James Brown: Permanent commission till help veterans and save lives of others

The new National Commissioner for Defence and Veterans Suicide Prevention will be independent of both the Department of Defence and ­Department of Veterans’ Affairs. That independence is critical and the appointment will be the first test of this new institution’s credibility, writes veteran James Brown.

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Too many veterans have taken their own lives in the time that this newspaper has been campaigning to have their ­issues seen and heard. We can’t bring any of them back. We can’t fill the hole that mothers like Julie Ann Finney and Karen Bird have in their lives. The next best thing is to work as hard as possible to prevent that pain, that tragedy, from happening again. The veterans’ community has been crying out for so long to have the plague of suicide acknowledged and addressed. Now we are finally seeing leadership from the very top with the Prime Minister’s announcement that Australia will soon have a permanent commission and commissioner dedicated to keeping those veterans who are vulnerable, alive.

The new National Commissioner for Defence and Veterans Suicide Prevention will be independent of both the Department of Defence and ­Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Mr Roberts-Smith at the Save Our Heros Summit in November with mothers of young veterans who committed suicide after serving. L-R: Glenda Weston, Colleen Pillen, Jan Hewitt, Julie-Ann Finney and Nikki Jamieson. Picture: Toby Zerna

That independence is critical: the Commissioner needs a mandate to turn over rocks, look for answers, and be willing to call out the issues where they lie. The appointment of the commissioner will be an important first test of the credibility of this new institution. The commissioner will need to be willing to consider veterans issues in Defence and DVA from first principles and have the hard conversations necessary to achieve impact across government and hold decision makers accountable. The commissioner will wield the power to compel documents and witnesses but must also have the credibility to be able to lead in the fractured veterans’ community.

The services available outside of the federal government to help vulnerable veterans are a patchwork of priorities and personalities, spread across more than 5000 separate ­charities.

If ever there was a mission for them to pull behind as one, this is it. The ­initial findings of the National Suicide Prevention Adviser, Christine Morgan, reflect that families and communities are critical to suicide prevention.

There is much work to be done to make our veterans charities and representative organisations into a cohesive and strong family, able to provide a constant helping hand to veterans at risk of suicide. Progress in this area will be hard, the new commissioner and veterans’ family advocate will be perfectly placed to lead it.

Veterans are well trained to be sceptical bunch. Many will reserve judgment on the new commission until they see some sort of action, whether through changes to the way DVA deals with veteran entitlements, or the way the Defence manages transition of its personnel. But those I have spoken to are pleased to see that this issue is rightly at the top of the government’s agenda for 2020.

The Daily Telegraph campaign Save Our Heroes.

I’m grateful that Prime Minister Morrison has listened and heeded the calls of those who have served our country.

When we first sat down talk to about this issue more than a year ago, I told him about the experience of losing a mate who I had served alongside in Iraq, the tragedy and depth of that experience for his family and friends.

In the time since he has heard many more similar stories first-hand: from parents, husbands, wives, children, and mates of lost veterans. And he had another important message to ­deliver today: not all veterans are ­broken, most are capable and inspiring Australians who go on after military life to continue to contribute to our country. Never again will these stories be buried or overlooked — the new National Commissioner for ­Defence and Veterans Suicide Prevention must report annually to parliament on the state of veteran suicides.

The government has announced a Royal Commission into the suicides of Australian Defence Force veterans.

The Veterans Minister also flagged that the government will soon present its blueprint to fix the veterans system which the Productivity Commission last year declared to not be fit for purpose, and in some cases causing more harm than good. And the government has flagged that it is likely that the 2021 census will include a question on veterans, so that for the first time in more than a century of fighting we can actually know how many veterans Australia has.

I want to thank The Daily Telegraph for their consistent campaigning on these issues and the work they have done through the Save Our ­Heroes summit to bring to life so many stories of dysfunction and rot in the way our veterans are treated.

It is also important to thank the nearly 300,000 Australians who petitioned for this change as well as the Opposition leader Anthony Albanese who joined the calls.

After a long period shouting in the darkness, those who have served this country now have the mechanisms they need to secure answers and lasting change. The process won’t be easy.

The reforms will be tough and ­likely expensive. Both Defence and the DVA will no doubt have to change the way they work. But if we can save the lives of those who have committed to risk their own in service of Australia it will be worth it.

James Brown is the immediate past president of RSL NSW and a veteran of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Solomon Islands.

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