‘Lack of Concern’: What the Royal Commission Revealed About Defence and Veteran Suicide

the raw commission into defense suicide report was handed down yesterday and there have been accusations the Code of Silence and Military values of the Australian Defense Force have directly and indirectly elevated the suicide risk for current and former service men and women so Vicki do you think our military culture is broken uh yeah essentially I do I think that we have the only reason that this rural commission came about Catherine was because of those who were left behind predominantly mothers who uh women such as Julianne finny um who went to the parliament with their with a photograph of her son Dave and I I was there when as a staffer when she was walking around the building trying to get support for a royal Commission because what had happened to her boy who was a Navy officer was just not on and she was determined uh that we do not enlist more people until it's fixed uh the situation at that point was uh the Coalition was in government we had four uh members uh threatened to cross the floor that is the only reason that we had the Royal commission and uh you know Phil Thompson served in Afghanistan was blown up by an IED he was one of the uh one of the four who was brave enough to stand up and say no we need to do more about this Gavin Pierce remember for Braden he's retiring now uh but he was quite senior in the Army and and I I do not remember his his rank so I'm not going to dare say it but he was quite high up trained a lot of the younger people actually who are in the military who who were now parliamentarians um Lou O'Brien who was uh never who was never in the Army but he was a he was a a Defender a first uh Frontline defender in the police force these were all the people uh who was were willing to cross the floor to make this Royal commission come to be it really the onus really was left to those who were left behind after veteran suicide to actually get this roal commission up because there was such resistance within the the Department of Veterans Affairs uh which were obviously was advising the ministry uh at that time and saying there's nothing to see here there's nothing to see here there's nothing to see here and then there was all these people who walking around with framed photographs and just memories of the people that they loved and they remembered going hang on there is so much and then you see these Royal commission and the findings in this report you know and they're saying we expect that 3,00 um died by their own hand that's that's about three of fortnite that's three people of fortnite suiciding after leaving uh the Defense Force uh you know you're looking at figures which are really quite scary exing males uh their risk is uh ex serving males suicided at a rate four times that uh so the young ones aged 23 to 44 suicide at a rate four times that of those age 45 to 80 so it really was the the youth and the and the younger uh veterans coming through who were the ones who were finding themselves so absolutely lost um once once they were out of the system uh and you know next Friday is the 25th anniversary of East Timo that was a massive operation led by Peter crosgrove and of course John Howard was prime minister then and it was that was really the be not that was really when they started seeing this huge uh swing in veteran suicide was was was following that it was like this idea that within the military culture you sacrifice all sense of self for the machine and then you and then you something happens like you bust up your knee or you bust up your back and then you just just throwing on the scrap Heap and they say oh we don't need you anymore we don't care about you anymore like these are these are people who literally signed a piece of paper saying they were willing to die for Australia that's absolutely shocking Vicki that these you know young men and women are prepared to lay down their lives for their country uh and that is how they are treated when they are seem to be uh of no more use but Vicki I'd like to take a look at something and just have a look at actions speaking louder than words and on Indulgence the yeah the member for New England thank you very much uh Mr Speaker and on Indulgence I I too would like to recognize because of her presence here today Julianne finny uh and the great loss you had with Dave absolutely disgusting albo walks out when these mothers and parents are being acknowledged on the floor I mean what what do you think about that I mean that's our prime minister showing such disrespect that is such disrespect and you know the veteran I mean the the albanesi government has shown nothing but disrespect uh for the veterans and particularly like the reason that I met Julianne finny was because she was doing a press conference with the then uh Shadow Veterans Affairs uh Minister for the for the for the uh labor opposition at the time right and she did did this really um it was I was watching her just in tears um and labor used her they used her and used her as a prop for something and now that they're in government and it actually and the Royal commission has happened and they they have 122 recommendations and 3,000 pages to get through I mean I think the report it's more than 3,000 Pages the report weighs 12 kilograms they're saying only read it online because if you print it out you're going to break your back and that that they can dare treat her like this now and and and and I'm you know she's not the only one that they're treating like this but it's embl emblematic isn't it of how they are treating the mothers of of of people who died not at War who didn't die on a humanitarian Mission they didn't die in Conflict they didn't die in battle they didn't die out at Sea picking up the dead bodies out of the water in storms which is what Al you know which is what happened during operation Sovereign borders they died at home afterwards and for the prime minister to just leave he's taken uh you got to remember as well he took Veterans Affairs out of cabinet that was the first thing he did as prime minister was say actually this job is not important enough to have around the cabinet table let's go let's put that in out of cabinet somewhere so so Matt Kio who's a minister he doesn't even get to go to cabinet wouldn't even know what's happening he doesn't have a voice at the table he can't go in there and say anything that he would have to do he would have to first approach the minister for finance and he would have to have to have everything approved by Finance before he'd be able to move forward with anything oh well shame on Elbow shame on labor for their lack of respect not only for those servicemen and women but for the families who also make the sacrifice to see their loved one you know be put on deployment to moving around the country indeed even the world and it's you know the the parents the spouses the children you know everyone is contributing uh to protecting the nation and and that's what Alba thinks of the M it's the whole government it's the whole government so just for example right the this is the there is a war memorial near Oberon planted more than a hundred years ago these is a as an Avenue of trees in a rural Country Town the the Department of Veterans Affairs has decided it's totally okay to cut them down so that they can get wind turbines through so that they can put wind turbine blades on a truck and pull them through so they are cutting down a war memorials that is what's happening at like the community Grassroots level that so one on one hand they're cutting down our W memorials they're taking the veterans affairs minister out of cabinet doesn't have a voice there and now we're and now they're treating the parents and the and the the people commission through once they were no longer politically expedient for this for this government they're just abandoning them well Vicky you've almost nearly answered uh my next question but uh you've written before on the massive problem of dwindling Recruitment and Retention rates for defense uh clearly the lack of support for veterans and their families is a major issue um but why do you think young people are not signing up to serve their country well I think it's it's a it's a I think it's a it's a mixed bag it's a whole it's a whole lot of things um but the the the one thing is is that as someone from a military family um and someone who had a I just wouldn't be able to say in good faith to any young person yes you should sign up I just couldn't until until they fix the system and they fix their support for for especially these young men I just can't because they go they start before when you're giving them a cuddle before you say goodbye they're one person and they come back um after a few years completely completely different and that's someone that you're never going to get back again and then there's the others who go through that extra step of loss where you know where all the late night phone calls don't amount to anything and and like it can be this you know suicide is one of those things where you can provide someone all the support in the world you can be texting them you can be calling them you can try and be there with them as much as you can by their side and it's still not enough well with the way the world is going Vicki uh you know I genuinely fear that we would be unable to deploy a rapid Mass mobilization if we had to defend our country with the with the State of Affairs that we now have so look I want to say thank you not AB absolutely not we would not have a chance we don't even have votes anymore go it's such a dire State of Affairs Vicki are very disheartening