Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide highlighted the devastating scale and impact of veteran suicide and made clear that this is a national tragedy that desperately needed to be addressed. That is why we've worked to implement the agreed recommendations of the royal commission as quickly as possible.

In my address to the National Press Club on the one year anniversary of the government's response to the final report of the royal commission, I provided an update that 32 recommendations from the royal commission would be implemented by the end of 2025 and that we expected two-thirds of the agreed recommendations to be completed by the end of this year.

The royal commission described recommendation 122, the establishment of an independent oversight body, as its most important recommendation. In acknowledgement of the significance and urgency of this recommendation, in February 2025 the Albanese Labor government legislated the creation of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission. It has been up and running since the end of September 2025. The current enactment within part VIIIE of the Defence Act 1903, by way of schedule 9 of the Veterans' Entitlement, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act 2025, passed the parliament in February 2025 ensuring that the commission would be up and running by September and not be subject to the vagaries of the intervening federal election.

Noting the swift passage of this legislation, government supported a Senate inquiry into this, enabling the defence and veteran community to provide feedback on schedule 9—the establishment of this oversight body. These bills before us today are a direct result of that engagement and demonstrate our commitment to working with the defence and veteran community, because we want to get this right.

The bills address the first recommendation of the Senate inquiry, by establishing standalone legislation for the commission. The bills also add a specific reference to families as part of the commission's function, strengthen the commissioner's independence and powers, improve witness protections and increase transparency. The bill requires the commission to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the measures and actions taken to implement the government response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, first reporting on 2 December 2027.

This is in addition to other inquiries that may be undertaken by the commission, including a recently announced inquiry into the implementation of the government's response to recommendations 9 to 13 of the royal commission's interim report. The time line for the first legislated inquiry will enable a proper consideration of our work and an opportunity to genuinely evaluate if the recommendations have been implemented appropriately and are making a difference for the defence and veteran community.

I note that an amendment has been foreshadowed to bring forward the date of this first legislated inquiry. I note that these bills have been referred also to another Senate inquiry, which is the appropriate place to consider the first reporting date. I want to thank all those that have contributed to this debate and for your unwavering support of our veteran community.

I note that across the chamber there's been bipartisan support for our veterans, as we would expect, with references to local bases in people's communities and their family connections to the defence and veteran community. And I'd like to particularly acknowledge the member for Gorton, who referred to her relative Hugo Throssell VC after whom there is a bridge named in my electorate.

It's important to note that contrary to some of the assertions of the opposition during this debate, though this bill may be about a commissioner, to be clear, it is about a commissioner and a commission that was envisaged by the royal commission. This is not some reheating of the previous government's proposal for a commission in an attempt to avoid holding the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide in the first place. This is quite different.

I think it is also important to remind members of the House that the genesis of the legislation that established the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission, via the vets act amendment in schedule 9, was based on very extensive consultation, despite what those opposite have said. There was a royal commission for three years that produced a detailed set of recommendations for the establishment of this commission. That is what was reflected in that legislation, which we ensured was passed by this parliament in early 2025 to make sure that the commission could be up and running by September, as the royal commission itself asked for. That is what this government delivered.

As I said last year in parliament and at the National Press Club, it is our nation's duty to empower and support the mental health and wellbeing of our defence and veteran community to reduce the rates of suicide and suicidality as much as possible. The commission is an integral part of this work and will ensure ongoing scrutiny of our efforts to achieve this aim, and I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

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