David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate that we'll be supporting the Defence and Veterans' Service Commissioner Bill 2025 and to deal briefly with the history of why we're here. We're here because the royal commission made a finding that veterans and people serving in the ADF are at significant risk, and at significant risk to their mental health. There have been appalling rates of suicide and self-harm in our defence forces and our veterans community. One of the core recommendations from the royal commission was that there needs to be an independent commissioner—independent of Defence, independent of the minister—to ensure that there is somewhere to go, for veterans, their families, members of the ADF, and that there would be that independent, ongoing oversight of any reforms that this parliament makes to try to change the structures in the ADF to make it a safer place, especially for women but not just women: for people serving in the ADF.

That, for me and for the Greens and for the veterans my office works with, was always one of the core recommendations—to ensure independent oversight. If you remember the dying few months of the last parliament, there was legislation coming through the parliament to harmonise a bunch of the compensation provisions for veterans and for ADF personnel, and at the last minute the government tacked on schedule 9, I think it was, to put in place some kind of commissioner. It didn't have the independence. It was part of the Defence Act. It wasn't seen to be meeting the core recommendations of the royal commission, and it all happened without consultation with our veterans. Even though what was put into that legislation in that unholy rush in February of last year made things slightly better—put in place at least a commissioner—the way it was done, the disrespect it showed to the veteran community in particular, really put the government behind the eight ball. We were deeply critical of the process the government used, just ramming it through without regard.

We worked across the chamber, and I think a requirement for review was put in. We then worked across the chamber with whoever we can work with. I want to acknowledge the ongoing work of Senator Lambie—her ongoing interest in this, her ongoing connection with veterans—to ensure that we've got where we are now. What's happened now is that fresh legislation has been brought in to fix some of the mess from February last year, to make a genuinely independent commissioner—independent of the defence minister—to ensure they have the evidence-gathering powers they need, the ability to have self-initiated inquiries and the ability to refer matters to this parliament when they see the need to do that.

I want to credit all the members of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation committee in this process. I think you all committed to working through and making sure we got to where we need to be for veterans and for members of the ADF. I know that there are a couple of competing amendments in this, which are about reporting. I want to be clear that the Greens will be supporting Senator Lambie's proposals that there be annual reporting for the implementation of the recommendations from the royal commission and such other reporting that this independent commissioner wants to make to parliament about the state of the ADF and the protection of members and veterans.

If we can't succeed in getting Senator Lambie's annual reports, we'll be backing the coalition's reports, which bring the reports in earlier. I don't think we'll be doing what we should do, which are annual reports. But bring the reports in earlier and we'll be backing those amendments in.

I want to finish with this: there was a suggestion that this bill might also be guillotined and pushed through without debate, and we resisted that. That was the mistake made in February last year. It's the mistake that is so often made—that when we're dealing with incredibly sensitive issues for the veterans community it's done in an unholy rush, without any kind of scrutiny. So I'm pleased that we've finally got here. I hope that those veterans who are watching what this parliament does realise that there's cross-party support for them, for their families and for the needs that they have. If I think about the last Senate estimates hearing we had on veterans, there's a bloody lot more work to be done.