Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on Australian veterans, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to incorporate the tabling statement in Hansard and make some additional comments.

Leave granted.

The report tabling statement read as follows—

I rise as Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee to speak to the committee's report into suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel.

Before I begin, I wish to acknowledge the service of those current and former members of the Australian Defence Force who have taken their own lives and the sorrow of their families and loved ones. In particular, the committee members and I were saddened to learn about veterans who took their own lives during the inquiry.

A unique aspect of this inquiry has been the opportunity to examine the framework of military compensation arrangements and their administration through the issue of suicide by veterans. This focus has highlighted the burden of legislative complexity and administrative hurdles faced by veterans who are often seeking support at a vulnerable period.

Some affected veterans characterised their post-service experiences as being the most difficult and challenging period of their lives. Accordingly, the committee has chosen to title its report The Constant Battle which reflects the problematic nature of the issue of suicide by veterans and the on-going challenges in providing them with support.

The broad scope of the terms of reference and their interrelated nature has been difficult. An extremely wide range of relevant matters were raised with the committee, particularly in relation to the reasons why Australian veterans are taking their own lives. The committee has been forced to focus its consideration on a limited number of key issues.

In the near term, the committee has acknowledged and supported the work of Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) in undertaking the reform of its processes through its 'Veteran Centric Reform' program and Lighthouse projects. These initiatives are showing results, particularly in reducing the time taken to process claims and the committee has recommended they be funded

The BVA will supplement and support the current system of volunteer advocates. Where necessary, the BVA will be allocated a budget to commission legal aid to assist veterans make appeals. The BVA will also take over responsibility for grants to ESOs regarding advocacy, training and accreditation of volunteer advocates and insurance issues.

Finally, the burden of legislative complexity and impact of administrative hurdles on veterans were the primary issues of the inquiry. It has been a number of years since there was a large scale review of the system as a whole. There was broad support for a wide-ranging review of the legislative framework and administrative delivery of support for veterans with an emphasis on simplification and improving client experience. While steps are being taken by DVA to streamline some aspects of their processes, the committee considers that simplifying the legislative framework and administrative process should be the key objective of future reform.

Given the complexity of the current arrangements, any systemic review will be extremely challenging. It will require a public research organisation with established research and analysis capabilities. It should also be able to conduct its review largely independent of Defence and DVA. The committee considers that the Productivity Commission is the best placed to undertake this large-scale review. In particular, this review should examine use of the Statements of Principle which are used in determining compensation claims. The review should be completed within 18 months and be tabled in the Parliament.

During the committee's inquiry there have been major developments in relation to several issues including suicide prevention programs, the legislative framework in the Veterans' Affairs portfolio and the administration of claims by DVA. This was underlined by the statement made yesterday by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon Dan Tehan MP.

The committee's report acknowledges the substantial support being committed by the government to veterans and undertaken by DVA to improve services for veterans. It is encouraging that DVA's reform agenda appears to be moving in the same direction as the recommendations suggested by many submitters. Nevertheless, it is clear that, the pace of reform has been slow and needs to be increased.

Using new research about veterans, including findings which will arise from the Transition and Wellbeing Research Program, will be important in guiding support. In this context, the committee has recommended a two-track transition process be established with intensive support for veterans who are identified as likely to need it. Further, the committee has recommended all transitioning ADF members should be provided with a DVA White Card to facilitate access to non-liability health care, serve as veteran identification and to serve as a platform for data collection.

Many of the veterans the committee spoke to felt that alternative therapies had significantly improve their conditions. While the evidence base for these alternative therapies is still developing, the committee has recommended the Veterans and Community Grants program be expanded to support the provision of alternative therapies to veterans with mental health conditions.

There also is value in developing an evidence base for alternative therapies to assist veterans in Australia. The committee has recommended funding for a trial program that would provide assistance animals for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) stemming from their military service in order to gather research.

The committee's understanding was assisted by the recent research undertaken by the AIHW into the incidence of suicide by ADF members and veterans. There was strong support expressed for an on-going national register to track this problem and to develop a better understanding of it. The committee has recommended a National Veteran Suicide Register be established and maintained by the AIHW.

A key contention during the inquiry was that the DVA claims process are a major stressor on veterans and could even act as a contributing factor to suicide. To gain a better understanding of this issue, the committee has recommended an independent study be commissioned into the mental health impacts of the claims processes on veterans with the results to feed into future administrative reform.

I wanted to make some brief additional comments in respect of this extremely important bipartisan report. The first thing I wanted to put on the record is the contribution of the deputy chair, Senator Back. Senator Back, as always in all of his work in this Senate, was extremely involved, competent, diligent and proactive with respect to what has been quite a long-running and, in some cases, distressing inquiry. So the first thing is that the contribution of Senator Back was, as always, above and beyond exemplary. Also, I would like to highlight the bipartisan nature with which this inquiry was able to conduct itself.

There were 420-odd submissions. I might say at this point that we're resourced in this parliament with quite extraordinary public servants. There is no doubt that, in the brief time that I have been in this parliament, I have had the excellent service and resource of quite extraordinary public servants. In this particular inquiry, our lead officer, Mr Owen Griffiths, has been absolutely extraordinary. I personally couldn't read all of the submissions that came in to our inquiry and still cope, because they are extremely distressing. Some of the private and confidential submissions—you can't read them without it affecting you. Mr Griffiths has had to go through all of those submissions. He's had to maintain the complete professionalism and discipline that is so evident in the Senate's exemplary staff and produce an outstanding, high-quality, bipartisan report. I think that simply needs to go on the record.

We won't please everybody with this report, but we have at least kept the parliamentary participants all on the one page, so to speak. The department has had some useful pointers on how to improve its performance, but I also think it is really important to put on the record that it is one of the oldest public sector departments and has a myriad of legislation which binds its activities. That hasn't made it easy. It hasn't made it easy for those public servants in that place. But we've gone through it all very diligently and methodically, I think, and pointed out some very useful areas where we can perhaps make some inroads into what is the constant battle. That is the title of this report, and suicide by veterans is by its very nature a constant battle. We won't solve it, but we believe that we've got a bipartisan approach and some pointers in the right direction. I will conclude at that point.