In a week marking the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the opening salvo in the war on terror, the Albanese government tried to bring some closure to the twin dark legacies of Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan.

The plight of soldiers who served in Australia’s longest-running war and their struggle to adjust to civilian life was just one element of an exhaustive and excoriating royal commission into appallingly high rates of suicide among servicemen and women and veterans.