Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Being a part of the Australian Defence Force, protecting our nation, protecting our national interests, is one of the great sacrifices made by so many Australians—150,000 Australians each year. I have said many, many times in this chamber that there is no higher calling than military service. To be a fine member of the Australian Defence Force member, you need to display a high level of fitness, commitment, discipline, trust, integrity, courage and loyalty.

Comments made in the Tanzer review of March 1999 still apply today in much the same way that they did at the turn of the millennium. As the Tanzer review said:

To achieve this, certain inherent requirements apply to those personnel serving in the ADF. These requirements will, to varying degrees, impact on the lifestyle of each ADF member. Such conditions are generally specific to military life and would not normally apply to the majority of those in civilian employment.

That's why when members transition out of uniform we need to provide them with the adequate resources and the adequate support to successfully help them make that transition into civilian life and we need to make sure that the processes are as seamless as possible.

The processes in terms of the transition from the military into DVA have been the subject of countless inquiries, and even now I still get complaints that they are not as seamless as they can be. We need to ensure that members going from the ADF do not go into a huge abyss when they enter civilian life and that their transition into civilian life is as smooth as possible not just in terms of the DVA processes but also in terms of educational processes and emotional support processes—and financial support goes without saying. When transitioning, one minute you are in the ADF and you've got a house provided for you on a base and the next minute you're off base and you're looking for a rental somewhere—and quite often it's the case that it has been a long time since you've actually been in the private rental market. We need to provide these support services and these systems to our ADF members who are making that transition to civilian life.

We also need to provide the appropriate support systems and services to those who've been damaged in serving our country—those who have experienced trauma in serving our nation, those who have come back with PTSD from Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere and those who've come back from peacekeeping missions who have undergone significant trauma. We need to provide the appropriate support services and systems to ensure that those people are supported. We need to ensure that those people who have made that significant contribution to our nation are supported in their hour of need. It's vitally important.

That is why it was terrific to attend, for the fourth time, the Soldier On fundraiser that was held just recently here in Canberra. It was the national fundraiser. As I said, I've been to all four of them over the years. I remember when Soldier On started. I think it was back in 2012. It started with just a glimmer of an idea from John Bale and some of his mates in respect for some of the mates that they'd lost in Afghanistan. They started with no money; just a big idea, big dreams, and the absolute determination to support veterans, or ADF members, coming back from serving their nation overseas, who had experienced significant trauma and were doing it tough as a result of PTSD and the trauma of what they'd witnessed overseas on deployments. They were determined to come up with a mechanism to support those people. This vision—this glimmer of an idea, this glimmer of a vision—began in a tent that was pitched at the site where the returned services club had once stood down in Griffith. It was there that this vision, this grand idea, of Soldier On was born. It was over a few glasses of cheap wine. Were you there, Deputy Speaker Irons? From memory, it was pretty cold.

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