Our ADF Diggers deserve better

The departments of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs abandoning testing and de-funding research amid growing evidence of soldiers suffering chronic brain injuries caused by repeated exposure to blast pressure waves was cruel and unconscionable. Better treatment of the Diggers affected could have eased a suicide epidemic, Ben Packham reported in Friday’s paper. Both sides of politics have left the issue in the “too hard’’ basket for more than a decade, despite a 2012 study on soldiers in Afghanistan, Project Cerebro, showing alarming early results.

Chronic brain injuries in soldiers, attributed to the cumulative effects of explosions in training and combat, are similar to concussion-related diseases in footballers. The problem is prevalent among special forces and a major risk for tank and artillery crews, infantry soldiers, engineers and navy clearance divers. It is linked to depression, PTSD and suicide, but hard to diagnose conclusively until after a person has died.

Amid dangerous strategic conditions in the region, indifference and callous penny-pinching by the defence establishment and bureaucracy will not encourage new recruits at a time the ADF faces a shortfall of 50,000 personnel. The Albanese government did the right thing last month, resuming monitoring soldiers’ blast exposure. The ADF has much to learn from the US, which is investing more than $1bn to protect soldiers from so-called blast overpressure injuries. The US will require troops to wear blast-pressure monitors, undergo regular neurocognitive testing, and ensure medicos are trained to recognise blast exposure injuries. Our Diggers deserve no less.