Jacqui Lambie for release of Defence justice system report

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is accusing the government and Defence Force of “cover-ups” in a campaign calling on Defence Minister Richard Marles to release a report into the military’s justice system. A probe into the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) was commissioned last year, the first time it was reviewed in its 20 years of operation. The report was handed to the government nearly six months ago, but it’s still unclear when the document will be made public. Noting the IGADF was “a factor” in veteran suicides uncovered by a recent royal commission, Senator Lambie demanded the report be released in a campaign launched on Monday. “The federal Labor government is refusing to release a report on the military justice system,” she said in a recording for radio. “We have just had a royal commission on veteran suicides, and they won’t release the damn report. “The justice system has proven to be a factor in veterans ending their lives. “I’ve had an absolute gutful of government and Defence cover-ups.” In a parliamentary missive earlier this year, Mr Marles said the government needed more time to respond to the report and it was consulting “stakeholders”, including the Defence Force and family members of Defence personnel who had died. But Senator Lambie, a veteran herself, has repeatedly said things are not moving fast enough. “Minister Marles should have given this review to the royal commission as soon as he got it, and it should have been released publicly shortly after that,” she said on Monday. The IGADF’s conduct was repeatedly raised in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which handed down its final report last week. The commission launched in July 2021 and received nearly 6000 submissions that painted a horrific picture of institutional failures and widespread bullying and abuse. With hearings right around the country, it revealed at least 1677 serving and former Defence personnel took their own lives between 1997 and 2021 – more than 20 times the number killed in combat or military exercises over the same period. Of the royal commission’s 122 recommendations, 18 are targeted at the Defence justice system.