Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the members for Stirling and Berowra for bringing this motion forward. Like the member for Stirling I've been the beneficiary of the skills, education, training and experience that you get when you're a member of the Australian Defence Force, and it really is first-class training. There are so many great careers in the Australian Defence Force, but it's also about the attitudes as well as the skills and the knowledge that make them special. I believe the Australian Defence Force is unlike any other military body in the world in that we're a small professional force with a small professional reserve. But we have a huge task to defend such a huge continent with our substantial land borders. We're surrounded by massive oceans, so, being a relatively small force, we must have the best people and train them to the highest standards—impeccably high standards—and I believe that we do. The adherence to those standards is what conditions what our Defence Force looks like and the great outcomes that it can achieve. The impact that our forces can have, both here and abroad, like what is happening in the Solomon Islands right now, is directly related to the training that ADF members get during their careers.

Our people are carefully selected, initially, and then they're carefully and vigorously trained. It's not for the faint-hearted, and that is why we select the right people that have got the right attributes to do this training to defend our country and our interest. The defence of Australia rests upon many things: the kit we have, the technology and the capabilities, and also the posture that we take in our region and around the world. We need our people to be exemplars. We need them to have the best skills and training so that they can apply their craft with the kit that we procure for them. So their careers are really fantastic opportunities for them as individuals but also so important to the defence of our nation and our interests, as I said. Without their personal dedication, we would not be the country that we are today.

I'm often told by business owners and operators that veterans are highly sought after in recruitment because of these acquired skills, attitudes, knowledge, education and experience, and I think that should increase in time. No-one likes the narrative of the broken veteran. It is true that we needed to have a royal commission into veteran and defence suicide, because we needed a systemic analysis of where some of our patriots have fallen through the gaps. That is underway and that is good thing. But, overall, veterans serve with distinction and then go on and use what they have learnt in their ADF career to apply in 'civvy street', as we used to call it when in uniform.

It's troubling that veterans can struggle in post-service life, but I think we've found overwhelmingly that if an Australian in one of the forces can transition as seamlessly as possible from their ADF career into their next career then we get much better outcomes for them and their families. I thank those who are speaking on this bill because, obviously, they're interested in this important issue for our nation. I think it will become even more important into the future as we face challenges far and wide.

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