Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides will come to Darwin next year

Confirmation that the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides will hold hearings in Darwin in 2022 is good news for thousands of serving personnel and their families.

THE Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides will conduct hearings in Darwin next year.

A spokesman confirmed hearings are expected in the Territory in the second half of 2022.

The royal commission is currently in Brisbane and an advance schedule is not available on the website.

The royal commission was established in July and is chaired by Nick Kaldas APM, a former senior NSW police officer.

Early on Wednesday, NT Veterans Affairs Minister Paul Kirby said the royal commission had locked in a timeline to visit, although a specific date is yet to be set.

He said it’s important to hold hearings in Darwin “so people that want to take part to explain and make sure that the commissioners have a first-hand knowledge of how tough it is for veterans in the Northern Territory”.

“It’s important they actually get here to come and see it and hear it and feel it for themselves and there are guys and girls who don’t have to go somewhere else to explain that.”

Late last week the commission secretariat announced that the public hearings will be conducted in Sydney, Canberra, Townsville and Wagga.

Since hearings began on November 29, written submissions to the commission have increased from 630 to in excess of 800 and requests for private sessions to speak with a commissioner have leapt from 60 to 150.

Meanwhile, a grieving mother who relentlessly pushed for the royal commission into veteran suicides is about to wage a new battle – running for federal parliament.

Julie-Ann Finney, whose navy veteran son David Finney took his own life in 2019, will stand as an independent senator in next year’s election.

“I am truly here, because of my own traumatic experience, because of my son, but not for him. He can no longer be helped but many (others) can,” Ms Finney, who will run under the newly registered “Local Party”, said.

“Alongside of many others, I have fought hard for a royal commission into veteran suicide, it is time to start listening to what veterans and their families need for change to occur, not to the high-powered institutions, including the government, about who should get funds to solve the unsolvable.”

Ms Finney said she was not only concerned about veterans but also “first nation people, the elderly and disabled” and believed an upper house seat would help her “make change”.

“In government we seem to only make announcements that benefit the economy and we fund corporations and bureaucracies to make change,” she said. “I stand by what I have always thought, get social justice right and the economy will follow.” In her dogged two-year pursuit for a royal commission, Ms Finney collected almost 500,000 signatures.

Originally published as Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicides will come to Darwin next year