Good morning. Today, we are releasing the Government's Response to the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, setting out a plan for real, meaningful and enduring reform for defence personnel, veterans and their families.
'Lest we forget' is Australia's most solemn promise. A promise to remember the fallen, to honour their sacrifice and to care for their loved ones left behind. It's also a reminder of the duty that we owe to all those who return to ensure those who have served Australia have access to the support and services they need and they deserve. Our veterans went in our name ready to give everything. They put themselves on the line. We owe them more than sentiment. Every death by suicide is a tragedy. A life brought to an end this way changes so many other lives forever. We can't bring back those that we've lost, but we can fight to stem this terrible epidemic and we can strive to bring it to an end. I want to acknowledge every family and friend grieving the loss of a loved one. Before we called for this Royal Commission to take place, people like Julie-Ann Finney gave heartfelt responses asking for justice for their loved ones. And I acknowledge those who campaigned for the Royal Commission. I also acknowledge the work of Senator Jacqui Lambie. She has been a force that has rightly called for this and held everyone to account. She's someone who is absolutely passionate and genuine about making a difference for veterans and their families.
I do want to say that we have the deepest respect for every Australian who wears our nation's uniform and serves selflessly to keep us safe. Now we will work tirelessly to improve the system and keep them safe too.
The Royal Commission heard harrowing evidence about the cultural problems within the Australian Defence Force over time and identified deficiencies with the approach, services and support of the Department of Veterans' Affairs. We have accepted through the Cabinet process the overwhelming majority of the Royal Commission's 122 recommendations, agreeing or agreeing in principle to 104 recommendations, noting 17 recommendations for further consideration, and one recommendation is not supported in part. This is one of the fastest ever responses by a government to a Royal Commission report. My Government will establish a new Defence and Veterans Services Commission to undertake the most comprehensive reform to the culture, systems and processes across Defence, the ADF and the Department of Veterans Affairs to prevent suicide and improve the mental health and wellbeing of service personnel and veterans. This Defence and Veterans Service Commission will make a real difference and will be established immediately. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Keogh will now take you through some of the details in this government response.
RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE: Well, thank you, Prime Minister. At the heart of the Royal Commission's report and the Government's response to it is that Defence's greatest asset is its people and we need to look after them. As the Royal Commission's report stated, the selflessness of their sacrifice is unparalleled. It is not something that we take for granted. And for those who wear our nation's uniform and make the decision to serve, they deserve the enduring commitment of their government, no matter their health. And that commitment is being made by the Albanese Government today. As the Prime Minister has said, the vast bulk of the recommendations that have been made by the Royal Commission are being supported by the Government, particularly recommendation 122.
The Royal Commission observed in its work that this space has been the subject of investigations, inquiries, reviews over many decades and yet not enough has been done. And so a key recommendation of the Royal Commission was to establish an oversight body that would be permanent to ensure that the recommendations of this Royal Commission are fulfilled and that the difference which is in the Royal Commission is made. And so, as the Prime Minister has just said, we have completely agreed to that recommendation in full, which will see the legislation in respect of this body be done next year, with it being established in a legislative form by September, which is the recommendation that's been made by the report. But we're going beyond the recommendation of the Royal Commission's report and we are establishing this body right now.
And so today, as the Prime Minister has announced, we are establishing the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission which will begin its work immediately, and that will take place as we move into next year and then go through the process of legislating this body. Can I thank Julie-Ann Finney, whose advocacy was at the heart of this Royal Commission occurring in the first place. But for Julie-Ann's advocacy this would not have happened. And her dedication, her persistence, has changed our country and much for the better. I'd like to, in acknowledging Julie-Ann, acknowledge all the families of those who have lost loved ones to suicide and who have served. I'd like to thank all of those who gave evidence before the Royal Commission. It was critically important, but to do so was difficult and it was brave. And their decision to provide evidence in turn, has been utterly central to the Royal Commission being able to complete its work. And finally, I would like to thank the Royal Commissioners themselves. Through Nick Kaldas, the Royal Commission's Chair, they have produced a thorough, a thoughtful and an impactful report which will make a difference for our current and future service personnel.
MATT KEOGH, MINISTER FOR VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE PERSONNEL: Thanks, Prime Minister. Thanks, Deputy Prime Minister. We know that the rate of suicide that we've seen in our Defence and veteran community is a national tragedy. It's what led us to the point of having a Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. That was a Royal Commission that ran for over three years and their final report runs to some seven volumes, over 3,000 pages, and contains 122 recommendations. That is a huge body of work. But it's a huge body of work that happened because of the passionate advocacy of the family members of those that had taken their own life. People like Julie-Ann Finney, people like Karen Bird, people like those that assembled on the front of the lawns of Parliament just after the Royal Commission handed down its final report. And their stories, their experience is told in not just the final report of the Royal Commission, but its Interim Report and its Lived Experience Report. We heard them give evidence in the Royal Commission. It's for these families, for our serving personnel, for our veterans, that we have worked so quickly to produce this response to the Royal Commission because we deeply understand the urgency and importance of doing this work.
So, I want to thank all of those that called for this Royal Commission, the family members, but also those in this place, and I also acknowledge the great work that Jacqui Lambie did bringing that pressure on to make sure that this Royal Commission was established. And I want to thank her also for the work that we've been able to do together and her engagement through to now as Minister for Veterans Affairs, working with her on all of these important issues. And I thank, of course, the Royal Commission and not just the Commissioners, but those who worked in the Royal Commission engaging with those families, engaging with those veterans and serving personnel who shared their lived experience, some in open hearings, but many behind closed doors to make sure that their important stories were heard and understood by the Royal Commission to inform this final report. Our response to the Royal Commission is extensive, accepting the vast majority of the recommendations, 104 recommendations being accepted, 17 noted, but 17 noted for further work, and only part of one recommendation not being accepted.
Through this, as the Prime Minister has announced, we will be establishing the Defence and Veterans Service Commission - the statutory oversight body that the Royal Commission and so many others have noted is just desperately needed to make sure the important work of looking after our serving personnel and our veterans is done and done properly. And we'll be cracking on with that now and making sure that the legislation comes into the Parliament to give it a proper statutory foundation going forward. But we're also establishing a taskforce within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. That taskforce is going to work with government to work on the implementation detail of these important recommendations. We're not just noting recommendations to park them, we're noting recommendations to do the further work that's necessary to make sure that we can make the very important changes that are outlined in those recommendations as well.
We see the importance of all of these matters that have been raised in these recommendations. Importantly also, DVA will be commencing the work of co-designing a new agency, a wellbeing agency within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Recognising the importance of not just providing health cover and mental health care, but looking after the broader wellbeing needs of our veteran community and their families. This is going to be important work that's not just done by the DVA but is done in a co-designed way with our veterans and families community around Australia. And DVA will continue the work that it's been doing to support the ex-service organisation community in establishing a national peak body to represent the views of veterans and families across Australia to not just the Federal Government, but to State and Territory Governments as well. The work that we are doing in accepting these recommendations and that are outlined in the Government's response to the final report of the Royal Commission also builds on the very important work that we have undertaken in response to the Interim Report of the Royal Commission from the middle of 2022. That includes the employment of 500 additional staff in the Department of Veterans Affairs, the eradication of the backlog that the Royal Commission spoke of in its Interim Report, the backlog of claims that weren't being looked at by anyone in the Department of Veterans' Affairs. We now have a situation where for someone bringing an initial liability claim under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act, they will see that claim processed in average in less than 90 days by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. That's a huge improvement, and it's a huge improvement on the back of a massive investment by our Government into the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Not just by employing more people, but by improving the IT systems, making sure that we properly understand its funding requirements, and removing the artificial average staffing level cap that applied across our public service - a key commitment that we took to the election. And we improved the access to information for the loved ones of those that had taken their own lives. The families that I mentioned before and so many others were being stonewalled and finding difficulty getting access to information about their loved ones through the Department of Defence or the Department of Veterans' Affairs. We've improved those processes as the Royal Commission recommended in its Interim Report. There is now a no wrong door policy whether you go to Defence or the Department of Veterans' Affairs - that's really important for looking after the wellbeing of our families as well. And together with this response, we're also launching the Defence and Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Exposure Draft. This was something that the Productivity Commission back in 2019 called for, that there be a joined up Defence and Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy together. That Exposure Draft is now out for consultation, building on the work that the Royal Commission has done. We're also launching today the action plan to go together with the transition strategy that we launched last year, supporting our serving men and women as they move from a predominantly military life into civilian life. And shortly we will be releasing our Defence and Veteran Family Wellbeing Strategy as well. Recognising the importance of supporting the families that support our Defence Force members. Thank you very much everyone.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: Minister Keogh, touching on where you ended with the Department that you run. Given that it's experiencing its lowest morale and confidence in leadership, perhaps of any government department at the moment, how confident are you that that can be turned around with the measures you've unveiled? And also that veterans themselves will feel confident dealing with that Department.
MINISTER KEOGH: So, we've seen some really positive change for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the census results that you've referred to there. And importantly, what we are seeing is significant change in the department. Now that has some ups and downs, but when I go and meet with RSLs and ex-service organisations around the country, and I've been holding forums for years now, meeting with them as part of the legislative reform program, what I'm hearing when I meet with advocates is that they are seeing the improvement in the Department - both in the timeliness and the way in which the Department of Veterans Affairs engage with advocates and with veterans. That's the pointy end of what we want to see from the Department of Veterans Affairs, that we have turned that around. That's really positive feedback that we are getting. But we also accept, and that's why we have a Royal Commission and we have the final report that we're responding to, that there is more work to do and we are committed to doing that work.
JOURNALIST: Minister Marles, just on two points. One, you just gave a shout out to Julie-Ann Finney. She actually wants the harmonisation legislation to come after the body, for it to review it and everything. Is that something the Government will look at? And just in relation to the reporting of convictions, are you able to confirm when that will happen and whether that will capture all convictions, all criminal convictions in the ADF or just sexual ones?
MINISTER KEOGH: I might deal with both of those, if that's all right. So, the Veterans Legislation has been introduced into the Parliament. It's before the Senate now and we expect that it will be addressed by the Senate when we return in February. The Veterans Legislation was the first recommendation of the Interim Report of the Royal Commission. When the Royal Commission handed down its Final Report, it was also very clear that it expected to see government establish the oversight body, the Defence and Veterans Service Commission, by September of 2025 In full knowledge of our timing for the implementation of its first recommendation from its Interim Report. By setting this body up now, we will have it set up and running before we come back in February for the Parliament to conclude its consideration of the Veterans Reform Legislation. And I think, importantly, the entire veterans community can see our Government's commitment and resolve to addressing these recommendations, as well as seeing that important legislative reform go through the Parliament as well. In relation to the recording of criminal offences, there is important work that is already being undertaken with the Department of the Attorney-General as well to make sure that offences that are criminal offences under the military discipline system are properly recorded and available to appear on criminal records at a national level as well, and that will be for all relevant criminal offences.
JOURNALIST: Minister Keogh, just kind of picking up from where you were. There was a lot in the Government response about how the Government will respond to issues of sexual violence. You've agreed to conduct a formal inquiry into military sexual violence in the ADF. Can you talk us through what you'd like that to look like and do you have a time frame?
MINISTER KEOGH: So, this is why it's important that we're establishing the taskforce to work through implementation of all of these recommendations, because there are a lot of them and some of them require to work through this detail. But it's also important that we are out here today making very clear that we accept these recommendations and the importance and significance of them. We're working through the detail of that. But of course, that inquiry will build upon a number of inquiries that were undertaken by the previous Labor Government as well, and we'll be able to build upon the work that has come before them, and we'll be able to talk about the detail when we launch those inquiries as well.
JOURNALIST: Just continuing. There was an entire section of the Royal Commission recommendations dedicated to sexual misconduct in the military, interested - maybe the PM even - what's your reaction to the fact that the Commissioners went into this not necessarily intending to focus on this issue, but found it to be so significant it required its own chapter? What's your message now to people in the Defence Force, particularly women, about the expectation of the conduct of their colleagues and people around them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, quite clearly we need to do better. And what this Royal Commission did - and that is why it has proven to be so worthwhile - is to allow for a proper examination, some of which was through public hearings, some of which was through private evidence being given. We now have a clear direction being made as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission, but also of the Government's response.
JOURNALIST: One of the key issues for veterans at the moment is blast induced brain injury. The in principle agreement is unlikely to satisfy a lot of the veterans community on that one. Just wondering, can you commit to proactively addressing NTBI? And a related question, why should healthcare fee schedules be higher for NDIS than DVA clients?
MINISTER KEOGH: So, the important part there about the we're agreeing in principle to that recommendation because we are really committed to dealing with those issues like NTBI and we have already been undertaking work and I think all of you have seen that work has happened in the past and then balls have been dropped and it hasn't continued and that's been not just hugely disappointing for the veteran community, but left a lot of people in the lurch. We're also working, so we are already now working closely with our Five Eyes partners that have already progressed a range of research initiatives around that. What we want to do is work with them to understand what is the best way that we can move that work forward in the Australian context, before we are moving forward directly with the way that it's articulated by the Royal Commission. There's some work that we can do to make sure we're not duplicating very important work with some larger defence forces that we can build on top of to then work out how we move it forward in the Australian context. In terms of fee schedules, we very much recognise the broad issue around the differential across fee schedules for the entire care economy. And this is an issue we've been having to address, obviously with the NDIS, but also DVA, the Department of Health and in Aged Care. And that's why the Government's done work around an independent pricing authority to guide government on pricing. And what we've said is, instead of dealing with Veterans Affairs as a standalone area, we want to make sure that we're addressing those issues holistically across government and that's how we're working through that.
JOURNALIST: What are some of the practical outcomes of having emotional intelligence be included as one of the characteristics in which you judge people by, before they get promoted, given so much of what they do requires emotion be removed from situations?
MINISTER KEOGH: Well, I think, yeah, look. I think at the end of the day, serving in the Defence Force and undertaking the unique operations that Defence do require a very unique skill set building on unique experience and training. But also this is a, we - our Defence Force members are people and they don't spend every day out in the field and we need to be able to bring our people on the journey for the very important work that they do for our national security. And that involves, as it does for any good manager, whether that's at a unit level, whether that's at a force level, at a service level, in this building, in the public service or the private sector, is making sure we have the best trained holistic managers in our Defence Force. And that's what the Royal Commission is picking up on, that they can engage on those emotionally intelligent issues when they're here at home in peace time, when they're dealing with a family tragedy, that is the family that support that member. Whether they are here in Australia or when the member is on deployment, or being able to appropriately respond and support their personnel when they're dealing with the hard things that happen to them uniquely in the field as well.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: I'll just say one thing on that. Sorry. It's a good question, Charles. I wouldn't agree with the proposition that people do this without emotion. As Matt just said, our service personnel are humans and emotions are part of all that we do. In fact, it's really the nature of service and the extraordinary circumstances of it which actually give rise to a broad range of emotions, which means that those who are commanding need to have more emotional intelligence rather than less. I think this is a really important part of how we understand command and how we understand the kinds of abilities and attributes that our commanders need. And in my experience of having obviously watched up close our Defence Force personnel, but also seen the very best of our commanders, those people have enormous emotional intelligence and it should certainly be a part of the qualities that we expect from those who are in command.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, according to the Royal Commission, experience and trauma and stigma around deployment was a major issue contributing to poor mental health. So, just ahead of this announcement, we do learn that the OSI has had to drop one of its war crimes investigations in Afghanistan. How will Australia be able to go around the Taliban to get justice for the families and the members of the military who have spoken up? And if I can just add to that, SBS recently was able to travel to speak to people in Afghanistan about war crimes. Journalists were able to safely go in. So, is there more the war crimes investigators could potentially be able to do now?
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, in terms of dealing with the IGADF Report and all that stemmed from it, I made a statement to Parliament in the last couple of months which made clear that the Government, Executive Government response to that Report is now complete. The work of the Office of the Special Investigator will continue as matters have now been referred to it. It is an independent prosecuting authority which obviously stands at arm's length from government and must, just as The DPP stands at arm's length from government and the decisions that it makes in terms of what cases it takes forward and what it doesn't are based on its assessments of the likely success at trial. We clearly can't comment on the specifics of that. But the broader point we want to make is that in coming to government - and we do acknowledge the former Government's contribution to this as well - we wanted to be making sure that we implemented the recommendations of the Brereton Report to the fullest possible extent. And that's what we have done. It is an incredibly important Report that we do implement it to the fullest possible extent really goes to the character of our nation and how we deal with allegations of this kind. And we should have a sense of confidence, we can have a sense of confidence that our country is going to deal with this in a complete sense.
PRIME MINISTER: We're going to finish off with the Canberra Times and then Rob.
JOURNALIST: There was a very concerning finding in the report that there were members in the military who have been convicted of violent offences, including sexual assault, who were still in their roles. Given the seriousness of this evidence, will you be conducting a preliminary investigation?
MINISTER KEOGH. So, one of the issues that comes out about the way in which those issues have been raised is that that's not necessarily been information available to Defence. And that's something we are now working on to make sure that we are able to obtain that information that it is always notified to Defence to make sure that the appropriate action can be taken as it should be. And that's a great demonstration of some of the great work that the Royal Commission has done.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Rob?
MINISTER KEOGH. So, the only recommendation that wasn't supported, recommendation 90, the injury compensation differential, why wasn't that supported? Why is it so controversial?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the service differential is a long standing feature of Australia's support for veterans. It's been there a long time. And while all veterans can access assistance for all conditions linked to their service through the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the service differential supports higher levels of compensation for injuries or illness that occurs in operational type service. We regard that feature as being important and that is why we've made the decision to maintain it. Can I thank everyone for coming? Can I just acknowledge the work that this Minister has done, backed by the Defence Minister, of course. It's been an extraordinary piece of work. Just to put some of this in context, we've spoken today about the human impact of this. Between 1997 and 2021, there were 1,677 confirmed suicides by the serving personnel or ex-serving members. That's 1,677 lives too many. Every single one of them is heartbreaking. And I want to acknowledge - conclude by acknowledging - that today will be triggering for many families as well. It will be a really difficult day, even though this is, I think, a very strong response for the Government. And I just want to reiterate that if people need assistance on a day like today, they should reach out. But all Australians' hearts and thoughts are with you today. Thanks very much.
