Defence Royal Commission: Report exposes 13 suicide failures
The interim report by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has been handed down and exposes 13 suicide failures. See the recommendations and what it means for those affected.
Staff shortages, complex laws, bad admin and a “limited willingness” by Defence to act on historic abuse cases in the ranks was contributing to unacceptably high rates of suicide in what was a national tragedy.
And, shockingly, all of these culture and admin issues have been known and flagged in reports and inquiries for decades but successive federal governments only ever responded in “limited ways”.
That’s among the findings by the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide which on Thursday handed down its damning interim 348-page report, cataloguing failure after failure by Defence, Veterans Affairs and governments to deal with their people.
While declaring the failures had not come about “under our watch”, Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said Labor was “the new sheriff in town” and vowed to clean it up.
The much-anticipated report made 13 “urgent” recommendations, some of which carry a timetable for when changes should be made, notably for improving the administration of veteran claims.
There was already a backlog of almost 42,000 claims.
Changes too were recommended to legislation to streamline compensation and rehabilitation processes for current and serving personnel.
But most of the report centred around the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) which was chronically under staffed and underfunded to perform its duties; a recommendation for 500 new staff was made and already being implemented.
Part of the issue arose during the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott when a cap was placed on staffing levels with no capacity to adjust despite exploding demand. That cap was based on estimated work levels from 2012 that by 2017 were well outdated but still in use through other Coalition regimes.
The commission cautioned the current Labor government that any budget now to overhaul the department needed to come with new money and not the reallocation of resources from elsewhere within the DVA.
And it demanded there be action.
“We have identified over 50 previous reports, and more than 750 recommendations,” the commission concluded.
“While we acknowledge that many of these reports and inquiries were about discrete topics, we have been dismayed to come to understand the limited ways that Australian Governments have responded to these previous inquiries and reports.”
In another observation, Defence too needed to change.
“We remain concerned that the ADF and others appear to have limited ability or willingness to investigate and prosecute allegations of historical cases of abuse in Defence identified by the Defence Abuse Response Task-force,” the report states.
“There appears to be a gap in responsibility within Defence and external oversight mechanisms to follow up referrals made by the Task-force to state and territory police about allegations of serious abuse. We are concerned by Defence’s apparent lack of ongoing interest and accountability to act in relation to these past allegations of criminal conduct.”
It also noted ADF culture as a risk factor for suicide and suicidality and there needed to be greater support systems to report and monitor reform already taking place.
Mr Keogh said statistics showed there was a higher rate of suicide among the veteran population than seen across the Australian population.
“If there are failings in the way that defence has operated and failings in the way that veterans affairs has operated I am deeply sorry about that, that is not what these agencies are set up to do … if it hasn’t been doing its job we are sorry about that,” he said.
“This is why we wanted a royal commission so we can find out what we can do better, to people who have felt they have not got the treatment they deserve, I apologise for that, it was not under our watch but as the government of this country, veterans always deserve the best and we should be delivering for them.”
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, who was instrumental in having the royal commission created, welcomed the report but hoped the recommendations could be implemented quicker.
“This is just the beginning of the journey. We still have a long way to go. But this is an important first step to fixing some of the issues facing our veterans,” she said.
“I want to see all the recommendations implemented quickly by the Government.
“They’ve given a March 2024 date to deal with the backlog of claims. Surely we can get onto it quicker than that. Most veterans can’t wait until 2024 to have their claims dealt with.
“This should be a top priority for the new Government.”
‘MIS-TRUTHS AND COVER UPS’
Julie-Ann Finney has been on a one-woman mission to expose defence injustices since her 38-year-old navy son David suicided in 2019.
On Thursday, the Adelaide mum was “vindicated” as the royal commission she petitioned for delivered its damning findings of a department in crisis.
“It has been traumatic, but I have also found anger at the mistruths-truths and cover ups that continue,” she said.
“The alternative to this is silence, but that silence has been around for too long. We have been vindicated and this royal commission was necessary.”
Ms Finney, who was backed by News Corp’s Save Our Heroes campaign in her calls for a commission, said she hoped the backlog of veterans’ claims could be sorted urgently.
“Waiting for claims to be processed has been shown to have a suicidal link,” she said of the report’s key finding.
Ms Finney, who travelled around Australia at her own expense to sit through the nine months of hearings, recently pleaded with politicians in Canberra, including Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Minister for Defence and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, to not “lose momentum on investigating the finding solutions to veteran suicide.
“I asked the Attorney-General to look over the Royal Commission and ensure there was sufficient funding.
“I have reassured every other politician that we are not going away until we have very real solutions to a very tragic issue.”
Karen Bird, whose son Jesse, 32, died alone and surrounded by service medals and paperwork for his military compensation claim, found the commission “honest, raw and all consuming”.
“No one has spoken honestly on the possible ‘costs’ to an ADF recruit and their family when that individual signs an Australian Defence service contract,” Ms Bird said.
“There’s a failure to highlight how an ADF member may be left with lifelong permanent physical and mental health conditions that will be purposely arduous to prove and in the end, poorly compensated.
“And there’s a failure to explain how potential traumatic events will have adverse impacts on the life cycle of an ADF member.”
Veteran lawyer Greg Isolani, who represented a number of families and Senator Jacqui Lambie in the Royal Commission, said he hoped the government would act on the report.
“I hope the interim report will in fact provide a positive platform having learned from so many negative experiences and unacceptable practices that have evolved, despite recommendations,” he said.
“The backlog of over 41,000 claims is a huge issue and the old cliché’ of “justice delayed is justice denied” takes on a potentially lethal meaning for veterans who are waiting for claims to be determined.
“The hope is that the final report will provide a strong foundation for the Government to act on and make a real difference to veterans, their families and the ex-service community to have faith in the Defence transition of injured veterans into DVA’s care without causing further damage.
“Otherwise it may simply be a case of veterans will ‘live in hope, but will die in despair’ while waiting for assistance from DVA.”
‘THINGS ARE NOT RIGHT’: REPORT GIVES FAMILIES VOICE
Renee Wilson knows veterans’ welfare issues well.
Her husband is an Afghanistan veteran severely wounded in operations in 2010 and since 2020 she has met countless veterans’ wives, mothers, partners and children in her role as boss of the Australian War Widows (NSW).
Like thousands of others she was hopeful for the release of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide report but then she read it.
“There is nothing new for anyone working in the veterans’ system and concerningly there isn’t much to provide immediate support and relief for veterans and their families,” she said of the report.
Yes it highlighted the current backlog of 42,000 claims by veterans but only mandated that efforts be made to reduce that figure 2024. But what happens in the interim two years and how many more lives will be lost to suicide from medical and other claims not dealt with?
“In our view this report is supposed to outline immediate action and there are some immediate actions that have not been picked up like lack of care and support for veterans and families right now.”
It’s a sticking point other similar defence reviews – and there has been 50 similar ones in recent years – have had to contend with.
The Defence and Veteran apparatchik is so huge various arms of operations do not know what the other is doing and very few in either organisation hold accountability and transparency as close to their core as they should.
The commission report is, as it states on the cover, an interim report flagging 13 recommendations into how to change that culture and process.
And while perhaps it won’t have an immediate effect, it should be seen as a very large light that needed to be shone on the issue. It should be heartening to veterans and their families that issues are understood and hopefully changes will follow.
Moreover, it has and still is giving veterans and their families like the Wilsons a voice on a very public platform to yell ‘things are not right’ and push change that while not immediate will gather pace.
As chief commissioner for the inquiry Nick Kaldas said there were findings they were not ready yet to make definitive decisions on but there were other matters that required urgent attention hence there being an interim report with two years of inquiry to run.
He hoped these changes would be initiated immediately.
“I don’t think that a lot about what we’ve said in the report should be a surprise to anyone because these problems were very, very clear in all of the public hearings we’ve had and discussions we’ve had with various stake holders … but we wanted to make recommendations that would be followed up on and that there isn’t a need in the long term for further royal commissions,” he said on Thursday.
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Originally published as Defence Royal Commission: Report exposes 13 suicide failures
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