Final report into defence and veteran suicide calls for new support body
Veterans’ groups have welcomed the findings of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicides. The Commission's final report calls for the creation of a new support body to help defence personnel transition to civilian life. The 122 recommendations also include the establishment of a national register of suicides among current and former veterans.
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00:00The handing down of yesterday's report has been quite significant for so many across
00:06the defence and veteran community.
00:08Now this is three years in the making with thousands of submissions from former and current
00:13defence personnel that have really shaped the 122 recommendations that have been put
00:17forward.
00:18And as you mentioned, one of those key recommendations has been the establishment of a support body
00:23which would effectively help troops transition into civilian life.
00:28It would include contact, proactive contact with those members within the first 12 months
00:32of them leaving as well as ongoing support services to be made available.
00:36It's something that the Australian Special Air Service Association has said that they
00:41hope will foster and encourage support and change in the approach of the Defence Force
00:46but they are concerned that this might be another cash splash with increased funding
00:50and they hope that that's not something that happens.
00:53Effectively they want to see change from within.
00:55Now another key recommendation has been the establishment of an independent oversight
01:00body.
01:01The Royal Commission hopes that this will help the Defence Force and will oversee how
01:05exactly they implement each one of these recommendations but it's something that defence culture expert
01:10Professor James Connor from the University of New South Wales says that he expects there
01:14will be quite a bit of pushback from the force over this recommendation.
01:18He says often bureaucratically the Defence Force tends to wait out governments following
01:22reports of this stature that are handed down.
01:25So far however there has been quite a significant bipartisanship spirit.
01:29We've heard from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who's effectively said that it is time now
01:34to acknowledge the successive failure of governments from four veterans and it's something that's
01:39also been echoed by opposition leader Peter Dutton who's also said that both sides of
01:43politics have let down our veterans.
01:46Now we've also heard from Defence Minister Richard Marles who says that the government
01:49will be looking into each one of these recommendations over the coming weeks and he says that he
01:54expects that the government will support the thrust of those that have been put forward
01:58but so far the general sentiment across the defence and veteran community is very much
02:03a wait and see.
02:04The failure of successive governments in adopting some of these recommendations that have been
02:08put forward from previous Royal Commissions has really been something that they are looking
02:13forward to.
02:14They hope and wait and see what exactly is adopted in full by the Federal Government
02:18and that's something that we wait for.