Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a very important day for our broader nation and what's happening with the defence royal commission. We know that people who are in our Defence Force and their families are so important. We owe a lot to them, and we can never say thanks enough. It's important that, when we bring people into the ADF, we make sure that they are looked after. We make sure that they get everything they need. Particularly on finishing their service, we should make sure that the right thing is done by them. We know that this has been an issue in the past. We know that veterans went through a long period of time during the former government where at one stage over a thousand claims were sitting on the minister desk unopened. We know that veterans came to us saying that the problem they were having was with DVA in the previous government. The words that really haunt me still are the veterans' view when it comes to DVA and supporting veterans was 'delay, deny, die'. That was what veterans believed was happening. They believed that they were constantly being delayed and denied, and some took the worst-case scenario out. It was something that we had to fix, so we worked extremely hard to push for the royal commission into veteran suicide.

We know the issues, and I've met Julie-Ann Finney myself a few times—lovely lady. She is suffering quite a lot with what's happened to her, and she is not alone; there are lots of others like that. When you talk to people through the veterans community, you know that, for a range of reasons, this is not uncommon. It's why governments need to act and do the right thing. If someone put their life on the line to defend our nation, our values and everything we believe in, you have an absolute obligation to make sure that, if they're broken, you look after them. You make sure that, if they've got problems, you fix them and you give them the support that they need. As I said, this was something that never happened, and I was a bit miffed this morning listening to the shadow minister talk. I think about what issues were caused during the time that he was minister. Why were things not done quicker and faster? Why were these things that we all stand here and say we should address not addressed? It's not the right thing.

Now we have taken the royal commission and we are going through all the different recommendations, implementing them in principle and actually committing to seeing outcomes done that actually help our veterans and their families, because it is important. You can't speak enough of the importance of what veterans should expect from us. We heard of systems that were toxic and broken and heard that not enough was being done to support personnel during and after their service, and we have acted on those calls. With the many thousands of people that we've spoken to about this when we go to RSLs and talk to them, the No. 1 thing that keeps coming back is that we are just getting nowhere. We are really just pushing it uphill, but no-one is listening. Well, we listen. We made the commitment that we would listen, and we are acting on that and getting things done.

In September last year, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide released its final report. It was seven volumes and had 122 recommendations. I know that when I went to the Doreen RSL, they wanted a copy of it. They wanted to see what was there, because so many of their members have issues that they have faced from their time in service and the problems that happened with that. I took this quote from former minister Gee, who was the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in the Morrison government: when he asked for more money, he threatened to resign because he believed we needed to do more. And he was right. But the response from the former government was the government was only prioritising funding to those that had a political advantage, and they're words that should turn everyone's stomach. That's what he said, on 29 May 2024. It should not have happened. It's not about prioritising funding; it's about doing the right thing.

I know from my own time being in this place working with the DART, the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce, the problems that have happened there. I've had veterans come to me with tonnes of paperwork showing the abuse they had in the Defence Force. They've sat in front of DVA and been told, with the minister—of both colours—that it never happened. But, when you produce the military medical professionals reports and the military police reports that all show it did happen, two weeks after that meeting—this is after veterans have been fighting for 12 or 18 months—suddenly DVA says, 'Oh, yes, it did happen. We will do that; we'll pay to take you to a psychologist because you've been abused. But we won't pay the psychologist.' The idiocy of that had to stop.

I know that some of my friends have been more brave and courageous than I could imagine by bringing forward their sexual abuse in the Defence Force. Hearing their harrowing stories and what that's done to their lives is phenomenal. This is why what we're doing today and what we're doing with the royal commission is so important. We have to stop this from happening again. We can't have these situations happen. Men and women go into the Defence Force to serve our nation, and they do it well. They don't need to be keeping an eye on their backs the entire time. That's why it is so important we do these accommodations. That's why it is important that we have these systems in place—to make sure that, when they put on that uniform, they know their government has their back and they know they're going to be safe. They put themselves in harm's way enough without having to worry about what's behind.

We know that for a lot of the situations we deal with there are issues in the way of the tribunals working. These things have been overcomplicated and made very difficult. I really congratulate Minister Keogh for doing something that no-one else has done. He has worked excessively hard to make sure that our veterans' entitlements are paid in a timely manner and that they get what they're entitled to. Again, I go back to those harrowing words: delay, deny and die. No more should that happen.

When you look at how we've been working through this in the 12 months since the royal commission report, you see we are continually working to improve the situations for veterans and our defence personnel. We made a commitment that we would fix these things when we called the royal commission. I give credit to Senator Lambie, who was very vocal as well. To get this done is so important. What it shows is that we do value our veterans, we do value our defence personnel and we're actually stumping up to show that. They're not hollow words. They're not words about trying to find a political advantage. It's about actually doing the right thing.

I think about when my grandfather came back with shell shock. He got the hard nut: 'You'll be right. Out you go.' Like many veterans of World War II and many veterans of Vietnam, he took the hard way out through the bottom of a bottle, and that's not right. We've all got to pull our socks up and really work hard to get this done, but we've taken these first steps on the journey to fixing that. No more should we hear of the Julie-Ann Finneys of the world.

I want to give a big shout-out to Jeb Summers, a young bloke from the seat of Hawke. He was in McEwen, but, unfortunately, the AEC downgraded him to Hawke. He runs Save our Services. He stood at an Anzac Day ceremony and threatened to hand back his medals—that was shocking—because he couldn't get the support. Now he gets that. He's running these great programs for veterans refusing to deal with mental health and he's supporting people. But veterans threatening to give back their medals because they feel their country isn't helping them is not on. It's got to be stopped. That's why I've continued to push and fight to get as much done as we can as quickly as we can to help these people. As I said at the beginning, when we ask them to put on a uniform to do things for our country, it is our obligation to make sure that, when they return and finish their service, we look after them.

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