MP wants junior ranks to lead way Katter call on veteran body
BOB Katter has weighed in on the introduction of the National Commission for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention, calling for junior ranks to lead the charge.
During a speech in the House of Representatives on Friday, Mr Katter said the Department of Veterans Affairs had been detrimental to the lives of thousands of retired military people because it was run by a bunch of Canberrabased public servants.
The Kennedy MP said the new commission must be formed with appointments of former serving junior ranking ADF members, rather than high ranking military officers.
“We’re losing more people because of their treatment after the war than we lost actually in the wars,” Mr Katter said.
“I have a disproportionate number of military retirees in the Kennedy electorate and there are a few people who say they have had a good experience with the DVA.
“There are about 2000 naval personnel and related families in Cairns. That’s quite apart from the 6000 or 7000 in Townsville in the army, yet there is not a single representative that they have on a commission that controls the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Meanwhile Senator Jacqui Lambie has held firm in her position that she won’t accept anything less than a royal commission into veteran suicide. The former veteran passed a motion in the Senate a day earlier that expressed the view that the national commissioner would have neither the power nor the resources of a royal commission.
The motion, which was put forward on February 27 and passed on June 18, was supported by all parties except the LNP.
Senator Lambie’s website claimed the commission was a “never ending inquiry” of the last 17 reviews that investigated veterans issues.