“You have to be optimistic”: With the Royal Commission ending, how should the ESO sector respond?
Nick Kaldas, Chair of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, outlines its progress and what will be required after it’s gone.
By Girard Dorney
The following helplines are designed specifically for veterans and the family members of veterans:
- Open Arms 24-hour Support Line (1800 011 046)
- Australian Defence Force (ADF) All Hours Support Line (1800 628 036)
- Defence Family Helpline (1800 624 608)
Other general helplines include:
- Lifeline 24/7 Crisis Support (13 11 14)
- Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467)
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide releases its final report this month, and there are reasons for both hope and cynicism.
Hope, because current Defence personnel, veterans and their families have come forth in public and private sessions to share their stories of struggle, providing intimate and invaluable knowledge. Cynicism, because veteran suicide rates have exceeded civilian rates for decades.
“We think around 20 times as many people have died by suicide in the serving and veteran community as those who have died in action or in exercises,” says Nick Kaldas APM, Chair of the Royal Commission, which has now held its ceremonial closing.
“We’ve catalogued more than 50 previous inquiries in the previous 30 years, which have resulted in more than 750 recommendations. Frankly, even though some of those recommendations may have been ‘ticked off’, they’ve had no impact. No-one’s ever really gone back to see if the intent of the recommendations has been achieved.”
Signs of improvement
The Royal Commission’s interim report, released in August 2022, recommended several measures to reduce the backlog of claims at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA). It noted that in 2020 the backlog was more than 20,000. As of May 2022, the backlog had grown to 41,799 claims.
Such wait times are linked to suicidality. Financial issues put stress on families, and the inability to receive help they’ve earned through service can compound a veteran’s feelings of despair.
The situation has gotten better. Having increased resources as per the Royal Commission’s recommendations, the DVA reported in January that the total number of claims yet to be allocated was just 3,697. Since then, the backlog has been cleared entirely.
“There is an enormous amount of work that has gone on in that space under the current leadership and the current secretary,” says Kaldas. “We give them credit for that. But we need to satisfy ourselves that the steps taken are not just temporary fixes.”
Another reason for hope is the progress in harmonising notoriously complicated legislation governing veteran rehabilitation and compensation. A proposal is currently circulating that would replace the current three acts with one. This would make it simpler for veterans to comprehend and apply for compensation.
“The government has reacted very well, they’ve done extensive consultations,” says Kaldas.
While such changes are welcome, in one view they’re easy wins. Bureaucratic fixes are simple compared to systemic transformations.
The hardest battles
While post-traumatic stress disorder caused by combat certainly exists, a significant majority of veterans who suicide have not experienced combat.
“What that tells us is there’s something going wrong in the barracks, there’s something going wrong in the organisation, there’s something going wrong with the process of transition,” says Kaldas.
The transition from service to civilian life is a good example of the difference between fixing a bureaucratic issue and changing a system.
In the past, it has been unnecessarily difficult to obtain the proof from Defence to make a claim with the DVA. Thankfully, the two departments have now told the Royal Commission that they’re on the way to automating the process.
Read a selection of the experiences provided to the Royal Commission.
The core issues with transition, of course, are more significant. Kaldas explains it in the following terms.
“Defence says to them when they come in, ‘We’re going to break you down and reconstitute you as a war fighter’. But nobody does any reconstituting at the end.”
This isn’t to say that veterans are “broken”. Kaldas stresses such language is unhelpful, especially because most have a positive experience in Defence. But it does mean there’s a need to consider the full responsibility Defence and government owes to those who’ve served.
The establishment of the Joint Transition Authority in 2020 was a step towards recognising this, but there were concerns in the interim report that it was taking a long time to reach full operating capacity.
The final report will offer recommendations in this space, and Kaldas says Defence has recognised they need to do more. One finding was that families must be treated as an important part of the transition process, says Kaldas.
Addressing culture
Among the 800 private sessions, nearly 60,000 written submissions, and 400 or so witnesses who gave evidence in public hearings, the Royal Commission found a persistent theme of unfairness, says Kaldas. This ranged from veterans feeling poorly treated in an administrative sense to more severe cases.
“It could be the disciplinary system, it could be their treatment in the workplace, it could be their workmates bastardising them – we’ve definitely had evidence of sexual abuse and assaults – it could be the failure of leadership to hold people to account, or the weaponisation of the complaints system against individuals who simply didn’t fit in.”
While Kaldas can’t speak declaratively about final recommendations, he offers the following.
“I think one of the ways to change culture in any large organisation with an established history of decades is to bring in some accountability mechanisms. And that’s what we’re looking at – key performance indicators, measurable metrics, perhaps. All of those things are not adequately there in Defence sometimes.”
For example, commanders are not asked about the number of complaints happening under their watch.
“If people are not held to account, the problems will persist,” says Kaldas.
What comes after
This truism is the worry of Kaldas and many close watchers of the Royal Commission. RSL NSW has made sure to have a representative at every public hearing it could and has done everything it can to support the Royal Commission.
Kaldas seems in favour of a permanent body that will oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission. But he says it would need Royal Commission powers, or greater, to be effective.
“We have Royal Commission powers and we have struggled sometimes to obtain all the information we need from the various agencies and departments,” he says. “It would be not futile, but it would make it much more difficult if they didn’t have any real power to obtain material information.”
Another institution Kaldas says would be welcome, and is already being worked towards, is a peak body for ex-service organisations.
Estimates say there are 5,000-7,000 ex-service organisations or charities whose purpose it is to deal with veterans. Without a single body to lobby government, the policy desires of the veteran community reach those in power in a piecemeal fashion.
Kaldas says there has been progress on the formation of a peak body. The Returned & Services League of Australia has hosted three national ESO forums to collaboratively scope a peak body model.
“I think they’ve landed at a position now where they are all in agreement about the need for a peak body that ensures collaboration and governance, and that there is much better value, I think, from ex-service organisations than perhaps has been the case in the past.”
Nothing yet has been established, and there are no guarantees these longer-term plans will come to pass. For example, an official commissioner in charge of veteran affairs with real power would require an act of parliament, and politics can be fickle and forgetful.
But Kaldas says hope isn’t an option, it’s a requirement.
“I think you have to be optimistic. If we give up, then we’re not going to achieve anything.
“What I have seen that gives me optimism is the number of really, really good people and good units that are trying very hard in this space.”
Hope without action is just an emotion. The Royal Commission might be wrapping up, but the wellbeing of veterans has been an issue since before World War I, and will continue to be an issue so long as Australia needs people to defend it.
This is the larger struggle, and things will only get better if people are willing to join it.
“We hope and pray that the ex-service organisation sector unites after we disappear,” says Kaldas. “And goes forward with advocating as loudly as they can for veterans and serving members, and achieve everything that can be achieved to help them.”
