Doorstop Interview, Parliament House, Canberra

SUBJECTS: Defence Workforce Plan; Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS’ AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL, MATT KEOGH: So today the Albanese Government has produced our Workforce Plan for the Defence Force which includes a $600 million investment in extending and expanding our Continuation Bonus Scheme, which is about keeping our Defence Force personnel in service longer. We've seen great success with the continuation bonus which started last year for those that were finishing their initial service obligation and signing on for an additional three years. We'll be extending that but we're also expanding the continuation bonus so that those that have served for around seven to nine years are able to also sign on for an additional three years and access a continuation bonus. This is also funding an expansion of the operational reserves to increase by 1000 personnel by 2030, providing greater opportunity to see our reservists engaged in full and part-time service not just in Army but also across the Air, Sea and Space domains. 

JOURNALIST: Jacqui Lambie was pretty critical of the plan this morning. She said more needed to be done to retain staff. She was talking about making the bonus tax-free?

MINISTER KEOGH: So I was very pleased to see that Jacqui is quite supportive of the expansion of the continuation bonus into these middle-ranked services, those that have been serving for around seven to nine years to be able to sign on and receive the bonus. I know that's something that Jacqui had advocated for in the past and we've received positive feedback from Defence Force personnel looking for a continuation bonus around those middle ranks. The continuation bonus is like any income in the Defence Force. It does have tax payable on it but we do allow personnel to split that payment so they can receive it over a two-year period which helps them with tax and other matters. 

JOURNALIST: Is this going to be enough to address the ongoing workforce issues? 

MINISTER KEOGH: So the continuation bonus which started last year has had a very high uptake, around 80 per cent and what we've seen that through the continuation bonus and other measures that the separation rate across the Defence Force has fallen back towards 9% which is the long-term historical average after it being significantly higher in previous years under the former government. That's really important in terms of being able to retain those people in our Defence Force but we do see that hollowing out in those middle ranks and that's why we're expanding the continuation bonus for those that have been serving for around seven to nine years. 

JOURNALIST: Is anything being done to address sort of the cultural reasons resulting in such high turnover in the Defence Force?

MINISTER KEOGH: Certainly we recognise that culture is a really significant part of any workforce and especially for our Defence Force and we've been undertaking a lot of work around cultural improvement, the new Culture Blueprint and improving the wellbeing for our serving personnel and indeed supporting their families as well. And that's been through things like supporting their study, expanding access to healthcare for families and providing more flexibility around housing. But we've also had the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide ongoing over the last three years and we've been paying close attention to that work and it handed down its Final Report in September. That's very important work that's been undertaken by the Royal Commission and we're now reviewing the 122 recommendations that the Royal Commission has produced and Government will provide a response to that by the end of the year.

JOURNALIST: You’ve announced this plan to the $40,000 extending that. Senator Lambie says it's come after backlash within the Defence Force from people in that sort of seven to nine year mentorship part in their career. Did you have a lot of backlash from people that that wasn't initially open to them?

MINISTER KEOGH: So certainly we could see that that was a cohort within the Defence Force that we see a hollowness and that we need to find ways to continue service for people really from that seven year to nine year from when they sign on to initial service. We need to extend the average period of service from sort of seven years up to 12 years and we did receive feedback and I received feedback visiting bases that that was a cohort that would certainly like to see a bonus available to them. And what we've seen here with the extension of the continuation bonus for those people that are hitting that seven to nine years of service to be able to access a bonus by signing on for an additional three years should be warmly received and have the intent, be able to meet the intent, of keeping people in service for a long period of time.

JOURNALIST: She's also called for it to be tax free. Is that something that you might consider?

MINISTER KEOGH: No, it will be a tax payment but we do provide people the opportunity to spread that payment over two years if that's beneficial for them for matters like tax.

JOURNALIST: You're a few months into now recruiting permanent New Zealand residents. How's that going? How many have you got on board?

MINISTER KEOGH: So we've had hundreds of permanent residents from New Zealand apply to join the Defence Force and they're in the pipeline now for recruitment towards enlistment which is a really great sign and we'll be extending that opportunity to other five eyes nations from the first of January.
JOURNALIST: Great, thank you.

ENDS