The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide accidentally uploaded what was meant to be a secret review into Australia’s military justice system before realising its mistake and taking it down—but not before staff of Greens Senator David Shoebridge had seen it.
When he tried to table it in the federal parliament, he found it had disappeared.
Shoebridge and Independent Senator Jacquie Lambie—a Defence Force veteran—demanded its release, something Lambie has been fighting for over several months. The government also blocked the tabling motion.
The senators called a press conference on Sept. 18 to highlight the error and accused the government of trying to hide the findings. They also questioned the government’s commitment to fixing cultural problems within Defence.
Senator Lambie blamed the defence minister, Richard Marles, claiming he had suppressed the document.
“He doesn’t want to take on a top brass because he doesn’t have the courage ... he doesn’t have what it takes,” she said.
“I am sick of the cover-up. You say you want to make changes, you say you want the culture to change, you say you want to reduce veterans’ suicide. But you are part of the problem. You are not holding them accountable.”
Government Allegedly Did Not Ask For Secrecy
But Marles rejected the claim, saying he was considering the review in conjunction with the Royal Commission’s final report.“To respond to one report in isolation of the other would be impractical and ineffective,” a spokesperson for the minister said.
While it initially accepted responsibility for what it said was a mistake, the Royal Commission has since argued that the government made no demand that it be kept confidential. In a statement, the Commission secretariat said the review had been placed into evidence in May this year.
“The Commonwealth government’s lawyers made no confidentiality claims over the redacted version of that document which was relied upon as evidence and referenced in the Royal Commission’s final report,” it said.
“The Commonwealth government’s lawyers did request the solicitors assisting the Royal Commission to carefully consider [the] use of the report, including any publication, pending the government’s review.”
Eventually, Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy was able to table the document late on Sept. 18.
The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) review, conducted by former federal court judge and former Keating government attorney general Duncan Kerr, contains 51 recommendations, including scrapping the existing office and re-establishing it under new legislation.
It says this would ensure “the appearance of independence, as well as its fact” to help rebuild broken trust with Defence Force personnel.
It also proposes establishing an independent Australian Defence Force director of military prosecutions and a registrar of courts-martial and recommends widened whistleblower protection.
The report recommends guidance be issued to commanders and those in pre-command training to “discourage any tendency to conceal potential military justice problems from higher authority.”
