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

Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (09:39): It's a really important day. It's a really important day for our serving personnel and for our veterans, but also for Senator Lambie. The bill before us is a culmination of many, many, many years of work, advocacy, dedication and commitment not only to your country, to military personnel and to veterans but to the people that have come to you and entrusted you with that fight and with that advocacy.

I'm sure in many instances they have shared with you stories that they have shared with no other person, and that's an incredible. It's an incredible thing to place on a person. And they chose the right person.

And so thank you for taking that fight for all those people. I know that your inbox would have been absolutely flooded all the time for many, many, many years. You can't help everybody, but you can come forward with a bill like this.

Thank you for doing that on behalf of all of them. I'm sure they thank you as well. We in the coalition support this bill, and we are not the only party that supports it.

That is an absolute testament to the importance of what you're doing here, establishing independence in the military justice system to ensure that we can protect the people who put their lives on the line to protect us. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this week that, the day you enlist, you tick a box for unlimited liability. But they don't say, when you tick that box, that that includes this kind of violence and trauma inflicted upon you by the people that you stand next to.

It certainly shouldn't be that way, and so we have to do everything we can. Of course, we established the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. It's important to be able to respond to that in as many ways as we can, and this is an important part of that.

We heard through the inquiry from witnesses that came out in full support of this, which is again testament to the importance of this bill. Their evidence made very, very clear that we cannot accept a system in which the people that sign up to serve our country in the way that they do are left feeling unable to report sexual violence or seek the support that they need.

There is an urgent need for change, but I want to take the opportunity also to thank the people inside the system that are serving, that are doing the right thing and that are helping the people around them when reports of sexual violence come to them, including the military police that we have that are doing a great job in helping the people around them. But there is an urgent need for change.

There is a need for accountability and a need for a system that personnel can inherently trust. This place has an obligation to our service personnel. As I said, their job is to protect us, and so we should be in here protecting them.

The centre of this bill is the creation of an independent sexual assault prevention, intervention and response commission within the Defence Act 1903, and that would be led by an independent commissioner supported by at least one deputy commissioner and staff that would oversee a Defence-wide framework covering prevention, education, reporting, victim-survivor support, evidence collection, investigations, legal assistance and measures to prevent retaliation and reprisal.

I just want to focus on that. That prevention part is, I think, an important element of this. We want to have a defence force that men and women are willing to enlist in.

There is an overwhelming sense that people are being discouraged from doing that because of the violence against women and men in our defence force. We've got to remember that it is not just the women that have been through this; it is men as well. So, for the future of the security of our nation, this is a change that needs to happen now.

I certainly hope that the government listens to the calls from everybody on this side of the chamber to make that change. The commission has to lead to a safe workplace. It has to lead to practical improvements.

It needs to have the resources, the expertise and the independence to carry out these responsibilities. It has to be clearly coordinated with the existing defence services, the investigative authorities and the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission. The point of all of that is that the personnel that need the assistance need clearer pathways.

And the support needs to be timely. The coalition does support this bill. We've seen the committee's findings, which are supportive, and we will always consider supporting sensible amendments to improve the protection of privacy and the strengthening of accountability.

There has been a culture of secrecy and closing ranks to protect offenders and not victims. This is such a huge part of the problem and has to be rooted out. Those in positions of power should not be enabled to hide from scrutiny, and entrenched conflicts of interest must be disbanded.

This bill goes to the heart of that. The framework combines strong protections for victim-survivors with procedural fairness and the presumption of innocence. Commanders would be required to put appropriate interim arrangements in place to protect victim-survivors from contact with alleged perpetrators; those arrangements will not constitute a finding of guilt.

There are also protections for alleged perpetrators, including monitoring their wellbeing and preserving their rights while allegations are investigated, because, to have a credible system, you've got to protect the people who come forward and ensure that everything is investigated fairly and thoroughly. The bill also puts clear responsibilities on Defence leadership to prevent sexual violence and to respond appropriately to allegations and people who report misconduct.

These responsibilities extend across senior Defence leadership, commanders and relevant statutory office holders. Everybody is responsible for this. Personnel would be prohibited from retaliating against people who provide information concerning alleged sexual assault, from knowingly making false accusations or from condoning or ignoring sexual assault.

Prevention and cultural change must be responsibilities shared throughout the chain of command, not simply functions of a new commission. Ultimately, protecting defence personnel strengthens the ADF itself. On that basis, amongst others, we remain highly supportive of this bill in the coalition.

A safe workplace, trusted leadership and confidence in systems for addressing serious misconduct are essential to morale, cohesion and operational readiness. I want to finish by saying that the commission has to be properly resourced, genuinely independent and clearly coordinated with existing defence services, investigative authorities and the Defence and Veterans' Service Commission.

I want to make three acknowledgements. I want to thank all of our service personnel past and present for ticking that box to unlimited liability. I want to thank all the people who have reached out to Senator Lambie and to me.

I know that a lot of people have reached out to me. I do my very best to get back to you all—my apologies if I haven't got back to you yet. Finally, I want to thank you, again, Senator Lambie, for the work that you've put into this bill, for putting this at the centre of debate and for bringing us all together here in this chamber to support you in the work that you do.