Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians know that I talk a lot about cover-ups that go on in Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs, but there is another agency which, if it were doing its job properly, would have saved me having to make quite a few of my speeches. That's because this agency is the one that is supposed to look into cover-ups and failures in our military justice system. I am talking about the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, or the IGADF. This agency was established in 2003 following an inquiry into military justice in the Australian Defence Force, because it wasn't working back then either. It's still not working. Basically, this means that the IGADF provides advice to senior command and deals with allegations of abuse, cover-up, harassment and avoidance of due process. It sounds fabulous, doesn't it? It sounds great, but the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force have not been doing their job. They never have been, right from the beginning. They are supposed to be the cops on the beat, but really they are just there to cover up the mess of senior command.

For years, veterans have been telling me about the IGADF covering Defence's butt. The royal commissions have been hearing the same stories that I have been. As Reverend Nikki Coleman told the Melbourne hearing in August, 'As a chaplain I have also been support person and friends with others who have gone with their concerns to the IGADF, and they've been fobbed off.' The reverend knows what she is talking about. She has a PhD in military ethics, and she has experienced the Defence culture of cover-up firsthand. She is no shrinking violet, I can assure you. Dr Coleman worked in a male dominated workplace for 25 years. She was a reverend for the Uniting Church when she joined the RAAF to work as a chaplain in 2017. In 2019, a military colleague started to abuse her. Over months, she was subjected to physical and sexual assault. When Dr Coleman tried to report this behaviour, she was told to 'manage it herself'. She was given suggestions about how to 'manage' her abuser. That's right: 'manage her abuser'. Are you kidding me?

This is the revolting stuff that has been going on in Defence for years, even after we had the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce in 2013-14. Ten of Dr Coleman's complaints were upheld. Wait! It gets better. Her abuser got to continue to work in defence. Nothing new here—same story, different day. She was told that she must not share that information about what happened to her. This doesn't just smell of cover-up; it is cover-up at its best. Dr Coleman had to take a medical discharge so she could tell her story. This is what happens to people who are abused in our forces. They have to leave, while their abusers get promoted and get to stay. I've heard the same awful stories in my office for years. That is why we're at a royal commission, except Defence still won't hand over to the royal commission all the documents the commissioners have asked for.

So, in budget estimates in May this year, I asked how often the IGADF had been audited. We heard the answer: never. The IGADF has never been audited, so I thought I would write to the Australian National Audit Office and ask them to do an audit. Why did I ask for an audit? It's because of an 85 per cent increase in staff in just one year. They've never been audited. Most importantly, it was because of criticisms from the royal commission, like Dr Coleman's stories. That's the auditors' job, isn't it? The ANAO said, 'No, we won't.' I wrote again. Again they said no. I wrote to the ANAO and asked for another audit, and then—you are not going to believe this, Australians; this just keeps getting better—in estimates a few weeks ago, we learnt that, when I asked the Auditor-General, who is supposed to be completely independent, to audit the IGADF, the first calls the Auditor-General made were to the Secretary to the Department of Defence, Greg Moriarty, and the CDF to ask them for permission.

Who does that? The ANAO is meant to be independent. I tell you—it's not independent. You just blew it. You have a lot of questions to answer, I can assure you. You've been an absolute disgrace in the last few weeks, in my eyes. I can tell you what: if someone needs to be audited right now, it's the ANAO. You have a lot of explaining to do. I just want you to wake up, Minister Marles, because you can't see the cover-ups that are going on. I have to ask you: why is Moriarty still there, and why is the CDF still there? Quite frankly, this is beyond a joke now. This is absolutely disgraceful. I'm coming for you next, Marles. I've had a gutful.