Defence Amendment (Sexual Assault Prevention, Intervention and Response Commission) Bill 2025

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales—Leader of the Australian Greens) (09:29): It's my great pleasure to rise in support of Senator Lambie's bill, the Defence Amendment (Sexual Assault Prevention, Intervention and Response Commission) Bill 2025, on behalf of the Greens. I think many of us watch the way politics is played in this place and watch the way in which politics is played more generally, but I think anyone who watches the way Senator Lambie deals with the concerns, the welfare and the health of veterans and doesn't see genuine is not watching.

You're not watching and you're not hearing and you're not seeing the lived experience that Senator Lambie brings to this place and her continuing connection, particularly with women but not just with women, serving in the ADF. And so I want to acknowledge that work, Senator Lambie, and I want to acknowledge where this bill comes from. This bill proposes a sexual assault prevention, intervention and response commission.

When you read the royal commission's report into the culture in the ADF, you see that there is an inevitable hierarchy in any military, which is essential for a military to operate in times of war and conflict. But that same hierarchy is too often weaponised against women who are bringing complaints in about sexual assault. We have seen it time and time again.

The hierarchy is the issue in this place. In response to that, this bill proposes a series of mechanisms establishing a sexual assault prevention, intervention and response regime through a series of important criteria. Those include putting in place a new reporting system, putting in place education and training programs and putting in place mandatory briefings for commanding officers.

I might stop there for a moment. A number of women who have come to my office on this and said that, when they're reporting up to their commanding officer, they're reporting to someone who's never had training, has never had experience and is used to unquestioning obedience in the chain of command. That's the culture—unquestioning obedience in the chain of command—and reporting up through the chain of command seems to have this inevitable shutdown.

And the power imbalance in that moment when the reporting is up through the chain of command is the thing that is seen repeatedly in the ADF. The minimum criteria also include survivors and victims of sexual assault receiving 24/7 access to support. For an organisation the size of the ADF, that seems incredibly achievable.

They also include policy that addresses retaliation or reprisals against survivors and victims—and clear policy on that—so that people know in advance that, if you respond by way of reprisal to someone who has brought a valid claim forward, the hierarchy won't back you in even if you're more senior to them. There are clear policies, and you'll be held to account for that.

This establishes a victim-survivor legal counsel program so that support outside the ADF is available. It needs to be independent legal advice where those who are serving know for sure that it will be confidential, it will be independent and it won't be influenced by the chain of command in the ADF. It provides for ongoing periodic review of these changes and also puts in place specialist investigators for sexual assault.

Now, I also want to acknowledge—I know the government gets beaten up a lot in this space and I know there's been a lot of heat on Minister Keogh—that parts of this reform have been happening. In the last session of this parliament, we supported legislation that put in place some of these measures to allow, for example, specialist investigators for sexual assault being outside of the ADF.

The Greens supported that legislation. I know Senator Lambie supported that legislation. From memory, it was supported across the parliament in relation to sexual assault matters enabling people outside the ADF to be brought in with expertise in victims focused review in order to do that.

I think we should acknowledge that this bill was presented by Senator Lambie before those amendments had been brought by the government. I'm not suggesting that there's causation here, but I do think the pressure on the government, coming from across the board, has been really important in bringing those reforms through in a timely form, but I don't think anyone would suggest—I doubt even the government would suggest—that those reforms were anything like complete.

This bill follows the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which uncovered these systemic issues relating to sexual assault in the ADF. The royal commission made 14 recommendations relating to this issue, all of which have been accepted by the government. This bill is a way of implementing them in a very effective and direct fashion.

The government, as I said, has acted on some aspects of those recommendations. The Defence Force Discipline Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 1) Bill and the Defence Legislation Amendment (RCDVS Implementation and Related Measures No. 2) both passed this house earlier this year. However, the Greens agree with Senator Lambie that more needs to be done.

The goal should be zero instances of sexual assault, with a system of basic principles built around that. Can I also say that the push for reform has come from some pretty extraordinary and brave veterans in this space. Julia Delaforce is someone I'm going to put front and centre in that.

Julia has come forward and told her story. I couldn't do it justice. Read the book—that's what I would say.

You get a sense of just what a journey that was—how hard it was inside Defence, how hard it was being recentred outside of Defence. Read Julia's book, because it tells the story. It explains to you why this bill from Senator Lambie is needed, and it explains to you how, as a whistleblower inside Defence, it was next to impossible.

Going out to the Australian Human Rights Commission, working to overcome non-disclosure agreements, Julia faced barrier after barrier. Julia herself says that her experience is not unusual or novel and that so many other women have faced the same kinds of pressures. Julia's submission to the committee where we looked at this bill said removing investigations from the chain of command is absolutely essential.

That's what this commission does. That's probably the single most important point of this commission. It picks up that No. 1 recommendation and support from Julia and it picks up what came out of the royal commission—removing these investigations from the chain of command.

That's what the independent commission does. Clear provisions against whistleblower retaliation is also something that Julia put in her submission. Again, it's what this bill does.

It puts it in place in black and white. I think we're not coming to a vote on this today. What I hope happens, as this goes over into the November break, is that the government sits down and engages with Senator Lambie.

Our door is always open in this space to engage on positive reform, to help the culture in the ADF, to keep women safe in the ADF—to move it to that goal of zero sexual assault in the ADF. Again, Minister Keogh has come in for a bit of a bashing in the last few months, and some of that is entirely appropriate, given what happened to veterans' medical entitlements and medical support payments.

I'm glad that that issue has been put back in a box, at least for now, but I'm going to give credit where it's due. He's been working on these royal commission recommendations, seeking to implement them, and I'm quite certain that that has been in the face of institutional resistance from the ADF. There's something about gold braid that doesn't like being questioned.

Let's collectively work together to make this real, to implement the recommendations of the royal commission and to get to that goal.