Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to make a brief contribution today in the debate that's arisen out of the minister's explanation on the release of the report of the Office of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force 20-year review. It's always interesting to listen to the debates in this place, particularly when some senators—not all, but some—try to reshape or rewrite history about the events around the making of such reports. As we noted from what I thought was a very clear explanation from the minister about how this document came into the public domain, it's also worth noting the public statements by the royal commission about the events that occurred and how the document itself came to light on its public website, and the processes by which many documents had been uploaded onto the website and the decision of the royal commission and its official secretary on how it handled that.

So, I don't think it's fair to say that the government instructed anyone to remove the document from the website. In fact, I was in the chamber earlier in the week when Senator McCarthy, as the minister on the front bench here, tabled the document, just to avoid any doubt about the status of the document. But we hear from some in this place that there is somehow a conspiracy going on here, that the government is trying to cover up a document, trying to cover up processes whereby we are simply trying to ensure that certain documents are made public, as we did earlier in the week. But what we have from some senators, particularly those from the Greens, is some sort of conspiracy theory around the government trying to, they think, hide evidence from the Australian people. But the minister has made the processes very clear, as has the royal commission. But let's not let facts get in the way of a good story!

It's also important to note that the review was commissioned by this government, by the Albanese Labor government—not something that those opposite or the crossbench, the Greens, had advocated for. It was the Labor Party that asked that this report be commissioned when we first came into government, just as we also, when we first came into government, made sure the royal commission was supported from day one. That is something I was very proud to call on when I first came into this place, and I'm very proud that the Albanese government has supported that royal commission, unlike those opposite when they were in government. They refused to support the royal commission. Remember, they wanted some other forum, some other organisation to look into these organisations.

I know that Senator Ruston and others on the other side will want to try to recast how history was portrayed. But the Morrison government did not support our veterans and did not support a royal commission into the suicides that were occurring in Defence and in our veteran community.

Our government, from day one, has made it very clear that we want to back those who wear the uniform, and I know Senator Lambie is someone who is very passionate about this issue and has a very strong and proud history in terms of the support she and her office give to the veterans who constantly contact them for advice, and rightly so, given her advocacy over many years. But I know someone who is married to a veteran, and how important these issues are. And I want to make sure that governments, regardless of which side of the political fence they are on, address the core issues about why governments have had to get a royal commission up and running and why we commission reports, whether it be through the royal commission or whether it be the report that's in question here today that we tabled earlier in the week. It is important that we all get behind our veterans and make sure we do the right thing and fix the wrongs of the past. That is what this government has committed to do from day one. Yet we somehow get caught up in a debate about a document, about whether it was online or not, whether it should be tabled in the Senate or not. The main thing is that governments have to back our veterans. That is the fundamental point here, and that is something that we have been doing from day one.

We've also made it very clear since taking office that it's unacceptable that there's been a backlog of claims that veterans have had to put up with for far too long. It's something on which we have said, 'Right, we need to fix that,' and that is why we are putting— (Time expired)