Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I will start by acknowledging the Australian Defence Force, our veterans and their families, acknowledging that the freedoms that we enjoy today are on the back of hard-fought battles that they or their family have served in. To the families that have lost loved ones who succumbed to their war within, who died by suicide: I'm sorry. No family of an Australian Defence Force member should have to bury loved ones who have died by suicide.

I rise to speak on the Royal Commission Amendment (Private Sessions) Bill, which amends the Royal Commission Act 1902. If passed by the parliament, this bill will change the act so that a royal commission could appoint an assistant commissioner to conduct private sessions with people who want to tell their story. It is a bill that will affect every current and future royal commission. If passed by the parliament, it will allow every royal commission that conducts private sessions to appoint an assistant commissioner. In reality, this bill came about as a result of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and the community that it affects first and foremost will be our defence and veteran community.

Every death by suicide in our defence and veteran community is a tragedy, and the effects are far-reaching. We know that the effects of every death by suicide are felt by families, friends, parents, children, those who served alongside them, and others in the community. We know that the problem is far too prevalent in our defence and veteran community. Too many of our veteran service men and women are dying. We owe it to them and their families to hear their stories and to make changes that will make a difference in the long-term. This bill goes some way to doing that, and we in the coalition will support the bill. If serving and ex-serving personnel who have lived with suicidality want to tell their stories to the royal commission, we will support them to do so. If the families and friends of those who have died want to talk in private session and they are happy doing so with an assistant commissioner, which this bill would create, they should be allowed to do so, and we will do what we can in this place to ensure that they have the opportunity as soon as possible.

I'd like to take a minute to reflect on what a private session is and how this bill would affect them. Private sessions are a relatively recent addition to the Royal Commissions Act. The private sessions regime was introduced to support the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and in 2019 the coalition amended the Royal Commissions Act to allow private sessions to be used in any other royal commission prescribed by regulations. Private sessions are not a hearing of a royal commission. A person who appears at a private session for a royal commission is not a witness. The information they provide is not part of the evidence given to the commission. Commissioners cannot use the stories told in private sessions to make findings and recommendations. They are private, and there are strong protections in the Royal Commissions Act to ensure that the information given in private session cannot be disclosed. The restrictions on the disclosure of information given in private session allow people to come forward confidentially, without fear of reprisal. This means that people who want to share their story can choose to remain anonymous. Importantly, the legislation ensures that the restrictions continue after the expiry of the royal commission.

This legislation framework is designed to support a person in telling their story to a royal commission in a way that is beneficial to them. We recognise and acknowledge that these stories often include significant personal trauma and details that are difficult to speak of publicly. Currently, only one commissioner, the chair of a multimember royal commission or another commissioner who is authorised in writing by the chair may conduct private sessions. The gist of the bill is that it will authorise a person who is not a royal commissioner to hold private sessions. The person authorised to do so will be called an assistant commissioner. This is a senior staff member who will be required to be suitably qualified and have the necessary experience, at the discretion of the sole commissioner or chair of the multimember royal commission. The commissioner or the chair of the royal commission must also consider the circumstances that exist that justify the person holding private sessions for the commission. The bill gives the assistant commissioner the same protections and immunities that are provided to a justice of the High Court.

As way of the background to this bill, it's appropriate that we take a moment to reflect on the way this bill came to be before the chamber. The genesis of the bill was a request from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. On 15 May this year, the royal commission revealed that it had received more than 1,140 requests for private sessions prior to the closing date, which was 28 April this year. It is not surprising that they have been flooded with requests. As the royal commission itself noted, sitting down with current and former ADF members, their loved ones and their mates had been incredibly powerful. We know that at the time that the royal commission released the information they had completed more than 470 one-on-one sessions with people with lived experience of suicide and suicide ideation, which helped to identify common issues, themes, risks and proactive factors.

We also know from reports in the Guardian about four weeks ago that, several days before releasing that information. they had written to the Prime Minister. The royal commission wrote to the Prime Minister on 11 May, asking for its reporting date to be extended by 12 months. This was not a request that was made lightly. It is worth taking the time to read parts of the royal commission's reasoning into Hansard. They wrote—in the royal commission's words:

We Commissioners wrote to the Prime Minister, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, on 11 May this year requesting a 12-month extension to this inquiry.

The decision to seek a further extension to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was not taken lightly. We are acutely aware that serving members of the Australian Defence Force and veterans are seeking change urgently to prevent further deaths …

The commissioners' statement goes on:

Our request for more time was in the hope that we could complete the most thorough inquiry possible, delving more deeply into the many complex issues than had previously been possible, and make findings that are both fully justified by the evidence and persuasive enough to induce action instead of the inertia demonstrated by previous governments and Commonwealth bodies.

We know there will not be another Royal Commission into this problem in our lifetime.

The royal commission made a careful, considered and balanced request to seek more time so that they could do the job properly. It was not the first time they had done it. We in the coalition granted a similar request last year. As is the case now, it was a request that was not made lightly. Equally, the extension was not granted lightly. But in granting the extension we recognised that it is the interests of Australian serving members, veterans and their families that must be prioritised.

The Prime Minister has taken a different approach. He waited until August before ultimately refusing the commission's request. As a result, the commission looked to alternative initiatives to meet its original reporting date. This bill is one of those alternative initiatives. We recognise that the bill is intended to do some good, but we should reflect on the circumstances. What we know is what the royal commission put in its own statement on the issue. On 1 August we were informed that the extension had not been granted and the royal commission's final report is expected to be handed down, as planned, by 17 June 2024. We would have preferred for the Prime Minister not to wait so long before responding, and we would have been happy to support an extension. Alternatively, we would have preferred for this bill to come into parliament in June, July or August. We are disappointed that it has taken so long to bring this bill forward. We would have preferred to allow veterans and their families to express a view on the bill through the normal parliamentary processes. But that is not position we find ourselves in today. However, the coalition will support this bill.

When I served in the Army and had deployments to East Timor and Afghanistan, I was wounded in Afghanistan. I didn't wake up the next day and think, 'One day I will be sitting in Parliament House.' But I also didn't think I would have to bury my mates. I didn't think that at the age of 21 I would be saying goodbye to friends of mine who had died by suicide. It is not just a failure; it is a national tragedy. I don't think mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters or mates should be burying our bravest. The people who put on the uniform every day in service of this nation, those brave men and women, deserve a parliament and deserve governments of all persuasions to support them. We should not be waking up to the news of another soldier, another aviator, another sailor dying by suicide.

I, like so many of my friends, could have ended up with my name chiselled on the wall at the Australian War Memorial as we all could very easily have succumbed to our own war within. If it wasn't for friends of mine, especially my friend turned girlfriend turned wife who pulled me out of a very dark hole, I know that I wouldn't be here today. Many of my friends didn't come out of the black hole. This royal commission highlights shining a very bright light into the darkest corner of our military and our veteran community. It is a must that these recommendations from the royal commission get implemented on time. We must get these recommendations implemented within the time frame that's been set out because veterans are dying by suicide still today.

It wasn't too long ago, when I was back in Townsville, that I got a message from someone that used to live in the north and moved to the Gold Coast. Her partner had died by suicide. He shot himself. He left behind not just a wife but a little baby girl, a daughter that will grow up now without her father. This simply should not be the case. This nation, who supports its veterans, should have policies, procedures and programs and ex-service organisations that do their job in supporting our veterans. As a veteran who has seen my mates die, I have read books to the children after the funeral who will never see their father again. Many are too young to remember what their dad looked like. Suicide doesn't have a gender bias and doesn't affect only men. I served in the infantry unit, so most of the people that I know that have died by suicide were males. Jesse Bird was at my wedding, someone I called a brother. I had to travel to Melbourne to say goodbye to him and bury him. Brad Carr and I lived together. He was another fantastic bloke who succumbed to his war within.

If you always do the same thing, you will always get the same result. This royal commission's job is to give harsh, frank and fearless recommendations to government, and it is the government's job to ensure that we implement recommendations that will save our veterans' lives. I want to read you a submission. This submission was put in by Justin Huggett, a Medal Of Gallantry recipient. I won't read his whole submission, but I want to read this part:

SUICIDE RATES

148. It seems the last 4 or 5 years I have had a constant need to have a suit dry cleaned and ready to go in my wardrobe. The devastating rate of self-harm and suicide is beyond heartbreaking. For me personally it is a double tragedy. Not only have I have lost another mate and need to attend a funeral, as a bloke that has been advocating for a number of years, I will now need to assist his wife/partner and kids through the DVA War Widows Application process and I get to see first-hand, the grief and despair that has been left behind.

149. I think it is difficult to figure out what caused the people I know who have served in the Army to end their lives. I think that often it is a combination of things that have caused them to die—whether mental health diagnosis, depression and anxiety which can lead to losing a career, and then stress about how to look after your family, which can result in a marriage breakdown and then splitting time with kids—that's just one example. Some guys just can't get over the fact that they have seen something on a deployment they are not able to do anything about. But I think for most people, it is a slow burn of the combination of things over a period of time, and then all of a sudden there is a fracture point where they think that they can't come back. What is so heart breaking is that in their minds things are so bad that their wife and kids are better off without them.

150. I have had my issues before. I've never felt like ending my life is the solution, but I can see how some people would end up in that position. I don't think that it is the case that I have better support or family around it—some people have a great friend network and still die by suicide. It's hard to understand from the outside. We are all trying to figure out what it is that we can do to help that person in that moment, how to make them press pause on how they are feeling when things become too much.

He goes on in his conclusion to talk about the comments that he made throughout this process and how he was very blunt and angry. He's a mate, and I'm sure he'll be fine with me saying this, but he's extremely angry because he wakes up in the morning hoping and praying that his phone hasn't been blown up because of people who have died by suicide, a mate who has died, or a wife or a loved one reaching out, saying, 'I need help; I don't know where he is.'

I saw that firsthand with Tristan Hardy. He was posted to 1 RAR. He went missing, and we had his spouse looking for him, police and everything. He subsequently died by suicide. The anger's real because this isn't a game. This isn't something you can push pause on. This isn't something where you can respawn. Life is—you only get one shot, and it's so precious. I honestly believe that these strong words, these tough words, this reality check that has gone to the commissioners—who, as I've seen through watching some of the royal commission, have been left with their jaws on the floor—need to be heard.

I believe in meaningful employment and meaningful engagement for our veteran community. I think there should be programs that focus on the thing that will get you up in the morning, something to care about doing. Someone to love is always a positive step, but, for those who may not have a spouse, it's getting up in the morning with something to do, something that you want to do. And you don't have to work full time. You don't have to be working a 40-hour week, but if people want to get up and do something—I don't know what it is, but, whatever it may be, I think the royal commission needs to focus on looking at programs that will get our veterans active and moving and out of the house.

When I was 21, I got told by a doctor, by an advocate and some other people, 'You don't have to work again; you'll get a pension; you don't have to do anything'—the worst advice that I ever got. I had no life accountability, so when I woke up in the morning I didn't have anything to do or anywhere to be. I started drinking heavily. I started causing more trouble than usual. Then I started not leaving the house. That spiral turned from one day into two weeks and then into years. If it wasn't for my wife, Jenna, that spiral would have ended up with me dying by suicide because that's where my mind went to in those really dark times.

The royal commission has a very important job, and the reason that we are supporting this bill is that we support having an assistant commissioner who can work in the private sessions. Every veteran's voice, every family member's voice and the voice of anyone who has been involved in this space who cares for our people or who has been touched by suicide, suicide ideation or poor mental health is so important. If they don't speak—if they hold back and don't tell their story or touch points that they have seen—we'll continue to see high rates of suicide. This royal commission needs to hear from everyone, and they need to give recommendations to this government and to this parliament. They need to table them in federal parliament, the nation's parliament, so that we can ensure that there are policies and programs that help our people.

I started by acknowledging our ADF veterans and their families. I want to really reiterate that second bit. No husband, wife, daughter, son, brother, sister or mate should have lost someone they cared about—their loved one—to suicide. To our Australian Defence Force members and veterans who have succumbed to their war within, who have found themselves not being able to get out of that dark hole and who haven't found the support that could help: I'm sorry. I'm sorry that we weren't there for you. Life is precious. You are cared about and you are loved. In our veteran community, we stand together in support of our brothers and sisters. I know my good friend the member for Braddon, Gavin Pearce, thinks exactly the same. He told a story only a couple of days ago about someone he knew from his service who had succumbed to their war within and died by suicide.

This is something that we must be better on. It is not just a disgrace; it's a national shame that we are losing our bravest. On that, the coalition will be supporting this bill. As I said before, we recognise that Defence members, veterans and their families must be put first, and I hope this bill does the good it's intended to do. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

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