Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the work the Government is doing to address the issue of veteran suicide with the announcement of an independent National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide;

(b) that a new independent National Commissioner will be appointed to identify and investigate suicide amongst Australian Defence Force and veteran population; and

(c) that a new Veteran Family Advocate will be appointed to lead engagement, liaison and advocacy amongst families and will be at the heart of policy and decision making with the Department of Veterans' Affairs; and

(2) recognises mental health and suicide are complex issues, but issues that are everyone's business—families, friends, employers, community organisations, governments and the ex-service community.

Jesse Bird, Brad Carr, Paul McKay, Ben Brown, Peter Atkins, Dylan Clark, Tristan Hardie, Daniel Halpin, Steven Fazel, Shaun Jenkins, Geoffrey Price and Lewis Shelley are just some of the names of the mates that we've lost to suicide. There are many, many more. There are many families that are grieving, many families that will carry the loss of a loved one through suicide for the rest of their days. My heart, my love and my prayers are with them always.

Veterans' suicide is something that has been close to my heart ever since I joined the Defence Force, and more so in this place because of the names I just read. They're the reason, when I get up in the morning, that I enjoy coming to this place, because we can make a difference here, we can all work together here. There is nothing more important than life, and there is nothing more important than putting the knives away when it comes to such important issues.

Only last year, on Anzac Day, the Prime Minister was in Townsville. As we were heading up to a press pack, I received a call. Brad Carr had taken his own life. It was a very emotional, sobering feeling. I didn't really know what to do. The PM put his arm around me and said: 'You don't have to go into the press pack. You don't have to do this.' But I said, 'No, I will,' because, as we were going through the election campaign, I knew that standing up always for the people who don't have a voice anymore—including my friends, including people I've lived with—was something I just had to do.

I've been very fortunate to work with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs on this, because it is important. We know that a national commissioner to look into veterans' suicide and Defence suicide is something that our Defence Force has been screaming out for. I believe that this is a fantastic thing. The national commissioner will have the same powers as a royal commissioner, and it will be ongoing, a rolling commission. They will have the power to compel—the power to make people testify, the power to get evidence—and the power to work with the coroners in different states and territories.

There are family members—mothers, spouses, fathers and kids—who are for this, and rightly so. There are people who are against it. I'm not here today to tell them that they are wrong, because they are not. We all want the same thing: we all want veterans' suicides and Defence suicides not just to be low but to be stamped out. We should keep that dialogue open. It is everyone's responsibility, throughout the communities in Defence and in this place, to question what we're doing, to ask what the next steps are, because that's the only way that we'll be able to work together. I don't know how Brad Carr's mum and Jesse Bird's mum—whom I've spoken to; they're lovely, lovely people—get up every day. I don't want this to be something that's a burden on them—to have to fight for a commissioner or for the right thing. It's something that I want to take on on their behalf; that I want the government to take on on their behalf and the crossbench to take on on their behalf. This motion was co-signed by Mike Kelly, a member of the Labor Party—a fantastic man, a great member and a great veteran. He signed it not for any political pointscoring but because he knows that we must work together. If we do not work together, we will not achieve. We just have to be on the same page.

We have a family advocate who will link in with the families and work closely with Veterans' Affairs to put together policies. We've got to look at what happened before suicide, what happened at the suicide and what happens after. We need to look at where we've come from, because that's the only way that we'll know where we'll go. We need to look at trends so we can put in policies to stop veterans' suicide. I believe we are on the same page.

We are never above, never below; we're always by your side.

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