Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens join the government in expressing our deep sadness and apology to the victims of abuse in the Defence Force. We welcome the fact that on 26 November the federal government issued that apology to hundreds of victims of physical and sexual abuse within the Australian Defence Force and we also welcome the fact that the Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, also announced the setting up of an independent task force to deal with hundreds of claims of sexual and physical abuse within the ADF.

We note that Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, referring to the inquiry she led into the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force, said:

… by its nature, the ADF is a workplace involving inherent risks.

Experiencing sexual misconduct, harassment, bullying, victimisation and sexual abuse, however, should never be one of them. The reality is that sexual harassment and abuse exists today in the ADF.

The Greens commit to giving the government what support it needs to make sure this inquiry has the power it needs to establish what happened, why it was able to happen and what must be done to ensure it never happens again as well as to enforce recommendations.

Determining the facts of individual cases and compensating the victims is important, but it cannot end there. We must make the changes necessary to protect the people who join the defence forces from this kind of horrendous treatment in the future.

Concern that compensation has been capped at the seemingly arbitrary figure of $50,000 per case is something that we share with some of the victims' groups. We urge the government to reconsider that element and we hope that in the course of the inquiry that might be something that is able to be reconsidered. However, we do take on board the fact that at least the government has made a commitment to compensation in this regard.

We want to ensure that broader issues about the Defence justice and complaints system and the Defence culture are able to be pursued, even if that is separately—