within Defence into a new independent delivery agency. All those offices combined are responsible for about 40 per cent of defence spending. This year, the Department's budget is $59 billion. The Minister joined me a short time ago. Matt Keogh, welcome back to AM. 

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

LANE: The government claims this new procurement agency will be independent. How can it be, when it reports to the Minister who's also in charge of procurement? 

KEOGH: The independence that we're talking about is being independent from the rest of the Defence Department and the ADF, and that's an independence that ensures that it is able to focus directly on delivering those capabilities that our Defence Force needs, and not tied into all the other things that the Department of Defence is doing. 

LANE: Okay. So blow‑outs with procurements and in terms of costs and delays, that will become a thing in the past once this agency's up and running July 2027? 

KEOGH: So what we want this to be able to do is to make sure that we're getting the best bang for buck, and that's about making sure we get the most out of every defence dollar spent on capability, but also making sure we're getting those capabilities in a timely manner; that's exactly what we want this to deliver. 

LANE: All right. Let's turn to the Royal Commission recommendations. It's been 12 months now since the government formally responded. Labor set aside half a billion dollars to fast-track veterans’ compensation claims, but it ended up resulting in turbocharging a cottage industry of veteran advocacy, with some unethical practitioners advocating for veterans. Profiteering and fee gouging were the result. In one case, it's alleged that the charging of $20,000 for one day's work. Will you regulate the sector? 

KEOGH: So, we're going to look at doing that, Sabra, absolutely. We've just had a Senate Inquiry looking to what's happening in the advocacy space. It's quite concerning. Veterans have been raising this directly with me and with others. Advocacy into supporting our veterans is something that's happened on a volunteer basis for over 100 years. So, we don't want to just blithely walk into this space and over‑regulate it; it's important that we get it right. But it's important that we protect veterans as well. That's something that we will look to do working with the sector on how we can make sure that we are protecting veterans from being over‑charged, from being gouged, from losing a large percentage of their compensation payments to veteran advocates that are in an unscrupulous way, and making sure that they're able to access a veteran that does not charge a fee ‑ that they're able to charge advocates that are properly trained, insured and that they are being always kept up‑to‑date on what we are doing in DVA. And that's something that the new Institute of Veteran Advocates will be able to provide. 

LANE: Okay. So that Senate Committee that you referenced did recommend that this professional paid advocacy network workforce be set up to replace the current ad hoc volunteer service. Will that be the role of the institute? 

KEOGH: So the role of the institute, which is already being set up, one of the key things that the veteran advocacy community was already trying to work towards was how do they set better standards in terms of training, in terms of the conduct of advocates; people, as I say have been concerned about these charging we've seen develop over recent time. 

LANE: Practices, it's price gouging, and it's ripping people off. 

KEOGH: Oh, I'm not defending it, Sabra, at all. What we're seeing is quite, in some areas, quite unscrupulous. But we've also got great ex-service organisations that receive funding from government that employ advocates that provide great, free service to our veterans. We want to make sure that that continues. We're going to be increasing funding through that program that supports that work. We have the DVA Advocate Register, and I always say to any veterans or family members of veterans that are looking to access an advocate, go and check out the DVA Advocate Register. All of the people on there are properly accredited and trained, you can access those advocates free of charge to the veteran; that's the best place to go. But we need to deal with this issue of over‑charging, of unscrupulous charging practices that we've seen, and that's something that we are going to do. And we're going to talk to the sector about how we best do that so that we stop the bad things from happening, but also don't make it overly burdensome on those volunteers that are doing such amazing work supporting our veterans. 

LANE: Sure. Was that an unforeseen consequence of throwing so much money at this so quickly? 

KEOGH: In terms of the advocates, what we've seen is this has actually developed under something has started under the previous government because of the backlogs that have developed in the system, because one of the things these advocates were claiming, quite falsely, was, "If you pay us this large sum of money to support you with your claim, our claim that we lodged for you will go through DVA fast". It wasn't true at all, it's still not true today, and so they were trying to milk a system on the basis of the problems that we've seen. We've now invested in DVA. We've got claims moving much faster. But those people are still acting in the system, and that's what's been highlighted by the recent Senate Inquiry, and I want to thank Senator Lambie for working with me on getting that inquiry set up so that we can now benefit from the evidence that it's heard, the recommendations that the Senate Inquiry has made, and work with the veteran advocacy sector that we create a properly regulated system there to protect our veterans. 

LANE: The last time we spoke in September, the government was still taking advice on the terms of reference into an inquiry into sexual misconduct within Defence. The government's now asked the Human Rights Commission to do this work, and it will now consult on those terms of reference. Why is it taking so long? 

KEOGH: So, what we have ‑ certainly when it comes to the Royal Commission, there's 122 recommendations. I would love all of them to have been done by yesterday. But they do take time to work through, and staging them properly and rolling them out is something that we're committed to doing, but doing it urgently, and you saw that with our implementation of the Recommendation 122 to set up a statutory oversight body, which we legislated by February of this year.  But when it comes to these terms of reference, we did do the work of developing those terms of reference, but we knew it was also important that there was that opportunity for open engagement in what those terms of reference for the inquiry look like. We've asked the Australian Human Rights Commission to take that work. Those draft terms of reference will be out today for people to look at, to provide that feedback, so that we can get this inquiry started next year. 

LANE: Minister, thanks for joining the program. 

KEOGH: It's been great to be with you, Sabra. 

LANE: And that's Matt Keogh, the Federal Minister for Veterans Affairs.