Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

With the work that we do in this House, we frequently are given an opportunity to speak about something that relates to us very personally. Today I'm very honoured to be able to stand as North Sydney's representative to offer some thoughts on the government's response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide interim report. As I read through this report, there were a lot of numbers that were simply breathtaking. For example, we know that there are nearly 600,000 veterans living across Australia and, very sadly and completely unacceptably, there are currently 42,000 of those veterans waiting for their compensation claims to be processed. We also know that more serving personnel and veterans have died from suicide than the total number of Australians that were killed during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, with that number running at the staggering figure of over 1,200 deaths between 2001 and 2019. We know that research carried out in 2019 found that the age-adjusted rate for suicide for ex-serving women was more than double that for the general Australian female population as a whole, while ex-servicemen had the highest overall rate of deaths per 100,000 people, with 27 ex-servicemen choosing to take their own lives. Commissioners have noted particular concerns over the transition from military to civilian life, with approximately 6,000 people leaving military service every year, and they've argued that we must do more to raise cultural awareness about the issues that our veterans face: their health—GPs need to be educated—the culture that surrounds them, and the Department of Veterans' Affairs and how it operates.

For me, as I read this report, I see three people who were very close to me and who fundamentally informed the way I grew up. The first is my grandfather Delmyr Gosper, who served in the Second World War. He enlisted as one man and came home as a very different one. To me, while he was always a loving grandfather and somebody who I have very dear memories of, I know that those who were closest to him witnessed and experienced the trauma he brought back to his family from that time. I didn't have a lot of time with my grandfather—he passed away when he was very young—but I did have more time with my uncle Joe Marshall, who was also an ex-serviceman.

Joe was one of those very brave military personnel who were frequently dropped into locations to spot, to see what was going on in enemy encampments and to then provide that information back to the forces that needed to respond. As a family, we didn't know that for many years, because his record was sealed. All we knew, and all I knew, of my uncle Joe was a silent figure who sat in an armchair in the back of a room and was at times incredibly frightening to approach. But, at the same time, you sensed he had so much more to offer; he just didn't know how to speak it.

More recently, I had the very dear pleasure of knowing Dave Stafford Finney. I knew him through his work with Camp Quality. He was one of our leaders down here in Canberra actually. He was an extraordinary young man. Dave was intelligent. He was witty. He had a humour that was wicked. He had a mother who loved him dearly, in Julie-Ann Finney. And still we lost Dave to suicide, when he chose to take his own life. How can it be that people who give so much to our country are left wanting so much in return?

The royal commission inquiry embarked in April 2021, and the interim report was released in August 2022. There is much for us to take from this interim report. There were 13 recommendations in the report, and I think they bear repeating. The first one hardly needs to be said out loud, but it is that we must simplify and harmonise the compensation and rehab routes in this country. The second is to eliminate the claims backlog. The third is to make the claims process simpler. The fourth is to ensure there's appropriate government funding. The fifth is to make sure the department that's charged with enacting all this is enabled and resourced to do so. The sixth is to increase the protections for persons engaging with the royal commission. The seventh is to provide exemption from parliamentary privilege. The eighth is to limit public interest immunity claims. The ninth is to improve release of information, because families do need to know what is going on with those that they love. The 10th is to focus on a co-design for the information. The 11th—and so basic a recommendation—is that we must have trauma-informed practices for information access. The 12th is to encourage further consent for information access. And the 13th is to co-design education on information systems.

We know that we now have the funding allocated for additional departmental staff and we have more emergency housing. We know that departmental staffing caps have now been lifted and that the government is in the process of recruiting 500 additional staff. These steps are truly welcomed by me and the wider community. The sad reality is that none of these things will bring back those whom we have lost, yet many of these things that are now coming into being are informed by the echoes of their voices and our memories of them. Commissioner Kaldas, who was the commission chair, said:

It is important we have a full picture of the problem, to understand where and how to best direct efforts to prevent suicide, and to improve the lives and wellbeing of the Defence and veteran community …

Public submissions into this important royal commission stay open until October 2023, which, I confess, to me feels like a lifetime away, and I know that to Julie-Ann Finney it also seems to be such a long time coming. We will then receive the final report in June 2024. I look forward hopefully to being part of a parliament that finally says, 'To those of you who have served us so well: we see you when you return; we not only appreciate everything that you did while you were away, but we are here to re-embrace and protect you and your families as you return to us.'

To everyone who is currently serving, I say, from every Australian: 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart.' And to all the families who live with those who serve, I say: 'You truly do have a hero in your midst.' We should be infinitely proud of everything these people continue to do for our nation.

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