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TRANSCRIPT - Minister Keogh - Interview on ABC Radio National

Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel

 

THE HON MATT KEOGH MP
MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
RN BREAKFAST, ABC RADIO NATIONAL
TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: FOUR CORNERS INVESTIGATION INTO VETERANS’ CARE; HISTORIC HOMOSEXUAL CONVICTIONS.

 

 

SALLY SARA: Australia spent $15 billion on compensation and care services for veterans last financial year, but an ABC Four Corners investigation has exposed how some of that money has failed to reach veterans. It's found that for-profit companies are targeting veterans with offers of, quote, “free” DVA-funded services, then allegedly delivering the bare minimum care while they collect profits. Some have reportedly offered gifts and raffle tickets to win over care plans. While the Department of Veterans Affairs funds clinical treatment, it doesn't regulate companies and says it's up to doctors to appropriately prescribe drugs and decide what treatment is right for patients. Matt Keogh is the Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans Affairs, and joins me now. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Good morning, Sally. Great to be with you.

 

SALLY SARA: What's your reaction to the Four Corners program last night?

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Well, I think what it's highlighted is some very disappointing behaviour of people that are frankly taking advantage of our veteran community and that's to the detriment of those veterans and taxpayers. Veterans should expect that if providers are purporting to provide them with coordinated care and services, that they're actually getting that care and that they're getting those services instead of the government, taxpayers being billed for a service that isn't delivered.

 

SALLY SARA: What concerns you most about what you saw last night?

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: I think what concerns me most is that veteran- is that this creates a feeling of distrust in the veteran community about service being made available to them. You know, they're looking to make sure that they can get the best available service to support what can sometimes be very complex needs and what they're seeing advertised to them and services that are saying that they will help them, then turn out that they're not helping them and can be misleading. And that's really concerning for the anxiety that that can create in the veteran community. Not to mention that you've got people that are clearly out there to take advantage of veterans for their own profit motive.

 

SALLY SARA: In one alleged case, the veteran was sent huge quantities of high-THC cannabis prescribed by doctors that he never spoke to. This happened for almost two years. How do you ensure that that doesn't occur?

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: So, we've really tightened up the rules around the prescription of cannabis products to make sure that there's a tighter control that veterans, when they're being initially prescribed, have to actually meet with a doctor face to face instead of just virtual appointments and that they've got to have regular appointments and that there's proper tiering, so, management of where a veteran might go up to a higher level of a cannabinoid type product, because that sort of behaviour, as we saw outlined in Four Corners last night, really is not just taking advantage of veterans, it's putting them at risk, as we saw from some of the stories. And we got onto that, we saw that, and that's why we tightened up the rules around that.

 

SALLY SARA: Will you commit to regulating for-profit companies providing services to veterans?

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: So, one of the things we're already doing is looking at how we can regulate the advocate sector. So, those people working- that should be working to support veterans with claims with DVA and referring them to medical providers to make sure that they operate ethically. And of course, the vast majority who are largely volunteers and don't charge veterans any fees are doing a great job supporting our veteran community, and we always say to veterans, “look, you can always access an advocate at no cost to you.” You know, our ex-service organisations work with volunteers to support them in a whole range of ways. But we've also got to make sure that we're working to make sure that those medical providers that are doing the wrong thing and companies that are working with them, trying to take advantage of veterans, are not able to do that. And we're doing that through a range of ways. Some of that is directly engaging with those providers. Some of it is also working through the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, which works across government on areas like this, not just with DVA, but also similar behaviour that we've seen in the NDIS, and we've engaged with the AFP in relation to a number of providers that have been doing the wrong thing and potentially in a criminal way. So, we are making sure that we do more and when it comes to the advocate sector and how the relationships that they may have with some of these providers, looking at potential legislation for that as well.

 

SALLY SARA: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast, and you're hearing from Matt Keogh, Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans' Affairs. You've made a record investment of $15 billion for veterans. Last month, you scrapped a plan to cap Allied Healthcare for veterans at $5,000 a year. So, why are some saying that- some veterans saying they're still not getting the care they need?

 

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Well, we've decided that we won't proceed with that threshold amount. But importantly, we are increasing the fees that we will pay for Allied Health because we had seen some providers stopping providing service to veterans because of the low rates that DVA had been paying. So, we're making sure that we increase that. We're always looking to make sure that we're improving the broader well-being outcomes for our veteran community. So, whilst we're not proceeding with that particular Allied Health approach, I'm continuing to engage with the veteran community, with providers as well, about how can we make sure we're continuing to get better outcomes, better service delivery for the veteran community.

 

SALLY SARA: On a separate issue, you're announcing today that current and former ADF personnel can now apply to have historical homosexual convictions extinguished from their service records. What's the backdrop to this? Why has this not been done already?

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Well, that is a great question. And the defence discipline system is the last jurisdiction across Australia, if you like, to do this. States and territories did this over the last couple of decades, allowing people where they've been convicted, or have an offence record for, consensual homosexual offences- things that are not offences anymore- to have them expunged from their record. And so we were able to pass some laws during the last sitting of Parliament to allow for these records to be expunged for those people. This is about really providing them with justice. When you think about, these are not even offences right now. And along with that legal change to allow for that, we also will have an administrative method available for people who were discharged from defence, ostensibly because of homosexual activity or, you know, because of their sexuality. And that's not appropriate, obviously. That was a different standard and a different time. And so, allowing them to have their records updated as to the reason why they chose to leave defence or were forced out of defence. And this is about really providing that equity and justice to people, and as you point out, who have been waiting too long. Some people have been campaigning for this for many decades, as we saw states and territories around Australia make similar changes with their criminal justice systems. This was the last jurisdiction, and we're proud to be able to provide this now.

 

SALLY SARA: Matt Keogh, we'll need to leave it there. Thank you for joining me this morning.

 

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Thanks, Sally. Great to be with you.

 

SALLY SARA: Matt Keogh is the Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

 

 

ENDS

 

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Authorised by The Hon Matt Keogh MP.