David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Greens, I join with Senator Lambie in supporting this motion. I want, at the outset, to acknowledge Senator Lambie's ongoing work and courage in this space. You heard just some of it in that contribution. This isn't a moment in time. Anyone who had been watching the work to establish the royal commission and then the work since the royal commission couldn't help but acknowledge Senator Lambie's courage and her commitment in this space, and I just want to reflect that at the commencement of my contribution. Of course, Senator Lambie is not working in a vacuum. The mums and dads, the family members, the partners and the parents have been extraordinary too. I could start a list, but I won't. You know who you are, and I'm enormously grateful to you. I don't know how they keep doing it in circumstances of personal and family loss, like they have, but on my part there's utter respect—that's what they have.

I think we need to find a proper amount of time to go through the 122 recommendations and to really tease out what's required in response to the royal commission. I don't pretend the contribution I'm going to make now is in any way a complete response, or that it even pretends to be a complete response, to the royal commission, but I'll say in relation to the royal commission that the chair and the two commissioners, between them, behaved with incredible dignity and generosity. They gave Defence and the government, the ministers, incredible amounts of procedural fairness. It was procedural fairness that I don't think I could have given them, given what I'd heard from veterans and communities—given what I'd heard about the disrespect that had been shown to veterans; given what I'd heard about the brutal, dehumanising process that so many veterans had gone through, sometimes in service but then, for many of them, aggravated once they'd left service. But the chair and the two commissioners, to their eternal credit, provided that procedural fairness. They provided a platform of dignity so that their 122 recommendations are on an incredibly solid foundation.

There is just one recommendation that I want to talk about in this contribution, and it's the final recommendation, recommendation 122 in the report. That's because recommendation 122 in the report reflects what the commissioners heard. They'd heard about the dozens and dozens of reports that previously had been done where nothing changed. They'd heard about the hundreds of recommendations—in fact thousands of recommendations, if you add them all up—that had been made where nothing had changed. That's because Defence is like 'the empire that strikes back'. Whenever you think you've had a win against it, the machine rolls on. The empire rolls on and just gobbles up or steamrolls its opponents. It just rolls over any dissidents like a sort of multibillion dollar monster. I can't think of a minister who has tried to stand up to it in any effective way, but if any had they would have been rolled over as well. In particular, veterans, injured veterans and people inside the service who are trying to make change just get steamrolled by the empire as it strikes back. Recommendation 122 recognises that. It says that this report and these recommendations are only as good as the political will, the power and the processes that are put in place to actually implement them this time. It is not just saying you care, not just acknowledging the veterans' pain but putting in place some kind of independent statutory body to oversee and ensure politicians are held to account, the government is held to account, this place is held to account—Senator Lambie and I and all of us are held to account—and senior leadership in Defence are held to account so that we actually implement the other 121 recommendations.

What the government could do if it wanted to build a bridge with veterans would be to say today—it could have said it on Monday, when the report was released, but it could say it today or first thing next week—that the government will commit to implementing recommendation 122 in full. It will establish this independent body, with independent statutory power, to make sure this time that the report doesn't just gather dust, that the recommendations are implemented. If they committed to that early next week, that would play a big part in building a bridge to veterans so that they felt they had some comfort, felt they had some kind of assurance that this time something would change. And I'd urge them to do that. If they did that—I can't speak for Senator Lambie, but I'll say for our party—we will acknowledge and respect that from the government, because it'll show an intent to actually implement it this time.

In closing, I can't help but endorse Senator Lambie's observation that in the same week that we get the veterans royal commission handed down, and veterans feel that they might be being listened to and might be being respected and may actually be at the centre of this place's considerations, the government chooses to close and shut down the Brereton response and to bring all of that back for veterans—in the very same week. Veterans feel that this is another incident where the leadership has got off scot-free, that there's zero accountability for the leadership. That's what the government's shutting down of the Brereton response says. It says that there's zero accountability for leadership; they're all just going to get off scot-free, keep their medals, keep their promotions, keep their pensions—walk free—in the same week. How did they think that was a decent response? It's so obviously wrong.

So, when Senator Lambie makes her impassioned contribution at the end, from her perspective as a veteran, how could the government have not realised that that would be the response, not just from Senator Lambie but from so many veterans? It's so wrong, so disrespectful. But I say this to the government: build a bridge. Show that you actually get it this time, and you can do that by coming in on Monday morning next week and saying you'll implement recommendation 122, and that'll be the pathway to the other 121.