Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senator Patrick, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) suicide by current and former Australian Defence Force members continues to claim at least a life a week,

  (ii) on 5 February 2020, the Prime Minister said his National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention would be "bigger and better than a Royal Commission", and

  (iii) on 27 February 2020, the Senate disagreed with the Prime Minister;

(b) again condemns the Morrison Government's proposed National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention as a poor imitation of a Royal Commission;

(c) believes that nothing short of a Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide can address this painful and ongoing scourge;

(d) expresses its view that:

  (i) the Prime Minister's National Commissioner will have neither the power, nor the resources, of a Royal Commission, and can in no way be considered "bigger and better",

  (ii) any insistence on this unproven, experimental model over the proven and successful model of a Royal Commission is made knowing that it risks making things worse, not better;

(e) calls on the Morrison Government to establish a Royal Commission into Veterans' Suicide, with a clear start and end date; and

(f) invites the Royal Commissioner to recommend that a standing, permanent capability be established to oversee reform, should the Commissioner see fit to do so.