February 2020

A powerful, new independent body will be created to investigate all suspected veteran and Australian Defence Force (ADF) suicides and causes to help save lives.

The Morrison Government will establish a permanent National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention.

The National Commissioner will have the enduring power, scope and resources to investigate suicides and related issues as they arise, rather than being restricted by a one-off review looking at past practices.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the independent Commissioner would also have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

“This is about being forever vigilant for the care and well-being of our veterans,” the Prime Minister said.

“Those veterans and all serving men and women protect our community and our freedoms. It is our duty to do the same for them.

“I have thought long and hard about the best response to this issue. I have spoken to veterans right across Australia and I have met with their families and also local, state and national organisations.

“I believe what we have developed addresses the needs of those veterans, their families and our serving men and women.

“We will be permanently vigilant about their welfare.”

The National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention will be empowered to perform two roles:

• The Commissioner will be an independent and permanent public accountability body, with the same powers of a Royal Commission to compel the production of evidence and summon witnesses, and make findings and recommendations to Government.
• The Commissioner will also provide an ongoing investigative function of individual cases of suicide, working with each state and territory coronial office, making recommendations to Government.

The Government will invest an initial $40 million to support the Commissioner’s work and this will be expanded to ensure they have whatever resources they need.

The Government will also establish an immediate, independent review of historical veteran suicide cases, conducted by the Commissioner, focusing on the impact of military service and veterans’ post service experience.

An interim report will be delivered within 12 months. Families will be engaged in this process if they wish, with an opportunity to participate and tell their stories openly and safely.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, along with coronial and legal experts, will provide technical expertise in support of this work.

Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel Darren Chester said the Commissioner would also deliver an Annual Veteran and Defence Suicide Death Report to the Parliament.

“This will be a transparent report directly to the Parliament on an annual basis on suicides within the defence and veteran community, including an update on the implementation and evaluation of measures to reduce suicide risk factors,” Mr Chester said.

“The Government is committed to ensuring ADF members, veterans and their families have access to the right support, at the right time, especially those who are vulnerable or at risk.”

Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said the Chief of the Defence Force and each Service Chief was committed to being open and transparent, to support improved health outcomes for ADF personnel and veterans.

“The mental health and wellbeing of our vets and Defence Force members is an issue of national and enduring importance.

“These comprehensive measures have been developed with a very clear focus on finding the most effective and practical ways of better identifying, preventing, understanding and acting on suicide and suicide risks among our vets and service men and women.”

A Veteran Family Advocate will also be appointed to directly engage with the families of veterans, to improve the design of all veteran programs and services, including mental health supports and services.

“The new Veteran Family Advocate will focus on mental health and suicide prevention, and contribute to our understanding of risk factors relating to the wellbeing of veterans and their families, particularly during transition from the ADF,” Mr Chester said.

“The Advocate will represent the views of veterans and their families by engaging and advocating to help shape policy and the administration of veteran benefits and support.

“We want to assure defence and veterans’ families that help is available now and it can make a difference. Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling provides support and counselling to current ADF members, veterans and their families and can be contacted 24/7 on 1800 011 046.”

Programs supporting younger at-risk veterans and veterans transitioning to civilian employment are set to expand to hundreds more people as part of a significant funding boost from the Morrison Government.

An extra 170 young and vulnerable veterans leaving the Australian Defence Force annually will get guidance and a single point of contact with 10 additional case coordinators backed by a $4.8 million investment in the Coordinated Client Support program that already helps around 1,200 veterans facing difficult circumstances. The investment means the entire high-risk cohort of veterans leaving the ADF will now be covered under the Coordinated Client Support program.

The Government will also boost the resources of the Personalised Career Employment Program by $5.6 million and will expand its eligibility to another 1,600 ADF members each year looking for career development and job placement support as they set up for civilian life.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was backing younger veterans facing tough challenges as they transitioned out of the ADF.

“We’ll show the same commitment and duty to those veterans who have served us that they have shown our country,” the Prime Minister said.

“Research shows veterans under 30 who are involuntarily discharged as being at higher risk of suicide than the general population so we want to ensure they get the support they need as they navigate the range of government services on offer.

“These programs are about reaching out to those veterans who need our help to ensure they get it.”

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel Darren Chester said under the Coordinated Client Support program, DVA works closely with Defence to identify veterans at risk before they transition out of service and provide them with a single point of contact.

“We are committed to putting veterans and their families first and by providing those most at risk with a single client coordinator it ensures a seamless continuation of support as they leave the ADF, assists them to access appropriate health treatment as well as the finalisation of their DVA claims,” Mr Chester said.

“Currently the PCEP supports those aged between 17 and 24 who have served less than four years by providing them with greater opportunity for job placement within the civilian community. The investment announced today will extend this to those up to 30 years of age, meaning a further 30 per cent of transitioning members can now access the program in Townsville alone.”

Minister Chester said the Government was also delivering on a 2019 election commitment with a $15 million investment to roll-out employment-related programs for veterans through a one-off grants package for Soldier On, Team Rubicon Australia and the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL National).

“To further support veterans seeking employment, Soldier On, Team Rubicon Australia and RSL will assist those who find the transition to the civilian workforce challenging through tailored employment-related programs,” Mr Chester said.

“You only need to look at the mobilisation of Team Rubicon Australia to assist in the recent response to the bushfires to know the results will be promising. I look forward to seeing the ongoing results of this important program.”

Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson welcomed the further announcements, particularly the potential benefits to members of Townsville’s veteran community.

“Townsville has a strong military and veteran community, with around 750 transitions from the ADF here every year, and having served in the ADF, transitioned into civilian life and having watched my mate’s transition I know how important it is to get it right,” Mr Thompson said.

“DVA and Defence have been working hard to improve the transition process and the additional support outlined today will go a long way to supporting those most in need.

“As a government we have done a lot, which I know is appreciated by the ex-service community, but we know there is still more to do.”

The Government has made promoting the valuable skills of ADF personnel and veterans a high priority, including through the Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Program and Veterans’ Employment Awards.

The Government invests a record $11 billion to support 280,000 veterans and their families each year, is reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs with more work underway, has cut waiting times for claims and has also launched the Australian Veterans’ Card and Lapel Pin, so veterans can be appropriately recognised, including by businesses who want to offer special discounts and offers to veterans.

AUSTRALIA’S first Victoria Cross recipient, Captain Neville Howse, was serving as a regimental medical officer during the Boer War when he rescued a seriously wounded trooper under fire.

His professional reputation established, Howes rose through the military medical ranks in World War I to major-general commanding medical services in France, and was later a federal minister.

Colonel “Weary” Dunlop also benefited professionally from his military service.

By the time he was captured by the Japanese in 1942, he had already seen active service at Tobruk in Libya and in Greece and Syria.

Dunlop wasn’t the only doctor to show great ingenuity and heroism while POW – Albert Coates was at least one other – but he was the one best known.

Dunlop used the experience to push medicine beyond the bounds of well-resourced clinical peacetime practice, but simultaneously developed his personal and professional reputation.

Weary Dunlop’s war service presented a different problem as an aspiring general surgeon, who often improvised vaccines and equipment from what was available in the POW camps, as opposed to being able to use well provisioned dispensaries.

His civilian counterparts had long qualified for their Royal Australian College of Surgeons’ fellowships when he and his military cohort were finally demobilised.

Dunlop’s pioneering experiences of what might be termed field expedient medicine was not considered advantageous to his career.

When Winston Churchill’s health deteriorated significantly in the early days of World War II, it was a decorated former World War I infantry regimental medical officer he appointed as his personal physician.

Lord Moran – Sir Charles Wilson, MC – spent the early war years with the Royal Fusiliers before commanding the British Stationary Hospital, Boulogne, France in 1917-18.

He used the opportunity to study the effects of depression on soldiers, writing two books, The Mind in War and The Anatomy of Courage.

Between the wars he lectured the British Army Staff College on the effects of combat experience on soldiers’ reactions and subsequent mental health.

Moran was concurrently president of the Royal College of Physicians when he assumed his role with Churchill, who long battled what might now be, in part at least, described as PTSD. A former soldier, Churchill long battled depressive illness, even in politics.

His was a classic case study, inspiring Moran to publish post-war his diaries of the treatment afforded Churchill.

The ADF’s Malaria Research Institute is regarded as a centre of medical excellence studying vectorborne diseases.

However, its conduct of recent clinical trials using ADF personnel raise serious doubts.

Given resources readily available to them, its deficiencies deserve close scrutiny.

Now it seems the ADF medical services have been offered to assist with experimental research into coronavirus vaccines proposed for quarantine facilities on Christmas Island.

While there are historical and service justifications for antimalarial research, it would seem a gross misuse of scarce ADF medical resources to conduct antiviral trials into diseases that seem well outside the ADF’s charter or experience.

Australia’s governments should not regard scarce ADF medical resources as its first line of emergency response or experimentation.

Save their expertise for the troops.