Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I would also like to make a contribution. I would like to acknowledge the chair of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, Mr Nick Kaldas, and his fellow commissioners, Dr Peggy Brown and the Hon. James Douglas. I thank them for their work and their empathy and for delivering a report that will make real change—and lasting change, hopefully—as long as our government can find its courage with both hands and implement their recommendations in full, not a piecemeal, cherry-picking exercise that is run or influenced by Defence to keep the top brass or their mates in a job.

Defence's mission and purpose is to defend Australia and its national interests and to advance Australia's security and prosperity, but how can we do that effectively unless we care for our veterans when they are in service and when they leave? I called for a royal commission in my first speech in the Senate in 2014. In the years that followed we called on the Australian public to back us in the fight, and millions of Australians had our backs. We ran ads in marginal seats, we organised rallies and we started petitions, but I was just adding my voice to a fight that had already been going on for years.

The first calls for a royal commission into veterans came from veterans in the early 1980s. By the early 2000s, the parents of veterans had started drawing chalk outlines of their dead sons outside the Department of Veterans' Affairs offices. In 2019, an army of mothers, fathers, veterans and their families were no longer asking for a royal commission; they were now demanding it. In 2019 these mothers came to Canberra to knock directly on the doors of those in power and to look directly in their eyes.

The Morrison government suggested a national commissioner—someone appointed by the government who would have no power to compel witnesses or documents. What a waste!

The national RSL and the usual suspects backed in the idea of a national commissioner and said that there was no need for a royal commission. 'Nothing to see here'—at least nothing that they could have control over. I'm calling out the national president of the RSL, Greg Melick, today. You did nothing to stand up for us. We've been asking you for months to resign. Now resign.

These mothers and veterans had been warned that they would be resisted and were given full support by the Vietnam veterans, who had been living with DVA's poor record of supporting veterans for years. Finally, on 8 July 2021, the Morrison government announced a royal commission into defence and veteran suicide. It was a victory for all those mothers, those veterans and those families. The royal commission's work had just begun. There was relief, but there was also dread because each one of these Australians would now have to revisit their trauma when they retold their stories to the commissioners.

In the interim report, the commissioners noted that there had been numerous reports and inquiries done since 2000 that were relevant to the topic of suicide and suicidality among serving and ex-serving ADF members. They identified over 57 previous reports and more than 750 recommendations. While acknowledging that many of these reports and inquiries were about discrete topics, the commissioners noted their dismay at the lack of response by Australian governments to these previous recommendations. I share that dismay at the lack of action, as do veterans right across the country.

When the royal commission was established, there had been at least 1,600 deaths by suicide between 1997 and 2020 that we know of. That's more than 20 times the number killed on active duty over roughly the same amount of time. These numbers do not include serving and ex-serving members whose deaths were not officially recorded as suicides. I'm aware of cases where veterans have ended their lives in car accidents, making a last-ditch sacrifice so any life insurance they might have had could still be claimed by their families.

On 11 August, the commissioners released their interim report, and their No. 1 recommendation was to harmonise the veterans compensation and rehabilitation legislation. The commissioners made it quite clear that Australia's veterans compensation and rehabilitation system was too complicated; that it impacted on the mental health of some veterans, both serving and ex-serving ADF members; and that it was at times a contributing factor to veterans ending their own lives. I think you would be hard pressed to find a veteran that didn't agree. I remember fighting my way through the dark forest of rules and regulations. It was a very dark, isolating place.

I have to say the legislation to harmonise the compensation is a little late, but better a little late than never. Minister Keogh, I do believe, is trying to act quickly on this, and that legislation should be close to being ready for parliament. Although I'm sure it won't be perfect, there is no choice but to move forward and trust that the minister will smooth out any bumps along the road. I can assure you I'll be holding him accountable and I'll be making him aware of them as soon as I am.

The second recommendation was to eliminate the backlog of claims. On this, I have to say that the Department of Veterans' Affairs is working hard to get these resolved. Despite some claims moving at a faster pace, there are still others lagging behind. As one advocate put it to me, it's a patchwork. That's because some of these claims fall under multiple pieces of legislation. The harmonisation will hopefully help to alleviate this. But for some people who have literally been waiting for years this cannot come soon enough.

As you can imagine, I've spent a great deal of time thinking about how the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Defence, charged with the care of veterans, have so utterly failed to support these Australians who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. It's a problem with the culture—a culture that reflexively protects the institutions instead of protecting its people.

In September 2023, in suicide prevention week, Commissioner Kaldas called out this culture. Two years into a royal commission, the defence establishment was still dragging its feet. Commissioner Kaldas told the assembled journalists at the National Press Club that veterans were still being driven to suicide two years after the royal commission had been launched. In Mr Kaldas's words, 'Defence's approach to investigating and reporting on suicides has progressed at a snail's pace'—a pace most veterans would be aware of. Commissioner Kaldas also called for an 'enduring, powerful, independent' oversight body to make sure that government agencies and the Defence Force prioritised the long-term reforms necessary to tackle the veterans suicide crisis.

Commissioner Kaldas also reminded us that the Defence Force had failed to take a damning 2016 report into abuse, bullying and harassment as a wake-up call to lift its game. He said:

It's troubling to imagine that such behaviour persists in any modern-day workplace.

In my view, it's not just troubling; it goes to the root of the cultural problem within Defence. Instead of responding to criticism with a 'what can we do better' attitude, Defence closes its ranks, pulls up the drawbridge and says, 'Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here.'

Three years later, and still there's nothing to see here. Commissioner Kaldas and his fellow commissioners did not expect to be stonewalled when they asked Defence for documents, but that's exactly what happened, even with a royal commission going on. Defence is still holding onto documents. This is what I mean about a problem of culture within Defence.

Take the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, the IGADF. This agency is essentially the military justice system within Defence. It was set up 20 years ago, and it hasn't had one damn audit on it—not one. When I pushed for the Australian National Audit Office to do an audit, the secretary of Defence, Greg Moriarty, picked up the phone and had a little chat to the Australian National Audit Office and they decided they weren't going to do that. That's how non-independent your Australian National Audit Office is today. It is not independent, because it is taking its orders from Greg Moriarty. That's what it's doing.

So I pushed hard and I went over the top of him. Thank goodness the government of the day listened to me. They actually gave me a review—good one. The Minister for Defence has had this report now for five months. It took three months to do the report, and he's now had it for five months and won't release that damn report. On one hand, you're saying, 'We care about veterans,' and on the other you're saying: 'We don't want to know about that report. It's not important to the suicides.' I'll tell you what: it is part of the suicides that have been going on since it started 20 years ago.

When Australians join the Australian Defence Force, they give up many rights and liberties enjoyed by most Australian citizens. They agree to do what they're told, they live where they're told and they educate their children where they're told to educate them—all in defence of our nation. They voluntarily accept the risk of service, which can often mean physical or mental injury or both, and sometimes they end up with a moral injury. All they ask for in return is that their nation looks after them during and after their service. Is that really too much to ask?

We cannot let this royal commission go the way of the reports and inquiries that preceded them. It cannot sit on a shelf gathering dust while the Defence establishment moves on and nothing changes, although, as I have acknowledged, the DVA is trying to change. But I agree with the commissioners: the DVA in its current form cannot deliver the wellbeing support our veterans need. We need a national commissioner with strong powers to compel witnesses and to advocate for veterans and deal with their transition into civilian life. Just because a veteran has a physical injury, it doesn't mean they are less capable of service. You can't tell me that, just because you've lost a limb, you can't work as an admin clerk. That's rubbish—an excuse to throw them out instead of finding reasons to keep them in. That is half the battle and a battle that needs to be won.

The world is more unpredictable than ever, and we have never needed a stronger Defence Force than we do today. But veterans are leaving, and no-one wants to join. Who would want to join an organisation that treats its workforce with such contempt? I call on the minister, the government and defence leaders to honour the work of the commission and to honour the sacrifice of all veterans and their mothers, fathers and families, who have worked so hard to make this happen. Don't just honour them on Anzac Day. Honour and care for them 365 days a year. Putting it quite simply, we owe them and we will always owe them. Our dedication to them must match their dedication and service to this country. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.