Defence Matters

[willedoo]

I never thought I'd see the day when I agreed with something Peter Dutton did. But good on him for reversing that awful decision to apply a blanket ban on the unit citation. Why should the majority have to pay for the sins of a couple of dozen bad eggs? Credit to Dutton for turning it around.

 

The other news, the Royal Commission into Defence suicides. Will it be another talk fest or actually achieve some badly needed reform. I don't know if it's classed as ironic, but the announcement was made two days short of the 10th. anniversary of losing a family member. The Royal Commission been a long time coming; people were calling for it a decade ago that I know of.

Edited April 19, 2021 by willedoo

[spacesailor]

" the Royal Commission into Defence suicides "

That's way overdue.

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

I'm concerned about the scope of this royal commission into defence suicide.

 Will it be wide enough to include improving the debriefing, mental health support and reintegration of ex service persons into mainstream society?

 

We don't need a Royal commission to tell us the nature of the cause, nor the seriousness of the problem.

[old man emu]

Several million dollars given to the legal eagles to get the information that the military and Dept of Veteran's Affairs would have at their fingertips. Just call for reports from the people who are already on the payroll. That would be the way things should be done, but Scotty from Marketing begrudgingly establishes a Royal Commission which he knows will not report until after the next election.

 

When it does report he has two options:

1. If his mob get re-elected, then dilly-dally about implementing the recommendations.

2. If his mob get chucked out, then blame the other mob for doing nothing.

 

Meanwhile, we mugs shell out for the privilege of sucking up to a corrupt Major Power, while sticking our noses into problems that have raged since before Europeans even knew this continent even existed. 

[Yenn]

I think it is time we looked at what a Royal Commission achieves. We have had Royal commissions into just about everything that can go wrong and the situation doesn't seem to change. The PM gets to set what the Royal commission can look at and then he gets to see the first report and acts accordingly. It is all about making the government look good and also look as if they are doing something.

The real cause of the problem in this case is that the government sent our troops into wars started by the USA and made the rules of engagement such that the troops were on a hiding to nothing. They had no real visible enemy and were as vulnerable as a young woman in a dark back street.

Basicly governments are using Royal commissions as get out of jail cards, which also act as great delaying tactics.

[old man emu]

This bit of "Yes Minister" has inserts of Australian politicians demonstrating that the points raised in the satire actually do take place. 

 

 

[facthunter]

The Gov't were forced into this one. Suicides currently are 12 times the number of deaths of the   personnel. I haven't heard of any people involved who  are against an inquiry and a Royal Commission has a lot of powers. There is another enquiry going on/proposed at the same time but that may have not satisfied many by the looks of it. This sorry saga may end up very messy and needs to be done with great care and politics out of it. (Something that rarely happens lately). Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Brilliantly done OME, the insertion of Abbot etc was great.

[willedoo]

17 hours ago, nomadpete said:

I'm concerned about the scope of this royal commission into defence suicide.

 Will it be wide enough to include improving the debriefing, mental health support and reintegration of ex service persons into mainstream society?

Pete, hopefully the terms will cover most things that have to be looked at, including those you mention. It will cover veterans and current serving personnel. Veterans in the sense of all ex service people, and not just war veterans. There's a lot of systemic problems in all services and a lot of weak spots in protocol and systems for dealing with depression management, reporting and treatment. That's with serving personnel. The other side of it is the lack of support for ex-service personnel. Most of the time, the RSL and various veteran support groups, like mates for mates and others, have had to do most of the lifting. It's about time the government and the services owned up to their full share of the problem.

 

The branches of the defence force are big on pomp, ceremony and the stiff upper lip thing as most would know, but under it all is a big festering boil that's swept a lot under the carpet over the years.

[facthunter]

Talking of inserting T A Bots "suppository of Wisdom' was a good one plus CANADIA and a few other gems. Nev