Yvonne Sillett to lead new hearings at Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide

A veteran who was driven out because of her sexuality will lift the lid on the Australian Army’s culture at the Royal Commission.

A trailblazing female veteran forced out of the Australian Army for being gay will spearhead a new round of hearings into defence force culture and suicides on Monday.

Victorian Yvonne Sillett had served 10 years in the army – becoming the first ever female corporal responsible for training recruits at Kapooka – when in 1988 she was subjected to a ‘witch hunt’ that sought to eject her from the service.

The then 28-year-old cipher operator was told that officials’ discovery of her sexuality meant her security clearance would be reduced from top-secret to confidential, meaning she could no longer remain with the Royal Australian Corps of Signal.

Ms Sillett was also told she would never be able to train female recruits again, and it was made clear that the prospect of future promotion was next to zero.

The launch of the Royal Commission came after data last year showed more than 1200 serving and former Australian Defence Force died by suicide between 2001 and 2019. Australian Armed Forces / Army Indonesia

Ultimately, she was compelled to request her own honourable discharge, but remained angry and disappointed for many years.

“Any prospect of serving 20 years and ultimately receiving a pension for life had been squashed simply because I was homosexual,” she says on the Discharged LGBTI Veterans’ Association website.

A number of Australian Defence Force anti-LGBTI policies were repealed in 1992 for same sex attracted members, and in 2010 for transgender members, but Ms Sillett – now 60 – said many of the people subjected to those rules continue to experience significant trauma.

Along with her fellow DLVA members, she has long pushed for a national apology and redress scheme for the Australian Defence Force personnel, their family and their friends affected by the rules.

Yvonne Sillett was forced out of the Australian Army in the late 80s because of her sexuality, despite a decade of service. Photo via Facebook.

No apology has been made as yet, and so Ms Sillett will add her voice to the Royal Commission into Veteran and Defence Suicides when it resumes public hearings in Sydney on Monday.

Ms Sillett is due to give evidence at the Pullman Sydney Hyde Park Hotel from 10.45am AEDT, followed by an anonymous witness from 1pm AEDT.

The inquiry – launched in November and chaired by former New South Wales deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas – has heard several accounts that many recruits have, and continue to, suffer under a culture of bullying, betrayal, and bastardisation that is fuelling a disproportionate number of mental health issues and suicides.

The launch of the Royal Commission came after data last year showed more than 1200 serving and former Australian Defence Force died by suicide between 2001 and 2019.

Written submissions to the inquiry have now topped 1100 – nearly doubling in the three months since the probe began – while 250 people have also requested private sessions to give evidence. Picture: AP

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures – which show a particular skew towards veterans – is much higher than was previously reported.

The three-week bloc of public testimonies in Brisbane across November and December revealed a number of disturbing patterns in the service, including an often secretive chain of command that protected bad apples and stigmatised those who spoke up.

Written submissions to the inquiry have now topped 1100 – nearly doubling in the three months since the probe began – while 250 people have also requested private sessions to give evidence.

Public hearings will also be held in Townsville, Wagga Wagga, Canberra and Darwin – with other locations to be announced when the dates and venues are confirmed

The Royal Commission is due to produce an interim report by August 11 and a final report by June 15, 2023.

Originally published as Yvonne Sillett to lead new hearings at Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide