Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the cost of Australia’s involvement in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I do not want to talk about the financial cost of these conflicts; instead I want to talk about the hidden cost of these conflicts—that is, about the rising number of health related issues that are affecting veterans upon their return from Iraq and Afghanistan. A recent study in the United States titled ‘Bringing the war back home’ has gone a long way to revealing the human cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to veterans of those conflicts. The study was published in an issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine and was carried out by researchers from the University of California and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre. The study looked at data from 103,788 US veterans. Of the total, 32,010, or 31 per cent, were diagnosed with mental health and/or psycho-social problems including 25,658 who received mental health diagnoses. More than half were diagnosed with two or more disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder was the most common disorder. The 13,205 veterans who have that diagnosis account for 52 per cent of mental health diagnoses.

Other problems among those diagnosed included anxiety disorder, affecting 24 per cent; adjustment disorder, affecting 24 per cent; depression, affecting 20 per cent; and substance abuse disorder, affecting 20 per cent. The youngest group of veterans, aged 18 to 24, were at greatest risk of receiving mental health or post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses, compared with veterans 40 years or older. Corresponding with these findings was a recent article in the publication Newsweek, which quoted a number of worrying statistics from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The statistics revealed that approximately 205,000 United States veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are currently receiving treatment for medical problems. Of those, 42.7 per cent have bone and muscle injuries, 35 per cent have mental disorders, 30.7 per cent have digestive disorders and 30 per cent have nervous system disorders.

With regard to the mental health of returned US veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, currently 73,157 veterans have received diagnoses of mental health conditions including 33,754 PTSD cases, 28,732 cases of drug abuse, 23,462 cases of depressive disorders and 18,294 cases of neurotic disorders. This number is likely to grow as the US Department of Veterans Affairs has also been reported as suffering from a backlog of over 400,000 claims, with a further 156,000 cases pending appeal.

These statistics from the United States do not necessarily reflect the reality for all Australian veterans, as there are differences in location and the roles of our troops. However, there are also a large number of similarities. The statistics I have outlined point to a number of areas of concern that should be noted by the government and planned for accordingly. Unfortunately there appears to be a lot more confusion around the situation for Australian veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, no study has been completed in Australia that has examined the effects of these deployments on our troops, although I understand the Department of Defence is currently looking at this.

There have been a number of varying reports about the number of returned veterans of these conflicts who have been granted disability pensions. Last week an article in the Herald Sun titled ‘Hidden casualties of war on terror: our lost diggers’ quoted an Australian Defence official as saying that there had been 121 personnel discharged for health reasons after serving in the Middle East. Of those discharged, it is understood that 23 were suffering from mental health problems. Additional to that, the article revealed that, tragically, two Australian soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan committed suicide after returning from the war zones. The next day the Herald Sun, in an article titled ‘Forces claims double’, claimed that the number of ill and injured veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan making claims for benefits was at least double the number discharged by the military for health reasons.

Official statistics from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs dated December 2006 and available on the department’s website reveal that 49 veterans of the war in Iraq and 125 veterans of the war in Afghanistan are now in receipt of a disability pension. This would mean that a total of 174 veterans of these conflicts are receiving a disability pension. In the same month last year, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs was interviewed on ABC radio. He said:

... 236 men and women of the Australian Defence Forces have conditions, illnesses, impairments or injury that have been recognised by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs as being service-related.

An article in the Daily Telegraph titled ‘Secret casualties of Aussie war on terror’, from December last year, had similar figures to the minister’s, quoting from documents obtained under freedom of information. That article said:

The cost of the war on terror can be revealed, with documents show ing at least 236 Australians who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan being granted disability pensions.

It went on to say:

Department documents show medical pensions have been granted for mental and physical injuries to 109 individuals who have seen service in the Iraq conflict. A further 171 people who served in Afghanistan as part of the international coalition have also received medical pensions. As 44 of these disability pensioners have served in both conflicts, the total comes to 236.

As can be seen, there are a number of different reports about these numbers. Therefore it is not clear what the exact figures are, although we can say that there are at least 174 Australian veterans of these conflicts who have had a claim for a disability pension accepted by the DVA.

What I find remarkable is that we do not know for sure the number of veterans from these conflicts who have had their claims for disability pension accepted. When asked for definite numbers at the last hearing, the department could not provide an answer and was forced to take the question on notice. With an issue as important and as topical as this, I was quite frankly stunned that the department did not have these figures readily available. I do understand that measuring the impact of conflicts upon returned services personnel is a very complex matter and it is not always as clear-cut as listing all returned personnel who are now suffering afflictions. There must be a causal link to the conflicts. However, the complexity of measuring these statistics should in no way provide a barrier to the government in trying to gain a better understanding of the human cost of these conflicts. It is a sad indictment of this government that it has not been more active in monitoring these numbers. The government is not monitoring the human cost of these conflicts.

I would have thought the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs would have at least instructed his department to get a better indication of these numbers following an embarrassing gaffe he made last year on ABC Radio program The World Today. On that program he wrongly attributed the deaths of two soldiers to suicide instead of their actual cause of death, which was cancer. He later had to correct the record when informed of his mistake. If this was not a good enough reason for him to get across the statistics, I do not know what is.

What we can say about these statistics for Australian veterans is that they will only get worse. Sadly, we are likely to see more and more of our younger veterans returning home with debilitating physical and mental conditions that will be with them for the rest of their lives. This point has been made clear by representatives of the veterans and wider defence communities. The Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Veterans Association was quoted in the Herald Sun as saying that they ‘believe the figures would have climbed markedly since those DVA figures were collated late last year’. The Australian Defence Association Executive Director, Neil James, told the Canberra Times last year that he ‘believed that there will be a surge in post-traumatic stress disorder cases among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan’. He also said that ‘it would be inevitable the disorder would surface as a result of being in such stressful conflicts’. RSL National President, Bill Crews, said on ABC Radio:

It will grow into the future, probably to thousands I would suggest if previous experience of other deployments is any indication. The cost is not just financial, it’s human, and that is probably the bigger cost. It’s a loss of quality of life. Anybody who receives any form of income support or compensation payment arising from their service is suffering a reduced quality of life and that will flow onto their families.

Similarly, academics have warned about the possible future health problems facing veterans. Professor Hedley Peach, a medical epidemiologist who has worked on veterans issues, said in the Medical Observer Weekly on 6 October 2006:

Veterans and their partners are possibly approaching retirement with a greater prevalence of mental and physical health problems than the general population.

And:

It is a fair assumption that their health will deteriorate faster ... than the health of their contemporaries.

I wanted to raise this issue today because too often the debate about the respective conflicts loses sight of the hidden costs of these wars. Too often, politicians will stray away from discussing these facts—they are too unpalatable—yet I believe that these hidden human costs are what we should be discussing first and foremost.

The government’s silence on this matter has been deafening. For example, when was the last time anyone can recall a minister from this government speaking about the rising number of veterans of the Iraq war on disability pensions? The department could not answer questions on this topic even during the estimates hearings. We need to provide the very best care and support for our veterans. When we send them to war, we are asking them and their families for a major sacrifice. We should face honestly and squarely what this sacrifice has meant for some veterans and we should work to provide care and support for them to deal with the problems they are suffering.

We should also be clear about the strategic rationale for our involvement in these conflicts. The shadow ministers for foreign affairs and defence have made it clear that Labor supports Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan and also that troops should be withdrawn from Iraq. I fully support these positions. I was in Afghanistan in 2004 and have made very clear in previous speeches in this place that I believe there is a very strong strategic rationale for our presence there. However, I cannot accept that there is any logical or strategic rationale for our current involvement in Iraq. We need an exit strategy. I cannot support our continued presence in a conflict which has become a civil war and in which the majority of the local population does not want us involved.

The Howard government needs to consider carefully the hidden costs that I have outlined today before it continues to refuse to provide any exit strategy or justifiable strategic rationale for the conflict in Iraq. As respected King’s College professor Lawrence Freedman said:

In the end, if the Iraq war had brought the Iraqis a better life and us greater security, then—whatever the costs—it would seem ‘worth it’. Because it has been such a screw-up, then … it seems like a waste.

I could not agree more.