Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

It is now clear there is overwhelming support for a royal commission into the scourge and tragedy of veteran suicide. The motion that came before the Senate, the resolution before the chamber today, will be passed with decent. If our democracy means anything, the government should act upon these resolutions today and, without procrastination, call for a royal commission. It is what veterans and their families want. It's what hundreds of thousands of Australians want—they signed a petition to that effect. It's what many of the government's own MPs want.

Today we saw a rally, small in number but strong in intensity and in deliberation, asking, urging and pleading for the government to do the right thing and call for a royal commission. I want to thank Heston Russell, Julie-Anne Finney and Karen Bird, who I've spoken to many times. And I want to pay tribute to someone, not on my side of politics but who I consider to be almost on my side of politics: Senator Jacqui Lambie. I think you have done a fantastic job, with the productive and constructive way you've interacted with our office. Your advocacy in this place is exemplary. Thank you very much, Jacqui. You have been fantastic to work with.

We shouldn't have to get to a point where this resolution is before the chamber. The Prime Minister needs to do the right thing and give the grieving families of veterans the proper investigation, the royal commission, they want. The government has said they will carefully consider a resolution, but that's not good enough. The Leader of the Opposition said that's weasel words, and I agree. It's simply shifting responsibility. It's important for us to look at why we're here today. Suicide amongst veterans has caused more death in ADF personnel who served in overseas operational service in the last 20 years. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says there is one Defence personnel or veteran suicide every 2½ weeks; although, anecdotally advocates will tell you it's more. There have been at least 18 defence and veteran suicides in 2021, over the past three months—nearly twice that of the previous three months. And the suicide death toll amongst veterans is 32.5 per cent higher in 2021 than it was in 2020. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says that the suicide rate amongst serving defence personnel is less than half that of the wider Australian community. So, something's happening in the transition in how we're treating veterans after they've served our country.

Like the Leader of the Opposition, I want to pay tribute to those on both sides of the chamber who have served and those who are continuing to serve in war-like situations and peacekeeping operations and around the country. But lest anyone think this is a male-only thing, I will say that it is not. That data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that the rate of suicide amongst female veterans was 127 per cent higher than the rate of suicide amongst females in the general population. So, there's a lot of work to be done.

I pay tribute to the minister. We've had a bipartisan and constructive relationship. It was challenging and difficult for Labor to get to a point where we felt that we had to depart from the government on the issue of the national commission. We listened to people like Julie-Ann, Heston, Karen Bird and others. We had those interviews. We had those meetings. We listened to their voices. And the government didn't consult—the minister didn't consult me—when they announced the national commission. But we did consult the government and say, 'If you're going to have a national commissioner, you want to make sure that that person is as independent as possible.' We suggested something like a Federal Court judge or a Supreme Court judge—someone independent of the military.

We were really shocked and disappointed with the government when they appointed someone who had been a friend of the defence minister for 20 years and a brigadier. We felt that that wouldn't create the independence needed. We did not want a friend of the minister to investigate this. We also felt very much that that role really was a glorified federal coroner. We really looked at it, particularly in view of this fact: that the person would be plonked in the Attorney-General's Department and would be doing an interim review, within 12 months, of at least 400 suicides. Any coroner, anyone who's been involved in coronial inquests, will tell you that can't be done successfully or be given the kind of effort that's needed to actually examine what happened.

So, the government also didn't provide the independence, the resources or the scope. And of course the government says to us all the time that this is better than a royal commission. Well, it's not. It's not the same, and it's not better than a royal commission. Just because it's permanent and enduring doesn't make it stronger or better—and it's not. If you look at the way the government has seen that national commissioner operate, that person hasn't acted in a way that we expected they would. So, we got to a point where we of course sent this national commissioner bill off to a Senate inquiry. The Senate inquiry saw many, many submissions, from RSLs around the country and from individuals, advocates and people involved in mental health issues, and the feedback overwhelmingly was to oppose the bill. We felt very much that we were fortified in coming to that position last year. The government knew they didn't have the numbers and pulled the bill in December last year. The minister said in an interview in January, I think it was, that they were going to bring the bill back on. They haven't brought the bill back on, because it's friendless, because no-one on the crossbench will support it. We won't support it over.

So, we're left with—and this is what happened today—sending a message to the government that not just the community but the Senate and the House of Representatives and their own backbenches want a royal commission. If ever there was a moral authority for the government to listen to, it's what the Senate, elected by the Australian people, and the House of Representatives, elected by the Australian people, have to say. There will be not one voice of dissent from those opposite. They will support it. So, I say to the Prime Minister: don't shift, don't blame; take responsibility and call it today. And deal with the opposition and the crossbench, like Senator Lambie. Speak to her, speak to us, speak to the crossbench and make sure that this royal commission has the support of the whole of the House and the whole of the Senate. Listen to everyone. Have the meetings. Don't make the same mistake when you call the royal commission. Make sure the terms of reference are broad and cover a whole range of areas. Don't cut it off arbitrarily like the national commissioner role has done. Make sure it covers the whole sweep, and look forward to where we can go. I say to the minister: please respond to the Productivity Commission report that came out in the middle of 2019. Only 25 of the recommendations in that voluminous report have been responded to. Can the minister please do that?

I understand that they've done things when it comes to mental health issues. But they are not even complying with the waiting times on processing. They have outsourced, labour hired and privatised the Department of Veterans' Affairs to the point where the arbitrary cap on staffing has meant that people are in a position where they are frustrated, anxious, concerned and suffering from issues that relate to their mental health, because the Department of Veterans' Affairs is not responding adequately to the processing. They've got middle-ranking public servants who should be there, but they've labour hired and outsourced those people. We get it every Senate estimates; Senator Ayres asks question after question on this issue, at my request, and the government comes back with the same response. The secretary of the department, Liz Cosson—and I pay tribute to her—says the same thing again and again—that she wants to lift the staffing cap, but the government won't let her. So, Minister, win the battle in the cabinet. Make sure the resourcing is there for the department to deal with veterans in a professional, competent, caring and sensitive way. That's the way you deal with the issues there.

I say to the minister and the Prime Minister: listen to the Senate and the House of Representatives. Listen to the voices of people like Julie-Ann. Listen to the voice of Karen Bird. Listen to Heston and his mates. Do the right thing. Listen to Soldier On, who have come out in support of a royal commission. Listen to the RSLs in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, who all support a royal commission. Do the right thing, act on it and call for it today.

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