Government to face electoral consequences if it fails to implement recommendations
Julie-Ann Finney, one of the leading figures who pushed for a royal commission into veteran suicides, has vowed to haunt the government at the next election if it fails to take swift action.
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Veterans advocate Julie-Ann Finney has vowed to haunt the Albanese government on the election campaign trail if it fails to address the mental health and suicide crisis facing the nation’s veterans, after a landmark report into the issue was handed down.
Ms Finney, whose navy veteran son David died by suicide in 2019, has called on the federal government to unveil an interim response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide report by the end of next week.
She has vowed to redouble her campaigning efforts at next year’s election if the seven-volume report’s 122 recommendations are not fully implemented in the spirit they were intended.
“Rest assured that the next election, if we don’t get what veterans need, if we don’t start saving some lives, if we don’t start building a legacy for those 3000 that are dead … If we don’t start doing that … then I will be out there at the next election with lots of people displaying photos of dead veterans, which I’m collecting at the moment.”
Speaking just hours after Defence Minister Richard Marles dedicated the report to David’s memory, an emotional Ms Finney said that a “new chapter begins”.
“Somebody said to me today, ‘so now the ball’s in the government’s court’. And I say, ‘no, no, no more’.
“That’s what we’ve been putting up with for decades. People in government, in ex-service organisations, in Defence, in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, they’ve been fighting against the royal commission for so long that the ball is now in veterans’ and veterans’ families’ court. We will not put up with anything less than the recommendations being implemented, and implemented in the spirit and intent of the commissioners.”
Mr Marles told the parliament that “wearing our nation’s uniform is a sacred act” and an “act of service”, pledging that the government would “shortly” respond to the royal commission’s recommendations.
Opposition spokesman on veterans’ affairs Barnaby Joyce said those who served the nation were “families of honour, because … they offer their lives for the future and betterment of this country”.
Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie attacked the ADF for a culture that “reflexively” protected Defence as an institution at the expense of the individuals who served it.
Senator Lambie, a long-term advocate for the royal commission, said establishing a national commissioner into defence and veteran suicides was a priority. “We need somebody to make sure that these recommendations are going to get through as quickly as possible,” she said.
RSL Australia on Monday urged the government to take action to implement the recommendations in the report. President Greg Melick said it demonstrated how “Australia has systematically failed those who have served and continue to serve our nation”.
He backed the call for an independent commissioner, as did Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists president Elizabeth Moore.
Veteran charity Soldier On chief executive Amy Cooper said that no amount of work could “undo the pain incurred by the many families and communities devastated by the loss of loved ones, nor the frustration of those failed by a system inadequately equipped to meet their needs”.
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