Royal Commission hears urgent reform needed to save lives

Bombshell evidence at the Royal Commission into veteran suicides has revealed how Aussie veterans are suffering – and why.

Australian veterans are suffering psychological harm as they battle for up to 200 days to get much- needed benefits.

The damning evidence at the The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has heard how veterans are treated, the first time psychological trauma suffered post military service has been formally linked to how Defence and Veterans Affairs departments operate.

The commission was told urgent reforms were needed to not just the departments’ standard operating procedures but also the various complex pieces of legislation that govern how veterans are dealt with.

The commission has heard the departments’ databases were not integrated and in one instance a soldier with significant physical life changing wounds suffered on a battlefield was forced to prove he was even in the army.

DVA gave itself a 100 days average to provide benefits but this target on average had more than doubled in recent years to 200 days and in some instances 14 months.

Dr Bernadette Boss, interim National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention, giving evidence to the royal commission. Picture: supplied

Dr Bernadette Boss – the independent interim national commissioner for defence and veteran suicide prevention appointed by the Federal Government before it bowed to public pressure to form a royal commission – said urgent and fundamental reform was needed.

The former ACT magistrate said such was the state of procedures, it was “troubling” to learn that a member could use a wrong word or terminology and have a claim rejected or be forced to start again. People, she said, “could have been saved” and those who served the nation were not being adequately served in return. She recommended the government ensure implementation of former, current and future inquiries into veteran suicide and a body created to hold them to account.

“The bottom line is the system is too complex, trying to travel across three Acts … its like a spaghetti junction behind a wall, the end user just needs to put the plug in and flick the switch to get power, they don’t need to see all the electrical wires and where they are all going behind the scenes,” she said.

“The end user is going backwards and forwards and bearing the cost of that and I don’t mean just the expense of that having someone prepare a report I mean the psychological cost of all of that ….”

Earlier counsel assisting the commission in questioning witnesses Peter Gray QC, said there had been so many previous reviews and inquiries into veteran suicide and legislative reform issues that made recommendations for systems to change but the commission was trying to find out why these changes had made “glacial progress or even stasis”.

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