April 19, 2021
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“I welcome the Prime Minister's announcement that a Royal Commission into veteran suicides will be established.
More of our soldiers, navy and air force personnel are dying at home than they are in combat. This is simply not the way we should be treating those who serve our country.
Julie-Anne Finney, Senator Jacqui Lambie, Heston Russell and many other veterans and advocates have been campaigning for a long time for this.
My hope and prayer is that we will get real outcomes out of this Royal Commission.
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs a major overhaul. In my experience, veterans are going along fine and then they deal with the DVA and that’s the moment they fall off a cliff. In some cases, they wait years for their claim to be processed or the claim is lost altogether.
There also needs to be a proper transition program for when people leave the military. NRL clubs such as the Broncos faced a similar situation where players were falling off a cliff when they stopped playing. The Defence Force should implement a similar transition program to what the Broncos did – including financial advice, training and skills development and pathways to jobs.
A magic wand will not work in this situation. There are real answers, but it requires radical action.
This Royal Commission will help find those answers.”
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