An Australian Army veteran and his wife called on the government to do more to support Australia’s military veterans as Alison Whitfield told Minister for Defence Services Matt Keogh that her husband, Dave, had tried to end his life more than 30 times since returning from Timor.
Key points:
- Independent Senator Dai Le questioned the government spend on submarines and called for a softer approach to China
- Minister for Veterans Affairs Matt Keogh said multiple governments have ‘dropped the ball’ on helping returned servicemen and women
- A Timor veteran said he had made more than 30 attempts to take his life
WARNING: This story contains graphic depictions of attempted self-harm and may disturb some readers.
Ms Whitfield called on the government to give more support to veterans, with the Australian government having invested $537.5 million to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in the 2022-23 October budget.
Speaking on Q+A, Mr Whitfield said he suffered from “nightmares every night” due to things he saw and things he had done as a medic before details of his suicide attempts were revealed.
“I tried to commit suicide more times than I can count,” Mr Whitfield said.
A 2022 report into veteran suicide found that 1,600 ADF members and veterans with service after 1985 had died by suicide between 1997 and 2020.
Ms Whitfield told Q+A host Stan Grant that, while she was Dave’s wife, she was much more.
“You say ‘wife’ and if I was just a wife, it would be good, but I’m Dave’s carer, counsellor, psychiatrist … and chemist.”
“I cut him down when he is hanging from the roof.
“I perform CPR when he has overdosed.
“And I’ve done that many times, and until we got … we got help from the Veterans Centre of Australia and, now that has been closed, there’s nowhere for us to go.”
The Veterans Centre closed on March 1 this year after operating for 12 years, during which time it had served up to 600 clients at a time across Australia.
During that time, the services it provided included advocating for veterans and helping them and their families navigate the often-complex and bureaucratic processes to access healthcare, financial support and employment support.
The main reason was a lack of funding, after a major funder discontinued financial support.
Ms Whitfield wanted to know what the government was going to do about that and asked Mr Keogh to visit her home so he could experience firsthand what it was like for a former veteran living with past traumas.
“I’m actually offering you an invitation, Mr Keogh, to be a guest in our home and experience firsthand the crisis resulting in your government’s neglect of Australian veterans and their families by closing the Veterans Centre [of] Australia,” she said.
“That centre meant a lot to a lot of veterans and saved a lot of veterans’ lives, including Dave’s.
“He wouldn’t be sitting here now if it wasn’t for that centre.
“To you, he might be Joe Blow, but to me he is my husband who signed up and served for this country and he deserves better and so do a lot of other veterans.”
Several governments ‘dropped the ball’
The minister admitted several governments had “dropped the ball” when it came to Australia’s service men and women, past and present.
However, pushed by Grant on whether he would take up the invitation, Mr Keogh stopped short of saying yes outright.
“I’m happy to be in touch with them and, if we can get Alison’s details, we can certainly arrange something there,” he said.
Mr Keogh also said he lamented the centre closing but said the Department of Veterans Affairs had worked to make sure existing clients could get support.
“We certainly provided quite a deal of funding but, unfortunately, it came to a circumstance where that board decided to make a decision to close, but we worked, as in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, worked closely with them to make sure all of their existing client base could be connected to other appropriate services.”
When asked by Grant if that was the case in her experience, Ms Whitfield said it was not, as she revealed further harrowing details of what she had to do to keep her husband alive.
“Dave’s latest attempt — we waited nine days for a bed to become available in an in-patient care centre,” she said.
“Nine days I had to tie myself to my husband so he wouldn’t have any more attempts on his life at night while we slept.”
“I tied myself to him for nine days.”
Mr Keogh then said he was working with Health Minister Mark Butler to help veterans struggling with a lack of services, to get access to healthcare using their white card, which covers eligible veterans for clinically required medical treatment.
“I am engaging with the Health Minister about where veterans are finding a lack of service available to them, and I am working with the Department of Health and the Health Minister and what we need to do for those veterans who are finding difficulty in accessing a doctor [who] will service them under a white card,” he said.
“But the broader issue you have raised is a really important one, which is [how] the Department of Veterans’ Affairs funds services.
“We will connect you to a service, and pay for that service, but we don’t run hospitals, we don’t run in-patient clinics — that is not something a government does.
“It is a broad problem where there is a lack of services … and I’m aware that people need help now and I’m really sorry for the way it has impacted you and, if I can get your details, will be in touch.”
‘Keating certainly is wrong’
While more funding was called for when it came to helping Australia’s veterans, the estimated $368 billion spend on AUKUS pact submarines was also discussed on Q+A.
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating had last week lambasted the Albanese government over the deal, while attacking members of the media for scaremongering over China.
It was a topic that again caused debate, as Independent Member for Fowler, Dai Le, sided with Mr Keating in questioning the military threat of China in the region.
“We are where we are today because of our understanding and engagement with the South-East Asian region,” Ms Le said.
“China is the biggest trading partner, we’ve got — what is the imminent threat?
“If it’s imminent, why is it that the eight subs will be ready in 27 years’ time? It does not make sense to me.”
Asked by Grant if China’s military build-up in the South China Sea and stated threats of taking Taiwan by force did not constitute a threat, Ms Le cited China’s trade with Australia as a reason it was not.
Mr Keogh however came to the defence of the deal even if there was as he put it a “significant cost”.
“It is a significant cost, but you also have to look at the facts,” he said.
“We are sitting in circumstances, which are the most complex set of geo strategic circumstances since the Second World War.
“There is really no doubt about that.
“[And] it is about creating the conditions in which we are best positioned not only for our own security, but in the region, because we are seeing an arms build-up.”
He did concede that Ms Lei was right in saying diplomacy also has to play a part and lauded the work of Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who was also attacked by Mr Keating last week.
“We don’t resile or step back from diplomacy, it has always been the first and primary lever here,” he added.
“We want to see peace in our region, we want to see stability in our region, and if you look at what this government, our government, has done in the first 10 months, it has been all about rebuilding relationships that were cast aside and not invested in under the last government.”
Asked if Australia would join a US-led defence of Taiwan if China invaded, Mr Keogh dismissed it as a hypothetical before fellow panellist, human rights lawyer and broadcaster Geoffrey Robertson dismissed Mr Keating, as many pundits have done in the last week.
“Matthew is right and where Paul Keating certainly is wrong, is when he said that Penny Wong was going around with a lei around her neck and that wasn’t foreign policy,” Mr Robertson said.
“Soft power is foreign policy and it is the most important policy that Australia has to offer.
“You saw it work when the Chinese Foreign Minister went around the Pacific trying to round them up into an alliance and they refused, except for the Solomons, who were corrupted by the Chinese money.”