Radio Interview, ABC Perth

SUBJECTS: Expanded veteran wellbeing support; Recruitment into ADF space operations roles; The importance of space in National Security.

OLY PETERSON, HOST: If you or someone you love is a veteran, you know that getting help to get back on track and restart civilian life can be a challenge. Today the Federal Government has announced more support for veterans, including support to access activities like yoga and cooking classes. Matt Keogh is the Minister for Defence Personnel. Welcome to Drive.

MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Good afternoon, Oly. It's great to be with you and your listeners.

PETERSON: Good to have you on the show here. Matt, explain to us today what the ADF is going to be able to provide veterans with their social wellbeing activities.

KEOGH: So, we saw in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide a real need to put greater emphasis and focus on overall wellbeing outcomes for our veterans. And that means taking an early intervention and prevention approach. And so the Albanese Government's investing $739 million into improved treatment and rehabilitation for our veterans so that we can reduce the impact of injuries that they may have received, so they get better overall wellbeing outcomes.

PETERSON: What can be funded under the Veteran rehab plans?

KEOGH: So, it's going to be funding things like medical interventions and treatments to improve their medical outcomes where they've been injured through their Defence service, making sure that they're getting access to good rehab programs, treatments that'll improve their long term outcomes so that they're not living with the long term impacts of these injuries or we're at least reducing that impact. That's really important because it provides that better wellbeing outcome overall, which the Royal Commission was really focused on. Because of course, if you're holding injuries, if those injuries are really bad, if we're not able to mitigate them, it can have severe mental health impacts as well. And so where we can, where there have been advances in medical treatments and rehabilitation that we can make available, we should make that available to our veterans. And that's what we're investing in.

PETERSON: So, lifestyle and sporting activities such as yoga, gym, golf, pilates, music lessons, art courses, community group memberships, life skills support, certificate of diploma courses, and peer-to-peer programs?

KEOGH: So, that's part of it, certainly part of what we now make available through our rehab programs, as well as those more medical interventions. So, for example, you know, we've been investing as a country for a long time into PTSD interventions and programs. Some of those are now peer-led programs, some of them are with psyches and psychiatrists, but other of those programs for particularly treatment-resistant PTSD is around using MDMA, for example, now, you know, really small doses under very controlled conditions. But we're seeing great outcomes come from that. 

And so we're investing in all of these things, and whether it's around mental health injury, whether it's around other physical or physiological injuries that a veteran may sustain, what we have been doing is looking at, well, where can we find better treatments and make them available to veterans. And that's what this investment is doing across all of those different areas.

PETERSON: So, MDMA, medicinal cannabis, and psychedelic treatments for some of those worst cases of PTSD?

KEOGH: That's exactly right. And I know that'll sound strange to some people, but we do see with our veterans in particular, real treatment, resistance to pain, for example. And that's where that medicinal cannabis becomes important. Obviously, properly governed under a framework to make sure that it's delivering the pain relief focus that we need. When we're looking at treatment-resistant MDMA, -- sorry, treatment-resistant PTSD, using those microdoses of MDMA, really important that again, it's obviously done in a controlled environment. 

I've gone and met with one of the providers in Perth, for example, and they have been getting some phenomenally good results and long-term results, and that's what's really important, improving those wellbeing outcomes for the long term as well.

PETERSON: Are you happy to see the expansion to the Veterans Compensation Scheme? 1300 22 720 My guest is Matt Keogh, the Minister for Defence Personnel. On another matter, I see, Minister, that we may be about to send soldiers in space or hiring soldiers in space?

KEOGH: Well, we're certainly going to be having a greater impact in the space domain, and we're now going to be directly recruiting people into those space operation roles. We're really proud today to be able to launch direct recruitment into space operation roles like a Space Operations Officer and a Space Operations Specialist. People always think about, you know, land, air, and sea when they think about what our Australian Defence Force does. But space and cyber are just so important now and so not just using our existing Defence Force personnel across those Navy, Army, Air Force, but being able to directly recruit, just like anyone goes to sign up to join our Defence Force. Of the 300 roles they can pick from now, two of those roles are directly in the space area; space operations. And that's around satellite communication, it's around intelligence and reconnaissance, it's around environmental observation. It's about making sure that we're able to detect things like missiles and being able to observe and be aware of all the other things that are going in the space domain because that's becoming an incredibly congested area of operation and so it's incredibly important in what we do and it supports the work that's done by land, air, sea and cyber.

PETERSON: So, will these new roles help protect the population? Are there specific risks, Minister, that these will mitigate against?

KEOGH: Well, certainly, they mitigate against cyber risk. You know, so much communication is done via satellite, but also being aware of what else is going on in the space domain and being able to observe things that are going on in our near and far waters, off our coast, from satellites is also vitally important. 

But as we look at the technological advancement we see in, you know, our aircraft, like our fighter jets, and in autonomous vehicles that we use in our Defence Force, we need to be able to secure the communication links and to operate those communication links, as well as being able to deliver vital information that satellites can secure to our forces in the field. And so it's become ubiquitous. We carry around smartphones, we do all of these things online in our daily lives. As you can imagine, that technology is incredibly important then, in what our Defence Force does, and enabling that from space is also critically important.

PETERSON: Matt Keogh, thanks for your time.

ENDS