Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I, too, would like to recognise the presence here today of Julie-Ann Finney and acknowledge her great loss of Dave. There were around 3,000 Daves—lives lost tragically to suicide—between 1997 and 2021.

We have a responsibility in this nation. If someone signs their name on the dotted line—therefore they offer their life for this land—we have to protect them when they come home. There is something wrong when a person is more likely to die once they've finished their service and get back onto civvy street than they are when they're actually in the service. I hope on a bipartisan level that we can work to our very best on this. I'd like the minister—I acknowledge he's here at present—to expedite this process, get it through and get it resolved out of respect for those who have died.

I'd also like to acknowledge those in the chamber who have served—the members for Canning, Herbert, Braddon, Menzies, Leichhardt, Solomon and Spence—and all the other reservists who have served. When people do this, they are making sure that our nation is safe. You can't have a superannuation fund, a house, a business or a future if you don't have a nation, if it's just not present. For us to have that nation, we have to have people, men and women, who are prepared to serve.

Those who have tragically died are someone's mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter, and that hole in that family's life, in that circle of people's lives, will remain with them forever. The questions as to why remain with them forever. The photos of their family member in a service uniform will stay on the mantelpiece for as long as they are alive and then be handed on, with pride, to family members. Those who serve our nation are from families of honour because they offer their lives for the future betterment of this country.

I look forward to this report being handed down, and I look forward to doing what we can, on this side, to work with the minister in good nature and with honour to make sure whatever can be done is done as quickly and as properly as possible, so that people such as Dave are remembered. We can never bring him back, but, Julie-Ann, the respect we can show is that we have taken this very seriously and to the best of our ability.

I'd also like to acknowledge those who were so fully in support of bringing this forward and the fights that they've had. This was an issue as to which, at the start, there might have been some conjecture, but, once it was in train, there was not one doubt whatsoever that this was an item of the utmost importance.

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