Lambie welcomes help for veterans

TASMANIAN Senator Jacqui Lambie has welcomed a move by Veterans’ Affairs Minister Dan Tehan to adopt the recommendation of a key report on veterans’ suicide.

Mr Tehan said on Tuesday the recommendations of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee were contained in the The Constant Bat

tle: Suicide by Veterans report. Senator Lambie has been a passionate advocate for veterans and established the inquiry before becoming a member of the committee.

“This report represents three years of work and consultation with the veterans’ community,” she said.

“Veterans’ mental health has been an issue that was close to my heart long before I became a Senator, and I am pleased the Government has seen the merit in the recommendations put forward by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.”

Mr Tehan apologised in Federal Parliament on Tuesday to the family of a former soldier Jesse Bird for the way the Department of Veterans Affairs had failed Mr Bird.

The report revealed that 325 veterans had died by taking their own life between 2001 and 2015. The Government has now committed more than $30 million to new programs.

Senator Lambie said the Government needed to quickly roll out the recommendations it had agreed to.

“It is a step in the right direction, but an announcement isn’t enough to fix decades of entrenched issues,” she said.

Mr Bird, who fought in Afghanistan, died almost penniless in June, after being denied assistance by the department.