Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026
Ms RYAN (Lalor—Chief Government Whip) (16:55): There are moments in this parliament when we are not simply debating legislation but answering a national moral obligation. This is one of those moments. The Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) Bill 2026 is part of Australia's response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
It speaks to service and sacrifice, grief and responsibility and the duty we owe to those who have worn the uniform of our nation. This bill is about making sure that when a person serves this country they and their family are not left to navigate a disconnected system alone. It is about making sure 'thank you for your service' is matched by systems that work when people need them.
The royal commission delivered its final report on 19 September 2024, making 122 recommendations. The Albanese government agreed or agreed in principle to 104 recommendations, and, significantly, this bill implements 15 recommendations and supports a further 20. These changes are a very good thing because they move us from a system that too often waited for people to fall through the cracks to a system built to see them, support them and reach them before crisis may turn to tragedy.
This bill matters because the royal commission made clear that the system supporting defence personnel, veterans and families have not always been connected enough, fast enough or human enough. Too often, people have had to tell their story again and again, and we know that leads to deepening trauma, while the system that should have supported them could not speak to itself.
Information has too often been trapped in silos between Defence and DVA. These silos create delays and delays can mean claims held up, care interrupted, families unsupported and risks unseen. The failure this bill confronts is not a lack of courage from those who served but a lack of connection in the systems built to support them.
This bill is about a system that can see risk earlier, can respond faster and can support people before that crisis becomes tragedy. I also speak on this bill as the member for Lalor, representing communities across Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Point Cook, Truganina, Wyndham Vale, Manor Lakes and Mambourin. These reforms matter in Lalor.
They matter in my community because veterans and defence families live in these suburbs. They're raising their children in our suburbs, their kids are attending our schools, and they sit at kitchen tables trying to make sense of complicated systems. I want to acknowledge the work of the Werribee RSL and the work of the Vietnam veterans, who've done such important work, and the wider network of local veteran organisations, volunteers, advocates and families who continue to support our veteran community.
Their work reminds us that support for veterans is not only delivered through legislation but through local relationships, trusted community connections and people who keep showing up. This bill matters to them because, as they have relayed to me time and time again, it has often been a struggle to support young veterans, to connect those things for them, to interact with systems.
This bill matters to a veteran in Werribee navigating a DVA claim while keeping work, supporting family and managing their health. It matters to the partner seeing the warning signs. A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 16:59 to 17:10 Ms RYAN: It matters to the partner in Tarneit seeing the warning signs but not knowing who to call or what support is available.
It matters to the family in Wyndham Vale facing transition, only to find that the information that is needed to support them is caught between agencies. It matters to children in Hoppers Crossing and Manor Lakes who live with the ripple effects of service long after the uniform has been put away. When systems do not connect, families carry the load.
When records do not move, people fall through the cracks. When agencies cannot share information responsibly, risk becomes invisible. Schedule 1 of this bill strengthens information sharing to improve wellbeing, health and safety outcomes for Defence members and to limit the risk.
The royal commission found that defence and veterans systems hold critical information but that information has too often been fragmented, delayed or unavailable when needed. This schedule creates a clearer legal authority for information to be used for research— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 17:11 to 17:21 Ms RYAN: This schedule creates clearer legal authority for information to be used for research, data analysis and evaluation relating to wellbeing, health and safety.
These powers are balanced by privacy safeguards, including ministerial guidelines, de-identification where appropriate and alignment with the Privacy Act framework. This is information sharing for prevention, for early intervention, for continuity of care and for saving lives. For a veteran, this could mean that DVA receives information earlier so a claim can be processed more quickly.
For a serving member leaving the ADF, it could mean transition support before the final day in uniform, critically, not months later when a crisis has already developed. A system that learns can change. A system that refuses to share what it knows is condemned to repeat its failures.
Schedule 2 of the bill modernises the legislative framework for defence health services. The defence health service system has a unique role because it must keep members fit to serve while also supporting their lifetime health, wellbeing and safety. The bill establishes for the first time a comprehensive legislative basis for defence health services.
It clarifies who works in the system, what services are provided and how health information may be used. Schedule 3 of the bill strengthens support for ADF families, and this is one of the most human parts of the bill. The royal commission made clear that families are not bystanders in the defence and veteran experience.
Families are often the first to notice when something is wrong. They are often the first responders in the home, making phone calls, filling out forms, attending appointments and holding everything together. This schedule allows Defence to communicate more directly with families about available services, payments and supports where appropriate.
It also includes an opt-out mechanism, respecting privacy, autonomy and choice. Importantly, this schedule also addresses family and domestic violence. It ensures former partners of ADF members are not suddenly cut off from assistance where family and domestic violence is present and support is needed for safe separation.
Family and domestic violence can involve control over money, housing, transport, information and the ability to leave. If a person cannot safely separate because the system cuts them off at the very moment they need help, then the system becomes part of the danger. Where a family might be managing financial pressure—for example, mortgage pressure—safe separation is not a slogan; it is a practical question about where a partner or child will sleep tonight, how they will get their children to school and who they can call for help.
No-one should be trapped in violence because bureaucracy cannot recognise the reality of their life. No family should be made less safe because support ends at the very moment courage begins. Schedule 4 of this bill strengthens requirements for service in the Australian Defence Force.
It ensures people convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for serious, violent or sexual offences cannot join the ADF. It also introduces mandatory discharge for ADF members who are sentenced to imprisonment by an Australian court. These reforms are about integrity, safety, accountability and public confidence.
The men and women who serve Australia deserve to serve in an institution where serious violence and sexual offending are met with clarity and with consequence. The uniform of this country carries honour, and the standards attached to it must be clear. The schedule also consolidates 'fit and proper person' requirements and improves end-of-service arrangements.
It provides clear and fair processes, including safeguards where convictions are overturned or pardons are granted. This matters because the ADF is not just another workplace; it is an institution built on trust, on discipline, on responsibility and on the confidence of the Australian people. Accountability and fairness are not opposites.
In a decent system, they stand together. Schedule 5 of the bill makes minor amendments that support the operation of the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission. These amendments support the independence, transparency and accountability of oversight mechanisms established following the royal commission.
Oversight matters because reform cannot depend on goodwill alone. Reform must be built into institutions, measured over time, reviewed honestly and sustained beyond the moment of political attention. The defence and veterans system must be accountable not only for what it promises but for what it delivers.
The importance of this bill will not be found only in the words written on paper. Its importance will be found in the lives it helps, the families it helps reach and the harm it helps prevent. It will matter when a veteran lodges a claim and does not have to repeat the same painful story again and again.
It will matter when a partner receives information before crisis point. It will matter when a family gets help navigating transition rather than being left to guess which agency is responsible. It will matter when data identifies a pattern early enough for intervention.
It will matter when a clinician can speak honestly in a quality review so that the system can improve. It will matter when a former partner who experienced family violence can safely separate because support does not vanish when it is needed most. Most of all, it will matter when a person at risk is seen by the system before they disappear from it.
Prevention is not just a recommendation or a policy idea when the risk is a human life. I'm the proud granddaughter of a serviceman from World War I who fought at Gallipoli and at the Somme, and I am the granddaughter, also, of Kit McNaughton, who served as a nurse in World War I at Lemnos and in France. When she returned from that war, she joined others to fight for recognition of their service, so I have a critical understanding of how important it is to be a member of parliament working for our defence service personnel and for those veterans.
This bill sits alongside other reforms already progressed by the government, including the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission and the new Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency. It is part of a broader program of work to make the defence and veterans ecosystem more responsive, more accountable and more human. I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel in progressing these reforms and the ongoing work across government to respond to the royal commission with the seriousness, care and urgency it deserves.
The royal commission forced Australia to look directly at grief. It forced us to confront the gap between the honour we express for service and the support we sometimes fail to deliver after service. We cannot say, 'Thank you for your service,' and then leave people to fight the system alone.
This bill does not do everything, because no single bill could. However, it changes the machinery of government so it is better able to act before it is too late. It gives agencies clearer authority to share information where that sharing supports wellbeing, health and safety.
It strengthens Defence health services, recognises family, supports safe separation from violence, improves transition and continuity of care, strengthens integrity in the ADF and supports oversight and accountability. Most importantly, it says that the lives of serving members, veterans and families are not administrative matters but national responsibility.
To veterans and Defence families in Lalor, I say: your service, grief, frustration and advocacy have not been ignored. To those who gave evidence to the royal commission, I say: your courage is now part of the law-making of this nation. To families who carry in their hearts names that should still be spoken at birthday tables, graduations, weddings and Sunday lunches, I say: this parliament heard you.
We cannot bring back those we have lost, and that is the heartbreak at the centre of this, but we can honour them by refusing to let the same failures continue. We can build systems that see people earlier, that listen to families, that share information responsibly and that understand that transition is a vulnerable chapter in a human life, not simply a date on a form.
A nation that sends people to serve must not leave them to suffer alone. A parliament that hears the evidence must not look away. A government that accepts responsibility must act.
The measure of our gratitude is whether our systems are there when the uniform comes off, when the injury is invisible, when the family is frightened and/or when the person who served reaches out for help. This bill will be remembered as part of a pathway whereby Australia will not only honour those who serve but build a future where every veteran, every serving member and every family can be seen, supported and able to look forward with hope.
I commend this bill to the House.