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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TVTranscript
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.