Royal commission ‘won’t stop suicides’

Ross Eastgate

A ROYAL commission into suicide within the Australian Defence Force will not stop veterans taking their lives, military writer Ross Eastgate says.

The Army veteran turned j journalist said he believed suicide was not exclusive to the military and that the problem was not solved by a royal comm mission.

Speaking with the

Bulletin just moments after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced he would ask the governor-general to establish a royal commission into the growing issue, Mr Eastgate raised concerns the independent and far-reaching investigation could drag personal issues into the public sphere.

“It may, in fact, it is likely to, stray into areas that families don’t anticipate,” he said.

“A royal commission can ask questions about an individual’s past and that may discover things that people don’t want to have revealed … or issues that are not related to their service.

“There are going to be a lot of people hurt by this.”

Former soldier and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has been one of the loudest voices calling for a royal commission, but Mr Eastgate said he believed she was so keenly focused on her mission she expected an outcome that might not eventuate.

“If people think suicides are going to stop tomorrow, they’re wrong. People rarely commit suicide because of a single incident, it is usually an accumulation of issues,” Mr Eastgate said.

“There will still be suicides and for probably the same reasons; people just can’t adjust when they come home and their marriages are a problem or they live with nightmares or they get on the booze – a royal commission is not going to solve that.”