Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the previous speakers and acknowledge the minister in the chamber. I congratulate him on this bill and his work in general, post the royal commission, to really drive the implementation of recommendations. I have the great fortune of having been appointed by the Prime Minister as the Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia. It is my distinct privilege to meet with Defence members and veterans across the country. And, of course, in my electorate, which is Solomon—a garrison town, a defender of the north—we have Navy, Army and Air Force bases. We also host the US marines and many visiting training delegations, which is fantastic because we get to improve our interoperability and learn from each other. Every day that I talk with veterans, I'm keen to share their achievements and to assist them with issues—including in the wee hours of this morning, where I was spending time clearing emails and assisting to connect veterans with help. It's the very least that we can do for those that have put on the uniform and served our country.

Every member of the ADF should be safe in the knowledge that, whatever may happen in their service, they and their families will be looked after and acknowledged by our grateful nation. It's our nation's duty to empower and to support the mental health and wellbeing of our defence and veteran community, and it's something I'm very passionate about as a fourth generation veteran. There is an expectation that we will look after those that have done so much for us in the defence of our nation and the representation of our people overseas.

With the now minister and others, I lobbied hard for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. We heard the calls from the veteran community, from their families, and we have acted—initially, in pushing and working with the government of the day to establish it and, now, as I said, the interim report having been released in 2022, in really getting on with implementing those recommendations, particularly those that were most urgent. We've acted on all of those recommendations of that interim report.

One of the 122 recommendations of the final report was to establish a new statutory entity to oversee systematic reform across the whole defence enterprise, the ecosystem. The report said that the establishment of this new statutory authority would underpin 'all the recommendations that precede it' and be 'the most significant action the Australian government can take to address defence and veteran suicide'. In acknowledgement of the significance and the urgency of this recommendation, in February 2025, our federal Labor government legislated the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission. That's been up and running since the end of September last year.

The role of this new statutory entity is to provide independent oversight and evidence based advice to drive system reform to improve suicide prevention and wellbeing outcomes for the defence and veteran communities, including our families. The commission will have a dedicated and sustained focus on suicide prevention. It will ensure agencies implementing royal commission recommendations will be held to account by promoting long-term change and driving the systematic reforms needed to reduce the rates of suicide and suicidality among serving and ex-serving ADF members—and, for that matter, their family members.

To do this, the commission must have the independence, the functions and the powers necessary to meet these objectives and maintain the trust of the defence and veterans community. The Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Bill, then, builds on the work undertaken by the parliament in February last year, when schedule 9 of the Veterans' Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act 2025 was passed and a Senate inquiry was undertaken.

Let's go to independence. The submissions, the evidence and the committee's report have informed the development of the bill, implementing the following recommendations. First, standalone legislation for the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission will reflect its independence. This bill strengthens the independence of the commissioner by ensuring that the role is appointed by the Governor-General after a merit based and public recruitment process. Everyone can apply; it's a public process. The commissioner will be an independent statutory office holder when appointed. The commissioner will carry out their functions and exercise their powers by looking through a system-wide lens. To reflect their independence, the bill confers on the commissioner complete discretion in carrying out their functions and powers and appropriately limits directions, including from the minister. There's a subclause, 12(2), that in particular would ensure that the commissioner has substantial discretion to determine how they will carry out their role. That independent judgement about what is best for the veteran is so important.

Under clause 50, the commissioner is empowered to make public statements, which is important in keeping people informed. Transparency in the goals, function and operations of the commission is paramount. It improves the transparency of the work of the commission to ensure accountability for the commission itself and those subject to its oversight. This includes statutory deadlines for the completion of two inquiries into the Commonwealth's implementation of the government's response to the royal commission recommendations. Those deadlines are 2 December 27 and 2 December 2030, which are the third and sixth anniversaries of the government's response to the royal commission's recommendations. This bill strengthens the commissioner's powers in ensuring transparency and accountability across Defence and the veteran ecosystem and enables access to necessary information and disseminating public statements.

What I was just talking about went to the independence of the commission and the commissioner; now, I want to go to families. The commissioner's functions include reference to veterans' families. There is no doubt—zero doubt—that families of veterans play the most vital role in the health and wellbeing of veterans, but they also face unique challenges themselves. The Albanese government is pleased that, through this legislation, we're able to acknowledge the significance of veterans' families. The commissioner will be empowered under subclause 10(1) to promote understanding of suicide risks for veterans and factors that can improve the wellbeing of veterans through engaging with people with lived experience and the families of veterans.

Last year, I spoke at the veterans' family roundtable held here in this place, in Parliament House, and was fortunate to attend, with the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and my parliamentary colleagues, and speak to the representatives. There was a fantastic event run by the Families of Veterans Guild. I'd like to take a moment to pay tribute to the guild and to their CEO, Renee Wilson, for the organisation and for Renee's tireless advocacy for veterans' families, an issue very close to her heart. Theirs is a very worthy cause and one I fully support. At that event, I listened to the stories of veterans' families that have been affected by tragedy and hardship—a genuinely moving experience that all honourable members should seek out in order to expand their knowledge of the challenges faced by veterans and their families. It was, as I said, a very deeply moving event.

We've also held events. I want to pay tribute to Dani Eveleigh from my electorate. She, like Renee, is the partner of a serviceman and has done some great work as well. It was great that people like Dani were able to spend time with the Repatriation Commissioner and the Veteran Family Commissioner in Darwin, Kahlil Fegan and Annabelle, in Darwin, last week. I'm thankful to them for heading up to Darwin and having those conversations with our local veterans and families.

Veteran families often carry a lot of the burden of service as well as being the biggest carer and the biggest enabler of capability. And it's not well enough understood. We've got a lot to learn from the experiences of our families, and we need to do everything we can to support them. In understanding the experience of the families, we can make the system better support them.

On the conduct of the duties of the commissioner, the commissioner can invite the making of submissions under clause 20. A feature of the legislation that I quite like is the ability to invite these from the public—from veterans and, importantly, from their families—so that we can better understand how the system is working for veterans and their families and hear from them on an ongoing and timely basis. And, of course, we want to hear how the system is not working for them so that we can address issues.

Having spoken about the independence of the commissioner and about families, I now want to go to ongoing reform. The commissioner is empowered to be an agent of change and improvement. Their functions would enable them, as an oversight body, to monitor, inquire into, report on and provide advice on systemic reforms, including the Commonwealth's implementation of the government's response to the recommendations of the royal commission. The government has listened to feedback from stakeholders and has taken action. These changes to the bill will ensure that the commissioner has the tools necessary to ensure that the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission is able to drive that systemic reform that will improve suicide prevention and wellbeing outcomes for both serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members. This will mean agencies are held accountable to consider and respond to the commissioner's recommendations. The enduring nature of the commission will ensure that the voices of our veterans continue to be heard and that systemic issues which contribute to suicide in our veteran community are continually reviewed and addressed.

As I said, every day I have the privilege of engaging with veterans in our community. I listen to their experiences and work to ensure their needs are met. I also listen to their family members and work to ensure that their needs are met. Those conversations continually remind me of the depth of service and sacrifice that underpins our freedoms in this nation, that underpins our Australian sovereignty and our way of life. This is the guiding light for my work in this parliament, as it is for other members of this place. I hope that, in time, that understanding will continue to grow in members of this place so that they can be a consistent source of support to veterans and their families in their electorates. This bill is certainly a step in the right direction.

In the time remaining, I want to give a shout-out to all those who helped organise and conduct the very successful Welcome to Darwin event at the convention centre on the weekend. It was a fantastic event with a whole range of community stalls. It really was our community opening its arms wide to ADF members and their families who have recently been posted into Darwin, to say: 'Welcome. We're really glad to have you here. We love having you here. We'll do everything we can to make your time in Darwin as enjoyable as possible, and we hope that you elect to go for repeat postings up in Darwin. Make Darwin your home and help us with this enterprise in the national interest, which we're also engaged in, to keep our nation safe and to protect the interests of our nation.' I want to thank all the families.

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