Former Governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove calls for more support for military veterans

More needs to be done to support veterans leaving the Australian military today, former Governor-general and Vietnam digger Sir Peter Cosgrove has declared. Here’s why.

Former Governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove believes more needs to be done to support veterans leaving the Australian military today.

His comments come fifty years after Aussie Diggers came home from Vietnam to a hostile reception and are matched by public sentiment that veterans need better mental and physical health care.

“We do more than most other modern nations are able to do for their veterans but it is never enough,” Sir Peter said before a Commemorative Service at the RSL ANZAC Village at Narrabeen on Sydney’s northern beaches on Wednesday.

A survey by RSL Life Care of more than 1000 Australians found almost half believe that “more needs to be done to provide adequate support” for veterans.

More than one in two said veterans needed better access to mental and physical health care.

“We still need to have men and women who are prepared to volunteer and go and do really horrible things, put themselves in danger and accept privation and from time to time use violence against others – always lawfully,” Sir Peter said.

Marching to an Anzac service at RSL Anzac Village at Narrabeen in Sydney is Sir Peter Cosgrove with his friend, Distinguished Service Cross recipient Michael McDermott. Picture: Richard Dobson

“When they come back, as is natural, we need to see if they need help.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Save Our Heroes campaign on behalf of veterans and their families fought for a full inquiry to investigate veteran suicide.

The appointment of a National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide was followed by a Royal Commission which last year released an interim report with 13 recommendations including improvements to the DVA.

Sir Peter, who was awarded the Military Cross in Vietnam, was speaking ahead of the Anzac Commemorative Service where he was reunited with a corporal from his platoon who he loaded onto a helicopter in Vietnam with shrapnel in his skull.

“He was going into shock and I knew I had to stop him,” Sir Peter said after being reunited with Jim Muir ahead of the ceremony.

Sir Peter Cosgrove and his platoon corporal from Vietnam, Jim Muir ahead of a ANZAC service at the RSL Village in Narrabeen. Picture: Richard Dobson

At the time, Corporal Muir had a coveted new Seiko watch.

“So I started taking it off his wrist saying ‘you won’t be needing that where you are going’ and it brought him round pretty quick,” laughed Sir Peter.

The Royal Australian Navy Band led a march of veterans through the village with Sir Peter pushing fellow Vietnam veteran Michael McDermott in a wheelchair.

They have been mates since attending Duntroon Military College together and Mr McDermott was best man at Sir Peter’s wedding.

Sir Peter also visited the Little Diggers preschool and told those gathered at the ceremony that giving those children a sense of ANZAC Day was a way of “passing the baton” to the next generation.

Sir Peter Cosgrove with children at the Little Diggers preschool at the RSL Anzac Village at Narrabeen. Picture: Richard Dobson

He said war “is crazy” and a folly forced on people like those in Ukraine. ANZAC Day helped “these children understand there is this notion in Australia, that we stand for human rights and peaceful coexistence. We work tirelessly for peace, but sometimes, that‘s not enough.”

And that service often came with a price. To assist military personnel to readjust to civilian life he called on the Federal Government to adopt a GI Bill similar to the one America introduced after World War II to fund trade and university study for returned service men and women.

“That would be a marvellous, marvellous thing to both salute service and to encourage people to serve on,” he said.

Sir Peter also called for discharge from the military to be “less mechanical and more human and scientific with resettlement for those who are in pretty good shape and resettlement and rehabilitation for those who need that sort of help.”

However he warned that post traumatic stress disorder affects different people at different times and many not at all. “We don’t stigmatise either way … and we certainly don’t say one size fits all.”

Sir Peter called for reform in Australia’s military discharge system.

RSL LifeCare chief executive Janet Muir said that the organisation’s survey showed an increase in public sentiment to mark ANZAC Day to almost 80 per cent while at the same time showing many believed veterans needed more support.

“There’s more for us to do around giving better care for our veterans who have been in service,” she said.

Former Royal Australian Air Force Luke Douglass supported Operation Slipper in Afghanistan and his own experience showed him there was a lack of support to help veterans adjust to civilian life.

“There is a lot more that can be done that is not being recognised or supported by organisations such as the Department of Veterans Affairs,” he said.

Mr Douglass has set up a business to help veterans and their families called The Warrior Within but is struggling to secure any kind of funding. “Struggling with identity without a uniform can have significant impacts on people,” he said. “The need is there but I am not getting funding.”

Luke Douglass (left) and City of Newcastle RSL sub-Branch President Ken Fayle (right). Picture: Supplied

Newcastle RSL sub branch president Ken Fayle said support today including counselling was far better than when he came home from Vietnam.

“But it is not targeted well enough,” he said. “The ADF is trying to change everything but when you hit civilian life and transition out it still all falls in a hole.”

Mr Fayle said the RSL was constantly working to help veterans as they leave the military. “The funny thing is that when we have a meeting it is these younger ones who are coming in and telling us how to do things differently,” he said.

“They are really proactive and we are starting to kick some goals.”