Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I acknowledge the contributions of all those who have spoken in this debate thus far and those to come—I will be listening to the member for Solomon in particular. I also want to acknowledge, of course, all of those in this parliament—in the Senate and the House of Representatives—who are veterans and thank them for their service. And I really want to acknowledge the contributions made today by the member for Braddon, in particular, and by the member for Herbert, and for the heartfelt ways in which they expressed their views. Most importantly, they made significant, informed and revealing speeches, not only about the issue but about themselves. For that, I say thank you. They have given us an insight into their own lived experience and the experience of so many other men and women in uniform. I can't imagine the pain of Mrs Finney.

But I stand here, proudly, as a former Minister for Defence Science and Personnel and as a former Minister for Veterans' Affairs. I say that because I got to meet the most outstanding people in the Defence Force and in the veterans' community. They were inspirational in almost every way. The sadness, to me, was always about, 'How the hell do we attempt to fix those who are broken?' Significantly, I think we have collectively failed. I say that as a former minister; I'm not saying this is the responsibility of any individual. But we have failed, collectively, and the evidence is there. The evidence is in what we're seeing now in terms of suicide rates for veterans.

As others have said, when they're in uniform it's half the suicide rate. When I was the minister we did a review of mental health in the Defence Force. It became very clear that when people were in uniform they were strong; they had their team mates and they were supported. That was part of the reason why we could say, proudly, that the impact on the mental health of our serving men and women was what it was. The member for Braddon pointed out that when he was in uniform it's what he was doing every day and he had the surety of it all. The thing that vexed me most though was what happens. Remember, this was up to 2013, from about 2009 or 2010. So we were in the middle of the war in the Middle East and Afghanistan, we were seeing high levels of rotation, particularly of special forces people but also across the services, and what worried me then as it worries me now is what was the impact of those high levels of rotations on the mental health of those people once they separated from the Defence Force? No-one's been able to give us a solution. The separation, the leaving, for many—most—it's not an issue. They're proud of their service, they wear it with pride, they value their team mates and they value what they've achieved. But there are some who, when they leave, over a period of time become very troubled, and we haven't been able to identify them before they take extreme measures.

This is an issue which I'm not sure we can comprehend properly. How do we do it? How do we get to everyone who's been in uniform and say, 'We're here to help you,' even though we know there are some who, when they leave, say, 'We want nothing to do with you anymore.' They've had enough. They don't want the uniform, they don't want to acknowledge you as our former comrades and they head bush or wherever they go. At some point things change, and we've lost them. We've lost them from contact. We can't support them because we can't see them. We've got to make sure we see them.

I say to Liz Cosson and her team at the Department of Veterans' Affairs: despite the brick bats you get, I totally value the work you do, your commitment and that of your teams, to the betterment of the veterans community and veterans—individuals and their families—a point which was most strongly made by the member for Braddon. We have an obligation. Once someone goes to Kapooka, puts on that uniform, we're obligated to look after them for life. With that obligation comes an obligation to look after their families. It means post-service that obligation remains and that's the challenge. That is the challenge.

I acknowledge the minister's contribution and that of the members for Blair for Gorton. I say to the minister: this royal commission is an opportunity. It's not an attack on you or an attack on the department. This is an opportunity to get things fixed. One of the inevitable results I see will be greater support for the department, for the work they're doing and for the veterans' community. We have the time to do this. It is the moment. There is bipartisan support—and the support in the Senate from Senator Lambie's work has been outstanding—as others have said. But we can do this if we're prepared to work together.

I say to the Prime Minister: the second part of this motion today calls on the Morrison government to establish a royal commission into the rate of suicide among current and former serving Australian Defence Force personnel. To say you won't oppose it is one thing. What we need you to do, Prime Minister, is come into this parliament and say that you'll sit down with the members of the Defence Force community, the veterans and the opposition to work out the terms of reference, the time scale for the royal commission and who the commissioner or commissioners might be. Let's do it. We can do it. We should do it. If we do that, we'll get the outcome that people are after. But when we stand here with sadness, when we lose someone—yesterday, a month ago, or in your case, Mrs Finny—we wreck the world. What do we do? We can't just say we're sorry. And we are sorry. We've got to do something about it and by doing something about it we have a legacy for your son. That's what we have the responsibility to do in this place. And for those others who have sadly taken their lives, we have a responsibility to give them the legacy that is their due. I'm confident that, given the will of the parliament and members of the parliament, the Prime Minister will see the importance of doing this, that it is the right thing to do and that now is the time to do it. I commend the motion and again say how outstanding this debate has been. I thank all members who've made a contribution. I'm waiting fervently to hear the contribution from the member for Solomon. Thank you.

See this speech in context