E&OE transcript Press conference
MINISTER KEOGH: Well, good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining me here today. The last time that I stood here, the Government had just received the Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. A report that highlighted that the rate of suicide amongst our veteran community is significantly higher than we see across the general Australian population. A report that showed that the complexity of the legislation that supports our veterans entitlement system and the delays in the processing of veterans claims is contributing to the suicidality of our veterans. The interim report talked about the way in which our three existing schemes of legislation for veterans that have built up over more than a century now are complex, difficult to understand, difficult to operate from the Department's point of view as well, and leads to anxiety amongst our veteran community.
You talk to any veteran who's put in a claim through DVA and they'll talk about the difficulty of understanding how the system works, the difficulty of understanding how the three different pieces of legislation all have to operate together, and the anxiety that that produces for them, but also for their families. And this is a system that clearly hasn't worked for some time. We've seen report after report talk about this, and it's why, when I delivered the Government's official response to the Royal Commission's interim report to the Parliament in September, I apologised on behalf of the Government for the failures that have been experienced by our veterans and family community. Failures that have been over many years and many different Governments. But these reports that have built up over time have pointed to the need to reform this legislation. Indeed, it was the first recommendation of the interim report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. And it's why I'm pleased today that we will be launching the Veteran Legislation Reform Consultation Pathway.
The core of this pathway forward is around changing the legislation so that we close out the two older schemes to support veterans, with all new claims to come under the one remaining scheme that will stay in place. This will see one scheme going forward. It will mean that claims will be easier for veterans, it will mean that it's easier for the Department to process those claims faster to support our veterans and families. This pathway will form the basis of our consultation with those people that need it most, our veterans and families. We'll also be engaging with our defence personnel community, with the health experts, with the veterans advocate community and with others that are involved in this very complex system. But I also look forward to working with the Opposition, with the Crossbench parties and the Independents, because it's so important that together we can deliver this legislative change. By working together, we can deliver better legislation to delivers a better future for our veterans and families. And so I really encourage everyone that's involved in the veterans' entitlement schemes, veterans and families, organisations everybody to engage constructively with this process of consultation. Now we have a unique opportunity at this point to provide better legislation we have a unique opportunity to provide better legislation for our veterans and families, communities, an opportunity to save lives.
JOURNALIST: Minister, can you give us an update on the DVA claims backlog? It was at almost 42,000 last year. What is it now and are you on track to clear the backlog by May next year as the Royal Commission recommended?
MINISTER KEOGH: So, the backlog as at the end of January was 42,641 claims and we are starting to see that turn a corner. So when we came into Government, we had a commitment to engage an additional 500 staff in the Department of Veterans' Affairs to get through this backlog. We've been undergoing this process now for some months, engaging new staff, getting them trained up as delegates to be able to work through these claims faster. We've also seen over those months a continued increase in the number of claims coming in. So we've been able to process claims faster, but we've had more claims coming in as well. We're starting to see that number reduce and reduce more quickly as more of those staff come online, fully trained to do that work. And we look forward to seeing that progress. And we still think we're on target to what the Royal Commission was seeking.
JOURNALIST: But just to clarify that the number is actually higher than it was in May of last year.
MINISTER KEOGH: The number has fluctuated over that time. And one of the things that we see, particularly in December and January, when we have a lot of different staff take leave and everything else as you see an uptick in the claims sitting there as at that close of date. But we are still seeing a steady progress in increasing the number of claims that we're processing.
JOURNALIST: But that means the backlog itself hasn't been cleared if there are still 42,000 sitting there.
MINISTER KEOGH: Absolutely, the backlog has not been cleared and that's why we're engaging additional staff to get through that backlog. And we're still on track, based on our projections, to be able to clear it in the time that the Royal Commission sought in its recommendations.
JOURNALIST: How many staff?
MINISTER KEOGH: So at the moment, we have engaged more than 200 additional staff. Of those 500, we've got more coming on before the middle of this year and we'll continue to engage those staff. But there is a lag in the effectiveness of those staff because as they come on board, they have to be trained. That's quite an extensive process. Because of the complexity of this legislation and the interplay between the three different sets of legislation, it takes time to get that traction. We also have to take trained staff offline from processing to train these additional staff. So it's not surprising but it's slow moving getting those claims reduced. But we are seeing more and more claims being processed.
JOURNALIST: Minister, last night in Senate Estimates, there was some pretty disturbing evidence about the use of White Cards and the fact that GPs are reducing access, psychiatrists are now refusing to take those White Cards. It also emerged that your Secretary or your Department hasn't really met with the Health Minister. Have you met with the Health Minister on this? And if not, will you go and go across the corridor today and speak to him?
MINISTER KEOGH: I have spoken to the Health Minister about these issues and I know my Department is engaging with the Department of Health about these issues. But what's really important to understand is that whilst we are seeing some GPs saying that they won't process white cards for our veterans, which quite frankly is really disturbing, we do know that there are many, many GPs, psyches, other medical specialists that do service our veteran community and we encourage veterans where they're experiencing these sorts of problems to contact the Department because we can direct them to specialists and GPs and other medical practitioners that are willing to accept the White Card and the Gold Card and to make sure they can get the service that they need and deserve.
JOURNALIST: But in some areas it's just not possible because the available psychiatrist isn't accepting it and there's no other option.
