Veterans’ suicide royal commissioner Nick Kaldas has blasted Defence leadership for failing to act on bullying within the military and stresses on family life, saying it is contributing to disturbingly high rates of suicide among ex-servicemen and women.

In front of an audience including Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell, Mr Kaldas also took aim at Defence leadership for trying to stymie and stonewall the royal commission’s work aimed at fixing a crisis decades in the making.