Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Lambie for her question. She and I have had a number of discussions about this. I understand that the government provided that the 20-year review to which she refers would have the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide form part of its consideration and final recommendations. I understand that both the 20-year review of the IGADF and, obviously, the royal commission have examined the role of the IGADF and that this role was being examined by both parties. The advice to me is that the government had indicated it would release the report into the IGADF review soon after the release of the royal commission, and that is what the government has done. My recollection is that the Minister for Defence's ministerial statement in relation to the latter was last week.

The advice to me is that the reason for this was to respond to both reports in a holistic way and a desire to coordinate our response about what the future of the IGADF looks like as we respond both to the review and to the royal commission's final report. Obviously, the government tabled the report, as I discussed with you earlier today.