Hey! Dan Mealey here
On this day in history in 1699
William Dampier set off from the West Coast of Australia
and in fact European (Portuguese in particular)
fishermen had been arriving on Australian shores
for some years before that
We had been established as a British colonised nation
...and sometime before THAT (some 40,000 years)
the Aboriginals had occupied this land.
The reason why I mention this, is that we have a significant problem with "identity" in Australia
both in terms of national perceived appreciation of ourselves as a nation
and as individuals too.
Identity is very important on an individual and national level
We make a big deal about "identity" as service personnel - as veterans -
when we leave the defence force
the transition into civilian life is fraught with harm.
This is because we are so accustomed to belonging to a uniformed entity
- a "tribe."
And so 'transitional services' has been a focus of attention
- thank you to Ben Roberts Smith VC, MG,
he has spent some significant time in the media
showcasing the dangers of transition into civilian life
But I think we need to go back a few steps because
as Service personnel we actually give up identity
when we first put on uniform.
For those of us who join through the Royal Military College, or ADFA,
or via Kapooka
we basically give up our right  and our freedoms
we forget what mum and dad taught us: how we walk, talk, how are use a knife and fork
and we do it the way the defence force tells us to do it
we put on a uniform, and a uniform is important for a reason:
we become one with an organisation;
we absorb the values, morals and ethos of that organisation
So the longer we stay in that organisation
the more risk we have
of losing our identity
(our moral candle that burns away individually in each of us)
so that when we leave the Defence Force we have actually, a duplicity
of loss in our identity
And so regaining that identity has to be
involving a transition process that involves
going back to when we first joined, working out who and what we were then,
and capturing all the good things that we learnt in Defence Force,
the morals, and values and ethos
that we imbibed in order to become an effective member of a Defence organisation.
We've needed "Royal Commissions"  for some time in Australia
and the reason for that, is that
...a Royal Commission takes away
national conversation and opinion and puts a Royal "Imprimatur" - a "stamp" on it
to say this is "fact."
The Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Crime
In 2012 to 2013
was important because it put a "Royal Imprimatur" stamp on the fact that
1 in 3 girls in this country are molested, and 1 in 5 boys.
That's pretty much all of them.
This ceases to be "opinion" – it's not – its fact.
And how we respond to the recommendations of that Royal Commission defines us as a nation.
The Royal Commission into our Banking and Financial Sector
revealed that unprecedented greed drives this country
All of the financial regulatory bodies are very much involved in that greed,
failing to proceed to the federal court, when they SHOULD be proceeding to the federal court.
And the consequence of this, according to the Royal Commission into the Banking Sector,
found that elderly women over the age of 55
(pardon me if you are 55 that does not make you "elderly"
but women over the age of 55 are the fastest growing demographic of homelessness in this country.
"Veteran Suicide."
Just because the Daily Telegraph stopped reporting on "one suicide a week"
doesn't mean those veteran suicides are not occurring.
We lost one from 5RAR just a few days ago.
These suicides are still occurring
and we have no idea how many are occurring.
Because all we know is that we have roughly 650,000 Veterans in this country
No one ever bothered to do a thorough headcount
We have 323,916 Veterans on DVA's books…
That's almost half a million Veterans
There appears to be a significant mismatch
between how we perceive ourselves as a nation of "freedom" and "democracy,"
... and how we are treating our most vulnerable, our ladies and our children.
We have a big problem in Australia,
and it's time to address those problems.
The Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide thanks to Julie-Ann Finney
in her gathering of over 300,000 signatories to a petition for that ROYAL Commission,
was stymied on the 5th of February
when Prime Minister Morrison announced to the country
that we would not be having a" Royal" Commission,
he said  that we would be having a "Commission. A "Rolling Commission" he said.
He said: "it was better than a Royal Commission"
But to this date, he has failed to answer the national conversation  -  the question on all of our minds:
"WHY?"
What possible reason, could a Prime Minister of this country
supported by organisations like Victorian RSL
the President of which is Dr Rob Webster;
the President of the Australian Commando Association and Commando Welfare Trust,
representing himself was Steve Piilmore in both of these institutions;
the Presidents of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners,
the Australian College of Emergency Medicine,
the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry,
Phoenix Australia
and Open Arms.
All of these organisations…
.. and the people who represented them,
met with the Prime Minister in the Treasurers office on the 12th of December
They put their hand out for FUNDING
for "PTSD Hubs" around the country
and...
in thanks for that funding
they all gave their reasons AGAINST a Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide and Harm.
The "Ex-Service Organisations" in this country,
(there are more than 6000 of them by the way,
and there are only 5800 homeless veterans in this country -
we have more Ex-Service Organisations than we do homeless veterans)
the chief the drivers of the Ex-Service Organisation community,
- in return for FUNDING
imbibed the Prime Minister's "Commissioner" into Veteran  Suicide.
I think it's high time that the Prime Minister
and all of these Ex-Service Organisations
all of these colleges of medicine
RSL
and DVA
started listening to the Veterans and let Veterans have a voice for ourself!
We don't need you to speak for us!
We want a Royal Commission.
We've asked for a Royal Commission.
Our identity as a nation…
is being destroyed
by corruption
greed
negligence
laziness
and a complete, profound lack of moral courage.
If we want to save our country...
...what's left of it...
we need a Royal Commission into Veteran Harm and Suicide
to fix the enormous inequity of health-access
the services currently responding to veteran harm,
with cynicism,
and doubt,
ridicule, and punishment
By fixing the health-care sector for veterans
we fix the health-care sector for everyone
so we need Australian people to be on  our side with this.
WE NEED TO FIX AUSTRALIA.
