Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise to join the shadow minister in cautiously welcoming the government's Defence Legislation Amendment (Discipline Reform) Bill 2021. In doing so, I note the bill is aimed at reforming the system of military discipline for those who serve in our defence forces by changing the way discipline officers and summary authorities operate under the Defence Force Discipline Act. An important background to this bill is the 2017 review that found that aspects of the current system were overly complicated and difficult to apply in the context of today's Defence Force. Those familiar with that review will know it found, among other things, that summary discipline matters were taking way too long to resolve and were potentially having adverse impacts on the accused. Anyone who has served our country in uniform will know the big impact that those delays in resolving breaches of discipline have on morale and potentially on the safety of all concerned. It's certainly the case where people live, work and operate in close-knit communities in very stressful situations.

Clearly the system has not been serving our defence personnel as well as it should, with many senior NCOs and junior officers simply being reluctant to use it. As a result, the use of summary discipline systems has been in pretty consistent decline over many years. This is particularly in the case of recent conflicts. Our defence personnel are now being deployed in smaller formations, often either as independent units or embedded with our allies, and more often than not are far away from administrative support. It's a far cry from when legislation was made law back in 1985. Taking those operational changes into account, it is important these reforms provide commanders and the men and women who serve under their command with a system of discipline that allows for minor breaches of discipline to be dealt with quickly, fairly and properly. It's also important to note that more serious offending should absolutely continue to be dealt with by a superior military tribunal or be referred to civilian authorities as appropriate.

In terms of the bill itself, we know it is intended to reform the system in significant ways. It will expand on the operation of the highly regarded and effective disciplinary infringement scheme. It will allow a greater range of minor breaches of military discipline to be dealt with quickly, fairly and in less formality within the infringement scheme rather than by the more complex adversarial service tribunal process. When we talk about infractions, we're talking minor things—as the shadow minister rightly pointed out, things like dirty boots that don't require the need to have a full process on them. They should be handled properly, efficiently and quickly, and we should make sure the powers that be have all the tools they need to make the action swiftly and not cause more headaches and concerns for both the accused and the unit they're in. This bill will introduce a new senior discipline officer position, creating, in a sense, a two-tier disciplinary infringement scheme.

Labor welcomes the additional safeguards included in the bill to ensure the scheme continues to operate fairly. Schedule 2 proposes to modernise the discipline system structure and reduces the complexity by removing the subordinate summary authority. Schedule 3 would further reform the military discipline system by introducing several new service offences. Importantly, these relate to cyberbullying, receipt of a benefit allowance and failure to perform a duty or activity. As we all know, and as the previous speaker mentioned, cyberbullying conduct is corrosive to discipline and can have severely adverse effects on the mental wellbeing of its victims. We know that back in 1985 there was no cyberbullying; it had never been heard of! But what we see today is a constant barrage of keyboard warriors who attack anonymously, hide behind bots and do these things that absolutely impact on people. It doesn't matter what walk of life you're from; we see this all the time.

It's so important the men and women of our Defence Force who are doing the right thing are protected and looked after. I think the intention of this new offence enables Defence to protect victims of cyberbullying through early intervention and to put a stop to cyberbullying behaviour before it gets out of hand. The work I used to do with Bully Zero gave me absolute insight into what can happen with cyberbullying and the absolute dire consequences from that. The more that we can do to stop this, the better. We need to ensure that our defence personnel are given the protections they deserve and the security they deserve for the work they do for us. Importantly, current safeguards for persons accused of breaching military discipline rules still remain in this bill.

So, looking at the bill as a whole, these proposed changes would appear to have a positive effect on improving the administration of discipline for all those who serve our country. But it is not clear whether these changes are strictly necessary. As we understand it, there has been little consultation to date. I think it's essential that we get the balance right between administrative efficiency on the one hand and fairness and the preservation of legal rights and access to justice for the members of our forces on the other. We need to ensure that people on the ground have a say and that there are no unintended consequences here.

Quite often throughout this term and the last term of parliament we have seen that many bills have had to come back and be amended because of an unintended consequence. I think that is why it is important that we speak to defence personnel directly and get their feedback and their views. That's why Labor instigated a referral of the bill to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee for a short inquiry. It's not to hold the bill up but to ensure there is proper scrutiny and proper stakeholder consultation.

As the shadow minister said, Labor will not oppose the bill in the House, but we will moving a second reading amendment condemning the government's failures in defence and veterans affairs, and there are so many. But we will reserve our position on the bill until the Senate inquiry has reported back. It's only going to be a short time, but it can make a massive fundamental difference to the way this bill is presented and the way it delivers for our Defence Force personnel. I think the government should be supporting the idea of going out and consulting with people. Rather than run a top-down approach, they should actually start to listen to the people on the ground. With those few words, I wish the bill a speedy passage. I thank the House for its time.

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