Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take this opportunity to respond to the Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel's annual statement on veterans and their families. I acknowledge the member for Stirling and his partner and thank them for their service. I would also like to thank every member of parliament for their service, as well as everyone around Australia who has served our nation so proudly.

I take a deep interest in this area. Not only am I a veteran myself but I represent the largest garrison city in the country, the city of Townsville. There are more than 5,000 regular and continuous full-time service personnel in my electorate, plus more than 2½ thousand spouses and around 3,000 children in Defence Force families. They're just the current figures for those serving at the moment, but there are far more than that still living in Townsville who have left the armed forces. How many exactly? That's a good question, which unfortunately is difficult to answer. We don't know exactly how many veterans there are living in our community, and that's why I very much welcome the minister's commitment to support a question in the 2021 census regarding ADF service. As the minister said, the data would help DVA and ex-service organisations to improve and better target services and support, particularly to the large portion of veterans who are currently unknown to DVA.

An issue coming to light recently in my community of Townsville is the number of veterans who are experiencing homelessness. Fortunately, there are organisations out there providing emergency accommodation to veterans who are in need. But I hope that this move to gather more statistical information on exactly how many people may be in this category will be helpful to address these issues. There is also a role for state government to be more transparent about where it spends its federal money on homelessness—$319.8 million goes into Queensland. The more informed we are, the better outcomes will be and the better we can all work together.

I want to highlight, in particular, the minister's comments with regard to the families of veterans, because we know that, when a veteran leaves the Defence Force or loses their life, it's the families who are left to either support their loved one or readjust to life without them. It's my opinion that spouses of our current and formerly serving Defence Force personnel are the backbone of our community. They play an integral role in supporting their loved ones. Whether people are unwell or whether they're just fine, their spouses need to be acknowledged for their contribution to the community. My wife—my rock and my best friend—played an integral role in getting me better and back on my feet, and getting me to have meaningful engagement and meaningful employment. I think that's great, and I acknowledge the establishment of the Female Veterans and Veterans' Families Forum and the work of the Council for Women and Families United by Defence Service. This is something that will shape how we do business. It is something that will shape how we in this place will better support and serve the communities we represent.

Just yesterday I met with Rhondda Vanzella, the state president of the War Widows Guild of Australia, New South Wales, and the director, Gwen Cherne, both strong women who know firsthand the battles and challenges I'm talking about. I was so impressed by and thankful for the hard work they are doing to support families who have lost those most dear to them. They highlighted the need for more mental health clinicians to support both serving and ex-serving personnel and their families through mental illness. There is always more we can do when we talk about mental illness and suicide prevention. I know that on all sides of the House we want to be working in the one direction to support our men and women of the Australian Defence Force.

Rhondda and Gwen also indicated a desire for support agencies to be notified of the names and contacts of widows who have lost a loved one so they can ensure that wraparound services are provided as soon as possible, in a compassionate and sensitive way. I believe that is something that would be very well accepted throughout the veteran community. Halfway through this year a serving sergeant from the 1st Battalion died by suicide. While the services were there to help the spouse, I believe that notifying reasonable and responsible services so they can provide wraparound services is something that would help people deal with situations of grief that I can't even imagine.

In Townsville we have a suicide prevention measure called Operation Compass. The Townsville suicide prevention trial is one of the Australian government's 12 national suicide prevention trial sites that are gathering evidence on how to better prevent suicide at a local level and in high-risk populations. The Townsville trial is being led by the North Queensland Primary Health Network and has received funding of $4 million over four years. Compass focuses specifically on veterans of the Australian Defence Force and their families in the Townsville region. Operation Compass has identified a number of priority areas for the trial: improving emergency and follow-up care for suicidal crisis; improving the competency and confidence of frontline workers to deal with suicidal crisis; promoting help-seeking, mental health and resilience; and training the community, families and carers to recognise and respond to suicidality. There are fantastic organisations around the country, and Operation Compass plays an integral role.

I'd also like to acknowledge Swiss8, which is a new charity that I've been fortunate enough to be made patron of. It's run by Adrian Sutter and Anthony Meixner. It's a phone app about the key pillars in someone's life. It talks about what you should be eating, healthy lifestyle, physical exercise, and getting out and being engaged. I think it's important that organisations and charities like this do come up, because they provide meaningful engagement. I'm a big believer in meaningful engagement and meaningful employment, because I think that's how we're going to lower the very high rates of suicide.

It's okay not to be okay. It's okay to have a bad day. It's okay to have mental illness. But what I want to tell everyone is: if you're not doing well, there are places where you can seek help; there are places you can go to speak to a professional. I'm not a clinician. I don't give advice; I can only give information. I believe we need to lower the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. Doing that is about speaking about it. If I can stand here, at the highest level of government, and say that I've had bad days and I was diagnosed with PTSD, and there are avenues you can take to seek meaningful engagement and employment and get on the right track and get the help you need, I think everyone should be able to talk about it. It doesn't matter what political party you're in or where you sit in the world, we all work together. This is above politics. We think, in this place, that every life matters and everyone should be able to live their life well and—

An honourable member: Absolutely.

Exactly, 'absolutely'. I look forward to working with my side of politics and the other side of politics, because, with mental illness and suicide prevention, we need to be lowering the stigma and working together so people can live a fulfilling life.

Debate adjourned.

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