Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Human Services (Senator Ellison) to a question without notice asked by me today relating to Australian Defence Force personnel.

In question time today I asked Senator Ellison a question which concerned media reports of a significant number of Australian Defence Force personnel who have been discharged after recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan with significant psychological health issues.

I appreciate that the government is distracted at the moment. As we just heard in the speeches from opposition and government senators on the motion to take note, everybody is focused on the political point of the moment. That is understandable and I do not criticise that. I also appreciate that the minister responsible for answering my question, Senator Ellison, only represents the actual minister responsible, who is in the House of Representatives. But I do think that, in amongst all of the political drama of the moment, we need to make sure that we do not forget some of those very important issues out in the wider world—including, of course, the continuing conflict in Iraq and, indeed, the continuing conflict in Afghanistan and the impact on and the role being played by Australian Defence Force personnel.

It is very easy for people to forget—particularly when they are distracted by the political dramas of the moment—about the impact on our defence personnel, on our service men and women, when serving in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. But, whilst we are all very relieved that there have been minimal deaths of Australians in these conflicts—I think there have been two Australian citizens killed while serving in Iraq and one killed in Afghanistan—that should not make people think that the impact has been limited to that small number of people and their immediate families.

As these media reports today indicate, 121 Australian Defence Force personnel have been discharged as unfit for further service due to psychological health and mental health issues—some of them quite severe. Whilst I do not know the details of many of those cases, I think it quite clear that history shows us that a number of those people will be significantly harmed for a prolonged period of time. Their lives will suffer significant detriment, as will the lives of their partners, their children, their immediate family and their friends. These people suffer a direct consequence of serving their country and serving this government in the war in Iraq. We need to make sure that those people are not forgotten.

Frankly, service personnel have been forgotten too often before. Regardless of your views about a particular conflict, the simple fact is that it is the role of defence service personnel to serve in those conflicts. The least we can do is to minimise the prospect of them suffering any harm not only as a casualty directly in the line of fire but also as a wider consequence of their service. I get a very clear message from ex-service organisations that not enough is done to minimise that harm. I also get a very clear message from many in the veterans and ex-service community that, whilst there have been some improvements and helpful support is provided to many people, we still are still falling short too often. It is particularly in the area of mental health and the psychological consequences of active service that we fall well short.

I would have liked to have seen a much stronger commitment from the minister today. I appreciate he is not the direct minister responsible, but I would like to think that there is still a clear focus from ministers in this government on the issues that matter out in the wider community rather than on the political problems of the moment. The issues that matter out in the wider community for family and friends as well as service personnel themselves is that we must continually strive to do better to assist our service personnel, particularly at a time when we have a government that is continually looking at sending them into continuing service in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I do not believe we should be continually looking to send further troops into those areas until we can get an absolute clear-cut commitment from this government that more will be done to reduce the incidence of this type of harm and to provide assistance to those who are harmed in this way from their commitment to the country. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.