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

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what you have had to go through—the loss of a son. I'm sorry for every mother that has had to bury their son, for every family member who has had to bury a loved one and for mates who are beside themselves. All I can say is: I'm sorry.

I have all this paper to say how I feel, but I can't even read it. I want to talk to you, Julie-Ann. That's why we're here. I can't imagine the turmoil your life has had to go through, from the loss of your son, to coming to Canberra to meet with everyone, to working with Jacqui Lambie, Heston, Gav, me and those across the floor and on this side. And I wish Karen was here too. I love Karen Bird. She is the mother of Jesse Bird, who I served with, who I had the pleasure of living with, deploying with and fighting with. I take his death on my shoulders as my responsibility, even though it's not. The weight of the burden never goes away. The black hole in my heart, for my 10 mates who have died, is nowhere near the pain you must have been enduring this whole time. I'm sorry you've had to come all this way to sit in the chamber and listen to us speak again. That would only make you relive all these harsh times. I just wanted to say that to you.

I want to echo my mate Gavin Pearce's words, the member for Braddon. We argued about who was going to go first because I feel physically ill. I hate having to relive, re-talk everything. There is no weight off the soldiers standing at this dispatch box at all. Every day we have to live with the loss of our mates. Every day we have to live with the loss of people who have served. You have to live with the loss of your son. I think Gav did a really good job with such a tough—not a tough motion to talk about, not a tough royal commission or national commission to talk about, it's the talk about your loved ones. It's the talk about your friends. It's the talk about the member for Solomon's mates. It's the talk about not just the people who we represent in our electorates but the people who in my case I call brothers, my mates that've died, that's the bit.

I wasn't a senior officer in the Defence Force. I wasn't even a corporal. I was a private soldier. I'm not supposed to be in this place. My ilk doesn't come here. But I take my mates' voices—and some of them not so good, some of them troubled. I'm definitely not a saint either. I've done a lot of dumb things in my life. Every day I hear more of people that I know, people of my level, at the private level, who have died at their own hand.

When I was on operations in Afghanistan we accepted death. I didn't expect it or accept it when I came home. I didn't think that I would be going to funerals all the time. I didn't think that people who I called brother wouldn't reach out because their pain and the hole they were in was so dark. We've been there. I've been there. I spent years in that dark hole. My wife pulled me out of that hole and some good friends that gave me a good clip round the ear or a punch in the mouth. The hole was that dark that it felt like there was nothing else and that's why we're in support.

In my heart I think that—notwithstanding what we're talking about—an ongoing national commissioner can work. I don't believe that any level of government has done enough to stop all the suicides. It doesn't matter what colour shirt you wear. I couldn't care less. I really believe that. I will work with anyone. I don't care. I talk with Jacqui on the phone. I don't want to bury any more people. I don't want any more mums, fathers, brothers, sons and daughters to bury their family members. I don't want to get a phone call at 1 am saying, 'Your mate's died'. I don't want to have to call my wife and say the same thing either. The effect doesn't ever stop and the pain never will. We—when I say 'we' I am speaking of my veterans on this side of the House—are in support, and some of them sit here with me today. We'll support you. We will do what is right.

I will also be in support of the national commissioner—not just the royal commission but both. I think that is good ongoing. I don't want to get into a political point scoring thing. I think that's already kind of happened. I want to work with Shane, Darren, Stuey and Andrew. I'm not calling them by their seats and this will probably get me in trouble later. I don't know where their seats are and to be honest I don't care. I want to work with everyone—and Luke, and the former Minister for Defence, Joel, whose son is still serving. We all want to get to the same area and sometimes our roads are not going in the right direction. But they should.

On Wednesday or Thursday, when the motion was put into the Senate, I threw up. I threw up, not because I had to stand here and speak or because anyone was going to call me it was because I just felt it all in my stomach and in my heart. I spoke with the PM who, regardless of what anyone thinks, cares—he does. When I was in Townsville during the election campaign I got the phone call that Brad Carr had just died by suicide. I was standing next to the PM, and there were no cameras there—nothing. He put his arms around me and gave me a hug. He said: 'It's okay, you can go home. You don't need to do the rest of the day.' But I didn't, because I wanted to come to this place to be able to stand with my colleagues—with people who I don't always agree with, Jackie—to do the right thing for our veterans; to make sure that they and their families are best supported in the electorate. I think that the family advocate, with Gwen Cherne, is a fantastic idea because it's their voice that goes directly into changing how policy should be done.

I'm feeling a bit sick again, but I just wanted to say to you again, Julie-Ann, Karen Bird, Angela McKay and to everyone—the names just escape me—that I'm sorry you've had to come all this way and I'm sorry that this has happened. I support you and so do my colleagues. We support the motion; we're not opposing it at all and now we just need to put the wheels in motion and get things moving. On behalf of all the veterans, thank you, and on behalf of all my mates, thank you. But I'm sorry to all of them because we should not have to talk about suicides in our community. We will, and we must, do better. Thank you.

See this speech in context