18th Jun 2020, 12:27 PM – Senate Motions - Veterans - Establish Royal Commission into Veterans' Suicide

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie (Jacqui Lambie Network), which means it passed. Motions like these don't make any legal changes on their own, but they are politically influential because they represent the will of the Senate.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) suicide by current and former Australian Defence Force members continues to claim at least a life a week,

(ii) on 5 February 2020, the Prime Minister said his National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention would be "bigger and better than a Royal Commission", and

(iii) on 27 February 2020, the Senate disagreed with the Prime Minister;

(b) again condemns the Morrison Government's proposed National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention as a poor imitation of a Royal Commission;

(c) believes that nothing short of a Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide can address this painful and ongoing scourge;

(d) expresses its view that:

(i) the Prime Minister's National Commissioner will have neither the power, nor the resources, of a Royal Commission, and can in no way be considered "bigger and better",

(ii) any insistence on this unproven, experimental model over the proven and successful model of a Royal Commission is made knowing that it risks making things worse, not better;

(e) calls on the Morrison Government to establish a Royal Commission into Veterans' Suicide, with a clear start and end date; and

(f) invites the Royal Commissioner to recommend that a standing, permanent capability be established to oversee reform, should the Commissioner see fit to do so.