‘The enemy within’: Royal commission damns Defence for needless deaths

Australian military personnel will continue to take their lives at staggeringly high rates without systemic change to the Australian Defence Force, according to a landmark inquiry into veteran suicide that found 3000 service personnel probably died unnecessarily over the past three decades.

The royal commission into veterans’ suicide found current and former service personnel were 20 times more likely to die by suicide than in combat, an “unacceptably high” figure it blamed in large part on cultural failings within the Defence establishment.

Julie-Ann Finney’s son, Dave, took his life after serving in Australia’s Defence Force. Julie-Ann devotes all her spare time lobbying the government for change.Credit: Janie Barrett

The final report of the exhaustive inquiry – totalling seven volumes and more than 3000 pages – was tabled in parliament on Monday, more than three years after the royal commission began its work.

The commissioners, led by former NSW deputy police chief Nick Kaldas, made 122 recommendations, including creation of a national register of suicides among current and former ADF personnel and urgent action to stamp out bullying and sexual assault within the military.

“As commissioners, we insist that it is both necessary and possible to reduce the number of deaths by suicide and experiences of suicidality among serving and ex-serving ADF members,” Kaldas and his colleagues wrote in the final report.

Commissioner Peggy Brown said the royal commission found the “enemy is often within the Australian Defence Force” rather than an external adversary.

“It is certainly a misconception to associate suicide with the experience of [post-traumatic stress disorder] alone coming from combat experiences,” Brown told reporters outside Parliament House.

“That’s not actually what we’re finding.

“What we’re finding is that there is a lot of trauma and a lot of exposure to trauma, but it’s trauma through the cumulative effects of what they experience day in and day out through service, and into their post-service life.”

Under the report’s proposals, a new executive agency within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs would be established to focus on veterans’ wellbeing and support their transition to civilian life.

Urgent action must be taken to stop the “weaponisation” of the military justice system, the report said.

Frustrated by the struggle to wrangle information from the Defence bureaucracy, the commissioners also called for the Royal Commissions Act to be changed to establish meaningful punishments for people who did not comply with compulsory notices to assist such inquiries.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who served for more than a decade in the army before entering parliament, urged the government to go further than the report’s recommendations by closing the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

“If you want to fix the culture of leadership in Defence, I suggest today you make a decision as a government to shut down the Australian Defence Force Academy – shut it down,” Lambie told Sky News.

Credit: Matt Golding

“We’re only getting all the little rich kids there with no life experience, and they’re the ones that end up in charge in the long run and that’s becoming a real problem.”

The royal commission, which received more than 5800 submissions, revealed that at least 1677 serving and former Defence personnel ended their lives between 1997 and 2021 – more than 20 times the number killed in combat or military exercises over that period.

The true number of preventable deaths could be more than 3000, the royal commission found.

“What is clear from some of the horrible stories that we’ve heard is that many people simply turned a blind eye over many years and felt it was too hard, or they simply didn’t care enough to tackle the problems,” Kaldas said.

“We hope that the royal commission has achieved one thing, which is to make the problems undeniable.”

Julie-Ann Finney, whose navy petty officer son David took his life in 2019, wants the government to urgently implement the recommendations and for an independent commissioner to hold the bureaucracy accountable.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament that “just as our veterans and defence personnel step up for our country, we have an obligation to step up for them”.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government would respond swiftly.

“We will do so soon in a manner which is timely and we will do so with complete thoroughness because those who wear our nation’s uniform deserve nothing less”.

RSL national president Greg Melick said: “The final report demonstrates how Australia has systematically failed those who have served and continue to serve our nation, and importantly, it provides a clear pathway to redress those failures.”

If you are a current or former ADF member or a relative and need counselling or support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

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