Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This has been a most unnecessary and most counterproductive bungling of these matters by the Albanese government. What we have seen through their mishandling, mistakes and bungling of the handling of these sensitive reports is an undermining of already shaky confidence and trust in the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force and an undermining of confidence in the government's commitment and ability to address the serious issues facing Australian veterans. As I've said in the various motions and debates that have occurred around these issues over the last couple of days, we owe the most profound debt of gratitude as a country and as a parliament, all of us, to the women and men of the Australian Defence Force who wear its uniform and the veterans who have worn its uniform. We owe them the best in the way in which we conduct ourselves and ensure that their interests, their wellbeing and their welfare are considered and cared for appropriately.

The whole point of having had the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was to ensure that government turned a corner and turned a page in the way in which the treatment of veterans is handled and considered. Sadly the government's ham-fisted attempts to sit on the IGADF report and to fail to release it and then to accidentally release it and then to withdraw its public release and then to table it in this chamber under pressure have done nothing but undermine confidence in the genuineness and capability of the government to respond to these most sensitive issues. The release of the report of the royal commission, so fresh in people's minds, should have been a turning point in this debate. It should have provided confidence that the care and wellbeing of veterans were genuinely going in a new direction and on a new pathway underpinned by government transparency, accountability and honesty rather than government cover-ups and bungling.

The coalition welcomed the tabling of the report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. It contained 122 recommendations. It was a sweeping report. Those are framed around five key priority areas: the prevention of harm; early intervention; the need to improve communication, coordination and collaboration; the need to build capability and capacity; and the need to strengthen oversight and accountability. If we look at a couple of those key areas, the improving of communication, coordination and collaboration or the strengthening of oversight and accountability, how—