Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to grieve for the men and women who have served in defence of this country and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health conditions. In particular, I wish to grieve for the loss of Geffrey Phillip Gregg, a young man we lost too soon and of whom I and the previous member for Cowan and Vietnam veteran Graham Edwards have spoken in this place before. The case of Geff Gregg first came to my attention some 12 months ago, when I received an email from Geff’s sister Bec asking for assistance for her parents, Chris and Phil, in the struggle that they were having in getting an investigation launched to find out just what happened to their son through his time in the ADF and his interactions with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

When their son was 19, Chris and Phil entrusted him to the Australian Defence Force. He enlisted in the Army and, like many young men who have enlisted, had a dream of becoming one of our elite soldiers. He was described as confident and fit, an outgoing young man and perhaps a little overconfident and sure of himself—but what young man at the age of 19 is not? His family were enormously proud of him as he made his way through his basic training. He eventually became attached to 152 Signals, the signalling corps for the SAS. By the age of 25, Geff was dead, having taken his own life. He had been discharged from the Army suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Here started a litany of attempts by Chris Gregg in particular to recover any information that would shed light on how the son who they so willingly entrusted to the Army had come to end his own life. Geff’s mother in particular was hitting brick wall after brick wall as she attempted, on her own, to make her way through the maze of ADF and DVA sections in pursuit of medical and other reports that might help them understand what went wrong and why they were not informed as to just how unwell their son actually was.

At the instigation of the family, I wrote to the then Minister for Defence, asking for an investigation into the circumstances of Geff’s death. This letter was then referred to the then Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. Very little happened. There were a couple of media stories by a few journalists who had taken a specific interest in post-traumatic stress disorder amongst service personnel, but no formal response came from the minister. The family then took the trip here, to Canberra, during Senate estimates hearings to see whether any answers would be forthcoming in a far more public forum. The family met with the then minister and, despite assurances that lessons were being learnt, very little appeared to have been done by way of progressing any formal independent inquiry. It took some courage for the Gregg family to come to Canberra, but their persistence eventually paid off. At their instigation, three separate inquiries commenced last year. General Leahy, who I commend for acting so quickly once he became aware of the circumstances of this case, referred the matter to the Inspector-General of the ADF. This sparked the then Minister for Veterans’ Affairs to agree to have an inquiry into Geff’s interactions with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and other government departments.

What happened to Geff, the way in which his enlistment progressed through the ADF, his deployment to Afghanistan, his and his patrol’s now reported engagement through the Redback Kilo Three patrol, his subsequent decline in mental health, his litany of medical appointments and struggle to be treated, his interactions with DVA and military compensation have all been the subject of these investigations. Reports have now been prepared, and the family is in the process of receiving a briefing on them.

The contents are of course confidential, but it is my hope that at some point some of the contents of these reports will be made public, as there are many things that the ADF, DVA, military super and the wider community can learn about what we owe to these service personnel and how we need to better treat and support those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and also their families. I commend the new Minister for Defence Science and Personnel’s announcement that there is to be a review of mental health services in the ADF. It is long overdue, and I hope that Geff’s case informs the review.

I want to pay tribute to the strength of the Gregg family. They have been severely traumatised by the death of their son, brother and brother-in-law. They have my utmost admiration for their determination to try and find out where the system failed them and their son, and to make sure lessons are learned and that no other mother’s son or daughter suffers this experience.

The case has been somewhat complicated by a dispute between the family and Geff’s former girlfriend over her status. Having spent a great deal of time with this family and been part of their lives as they go through the terrible pain of losing their son, I have no doubt that they are firmly of the belief that the relationship between their son and his former partner was over at the time of Geff’s death. These sorts of disputes are never easy, but I ask particularly those veterans who are supporting Geff’s former partner and to some extent see this case as a way of seeking change, as we all do, to respect that every time a story about Geff and his family appears which they have no knowledge about or in which their status in his life is unacknowledged, it is a fresh wound to them.

For his father and for his mother—who bore him—who watched him grow; for the sister who loved him like a twin; for his other family members to whom he forever remains a hero, I ask that you respect that this family has been and continues to be torn apart by this experience. The Gregg family loved their son. When they first came to see me, they attached to the file of papers that they brought with them this photo of Geff that I am holding. They said, ‘We want you to see our boy as we saw him to know that it is a real person that this happened to—to know who it is you are fighting for.’

I never met Geff. He was gone just under six months when I started on this case, but I see him in the faces of all our armed service personnel when they return from deployment and are embraced by their families. Geff Gregg could be any one of them, and that is why we must as a parliament grieve for Geff not only for his own and his family’s sake but so that we in this place absolutely do all in our power to make sure that the mental health services and the follow-up that we provide for our veterans and their families is second to none.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted and I put the question:

That grievances be noted.

Question agreed to.