Page 4120 - Week 11 - Thursday, 21 September 2017
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I heard a speech the other day that made the point that when a defence member serves, so does their family. As a community we have a responsibility not just to acknowledge the veteran’s sacrifice but also that of their family. The ACT, more than many communities in Australia, is touched by its defence families. We have a large cohort of husbands, wives and partners who are our work colleagues, like Mrs Jones. Their children are at school with our kids and, in many cases, they are our neighbours. It is not easy being a defence family, as I am sure Mrs Jones will attest. Relocation, isolation, finding friends and belonging to a community are all challenging, and this is exacerbated when mums, dads and partners deploy overseas for a long stretch.
Support for veterans and the defence community has been a passion of mine since I came into this place. We all bring with us our life experience, and 22 years in the Army has understandably given me this passion. Since my maiden speech, in which I outlined my support for the ex-service community and the currently serving community, I have been joined by my colleagues in calling for greater action by the ACT government.
It was the Canberra Liberals that established the position of shadow minister for veterans affairs in 2009, to which I was appointed, and we called for the establishment of an ACT minister for veterans affairs and for a veterans council. We have called for meaningful initiatives targeted at veterans to be implemented by the ACT government.
I am pleased to acknowledge that now, in 2017, we have achieved much of this. But, as with any area of public policy, there is always a great deal more to be done, and I offer my support in a genuine way to the minister to advance this important cause. I thank him for the genuine interest that he has shown in this portfolio. I also congratulate him on his appointment of Alison Creagh as the chair of the Veterans Advisory Council. I know Alison through my service, and she is a very good choice. Well done.
I also know firsthand from my own experience the impact of defence service and how it can affect families. As an Army wife with limited family support, Fleur held our family together in 2007 when I spent about 10 months away from home as a result of my job. With a very young child who was sick for much of the time, an older stepson, and a job to hold down, she would often find herself in tears at night from loneliness, worry and exhaustion. This is not an uncommon event.
I have also experienced firsthand the effects of returning from active service. It is now about a decade since I returned and it is only now that I have the confidence to talk in this place about how hard that was. I am not sure entirely why, I do not dwell on it, but a few weeks after my return from active service I fell into a deep slump. I do not know that it was depression. I do not know what it was. But at that time I had regular thoughts of taking my own life. With the support of Fleur, I picked myself up and moved on, and our story has a happy ending. Sadly, for many vets and their families there is no happy ending.
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