Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee The constant battle: suicide by veterans. Australian veterans have been waging a silent and very private war that far exceeds the length of any conflict this nation has been involved in. The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee learned of this war, this constant battle, through the Senate inquiry into suicide by veterans and defence personnel. We heard from those on the frontline who are fighting to stay alive, not because bullets and bombs are being fired at them but because of weapons of another kind: the loss of lives of their brothers and sisters during armed conflict; the witnessing of other acts of war that most Australians fail to fully comprehend; the sustainment of injuries, physical or mental, followed by the country's veteran support system letting them down; a complicated and difficult transition from military to civilian life; or the infliction of abuse or bullying by comrades charged with the obligation of protecting them too.

This inquiry heard it all, and why? Because of statistics which include that the rate of suicide is 13 per cent higher than that of the general population for male serving members in the ADF. Men who have left the ADF between the ages of 18 and 24 have twice the risk of suicide compared to their peers. These statistics are a sobering reflection of the impact service to our nation can have on our men and our women. The impacts of their service can have a profound lifelong effect on their physical and mental health.

What this inquiry has revealed is that, as a nation, we have fallen well short of providing the kind of treatment and support that is so desperately needed. Sometimes the best treatment doesn't come in a bottle. It doesn't come from a doctor's surgery. It can come from a companion: a four-legged friend. For many sufferers of PTSD, these four-legged friends are more than just companions; they are quite literally life savers.

PTSD is a common, chronic and sometimes disabling condition. On average it affects 8.3 per cent of our current serving ADF personnel, and DVA has over 28,000 clients with a registered stress disorder. That is 28,000 people who have experienced something that has left them with a condition that is not always straightforward to manage. Existing PTSD treatments can reduce the severity of symptoms, but attrition is high and many veterans struggle with the condition day in and day out. That is why it is so important that the federal government does not remain antiquated in it thinking about how to treat veterans with PTSD and other mental health conditions. Modern approaches are crucial.

This was emphasised by submitters to this inquiry like the organisation, Ruff Love. We heard from three veterans—Mr Lawson, Mr Ward and Mr Clarke—who have been working with Ruff Love, which pairs veterans with assistance dogs. At the committee's Brisbane hearing I asked each of these three veterans whether their assistance dogs had saved their lives. The answer was a resounding 'yes'. Let's reflect on those words for a moment. It wasn't a pill and it wasn't a person; it was a dog who saved these men. Yet DVA is refusing to fund assistance dogs. They are refusing to accept what so many of us already know: that these dogs are saving lives.

The government says they are waiting on results from overseas trials. If this is the excuse they are using to delay treatment to veterans, then it is simply not good enough. Right now in South Australia the Royal Society for the Blind's Operation K9 program has been placing fully trained assistant dogs with eligible veterans since 2013. These highly trained assistance dogs perform various tasks, all of which meet the needs of each veteran and aim to reduce the symptoms of PTSD. These tasks can include rousing its owner from nightmares and turning on lights through to the dog nudging the veteran with its nose in order to seek attention and distract the veteran during times of stress. One veteran in the Operation K9 program felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel after he was placed with his dog. This was joined with a reduction in his anxiety and a will to reconnect to society. His wife said of the assistance dog, 'She's changed our lives.' The Operation K9 program is already under assessment by the University of Adelaide's Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies. The assessment aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Operation K9 program in reducing participants' PTSD symptoms and other types of psychological distress over a 12-month period. This study would provide the government with the evidence they need to determine the benefits of providing assistance dogs to veterans.

I have spoken with the Royal Society for the Blind and, with just a little help from the government, they would be able to train more dogs for more veterans. In its report, the committee has recommended that a trial program be funded that would provide assistance animals for veterans with PTSD. This trial would aim to gather research to support an expansion of that program with the ultimate goal of giving more broad-based financial support through DVA to assist veterans obtain and live with assistance dogs. There is multiparty support for the immediate instigation of trialling assistance animals, and what we need now is for the federal government to act. The fact that this report has the support of so many parties and people in this place is encouraging.

Like the discussion around assistance animals, the committee's examination of the issues veterans face while transitioning from Defence must also take on board the complexity of the issues faced by veterans during this process. For many veterans the transition from military to civilian life is difficult and complex. They may go from having a highly structured life to feeling like their days have no meaning. The period of time when ADF members transition to civilian life is a critical time for support and assistance. The Nick Xenophon Team supports the recommendation that the task force examine and address all barriers to employment for veterans who are transitioning. This review also needs to look to all and any disincentives for veterans to undertake work or study resulting for the Department of Veterans' Affairs legislative policy and frameworks. It is not good enough for veterans to have just any job once they leave military life. All jobs should be adequate and appropriate for veterans' needs, skill level and experience, with the goal of long-term employment. I've had veterans come to me and my office who have been offered positions in administration well below their skill level which do not reflect their experience within the ADF. Yet the Department of Veterans' Affairs appears willing to push them into any job that provides a wage, even if that job is not appropriate for them and fulfils none of their long-term needs.

Mates4Mates reported to the committee that veterans have had negative civilian work experiences—in particular, soon after discharge. As this inquiry has heard, the DVA system is slow and complex. It provides disincentives to work, depending on the compensation act the person falls under. It also provides disincentive to study, depending on the compensation act that person falls under. We need to be supporting our veterans towards long and fulfilling careers by encouraging them to study. We shouldn't be putting them into situations where they have to choose between DVA support, unsupported study or full-time study and full-time work while managing their PTSD symptoms. We need to be supporting veterans to choose a life worth living. This is about saving people's lives through relatively minor policy and legislative changes.

At the May estimates this year the Department of Veterans' Affairs told me they had been working on issues of transitions for veterans for decades—that's right, decades. We cannot afford to spend further decades on getting this right. The price of waiting is simply too high. The evidence has been put to this inquiry. The recommendations have been made. The government needs to act on them immediately. Many of these inquiries' recommendations expand on or mirror previous recommendations. We can't keep making recommendations that no-one follows and then exclaim loudly when more veterans take their own lives at the shame of such a loss. Like any war, this battle is complex and it cannot be won overnight. I cannot pretend that through this inquiry we have found all the answers, but through this inquiry there is a path to a truce. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.