00:00Yeah, the data is an interesting part of the picture, it's just a little bit of background
00:07is that when we first were trying to lobby for the Royal Commission into the Defence
00:12and Veteran Suicide, the different jurisdictions that collect the data had the number at about
00:18370 and by the end of the Royal Commission it's 1,677 with the Commissioner saying on
00:25conclusion that it's probably around 3,000 if you look at unverified claims, so the data
00:30has always been a bit contested, one of the key things that the Royal Commission did was
00:35to bring together the different jurisdictions that were looking at data and the AIHW now
00:40have a much more robust understanding, so these numbers are on the positive, they demonstrate
00:46a decline from 33 per 100,000 exerting males to 26 and women from 23 down to 10, so that's
00:56a significant change for women, but it is only one year and so we'd be speculating about what
01:03would be the sort of generative factors behind these declines.
01:07It's still a mixed picture though isn't it, because women veterans according to the data
01:10continue to take their lives at double the rates of the general female population, that's an alarming
01:16statistic.
01:17Yeah this is an alarming statistic, and it is men and women that are leaving the service,
01:25shorter service usually, and often involuntary leaving, but the gender issue here is distinct.
01:35We recently, as part of a national study I'm doing on veteran suicidality with the Australian
01:40Research Council, we ran a workshop on women's and military sexual violence up in Queensland
01:48last Friday, but 150 participants so it was well presented, but in my research, the amount
01:53of injury we've done in the discussions on the day, you know, military sexual violence continues
01:59to be one of the, at least anecdotally leading causes of pushing women to attempt to get or
02:07successfully taking their lives.
02:08In the new report, Ben, also reveals that many Australian military veterans who died
02:14by suicide had used health services in the year before their death.
02:19Does that highlight a weakness and the effectiveness of help and support that's there for them?
02:24I think it does demonstrate that veterans are reaching out for help when they need it.
02:34But as something that the Royal Commission demonstrated, that health service provision can be fragmented
02:39and not coordinated that well, and there's also issues about access.
02:43Health service provision is usually not 24-7, very rare if it is.
02:50And then cultural competency, so how do those health service providers actually understand
02:55veterans and their families and the sort of challenges that they're facing?
02:59And also there is generally a dearth of health service providers in various areas, which reduces
03:07access as well.
03:08So as we said, it is a year since the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide handed
03:13down its findings, which of those findings and recommendations, how many of them have been implemented?
03:21Yeah, so I would have to say from the sector, we'd be feeling like it's a little bit slow.
03:29But there have been some key things that have happened.
03:31So there were 122 recommendations.
03:34I think the government agreed to 104, 17 partial, and one of them rejected.
03:44Nine of them have now been implemented.
03:47And there are a number of other initiatives that are already on the way.
03:51So one that hasn't been implemented is that national inquiry into military sexual violence or sexual assault in the Australian Defence
03:58Force, that really needs to get moving on that front.
04:02However, a bunch of other things have happened that are quite positive.
04:06There's been a harmonisation of the Veterans Entitlement legislation.
04:11There's been some mixed reaction to that, but it has been passed.
04:14There is now one bill now, as opposed to numerous acts which generated complexity.
04:20The government's been working strongly with DBA to reduce the amount of claims and to improve
04:25the way the claims are being handled.
04:26So they argue that there's been some reduction in time weights there.
04:30There's been the establishment of the Defence Force Services Commission, which was Recommendation
04:36122.
04:37That's a really important recommendation.
04:39One of the key things we know about the ADF is that it struggles with cultural reform.
04:50And it also requires some means of independence in order to help it to progress.
04:58So that was a big recommendation in 2005 with the Senate Inquiry into the effectiveness of the military justice system.
05:05Some sort of independent scrutiny to oversee the way that the ADF is dealing with significant reform.
05:12That was established, so it's up and running.
05:16And interim commissioners in place.
05:18They've just advertised for the full-time commissioner.
05:20One of the problems we had there, though, is that they wanted to keep it under the Defence Act and then overseen by Defence.
05:27And in the sector, we'd say that doesn't meet the independence test.
05:31So that's good that that's happened now.
05:33That's really important.
05:34And there's a bunch of other things too, but just a couple of quick ones is moving towards
05:40the establishment of a veteran sector peak body.
05:45The consultations have been handled with that.
05:48And also the establishment of a wellbeing agency.
05:51So that's also an important piece of the picture.
05:55So there's a few other things as well, but that's a bit of a grab bag of some of the progress.
06:02You should be in touch with a few other things, excuse me, because they've properly grown.
06:22I think, at least it's a win on that list.
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