Navy recruit faced ‘belittling’ punishment
Maeve Bannister |
A former navy clearance diver who perforated an ear drum during one of many “punishment drills” has told a royal commission trainees were consistently belittled.
The witness – who appeared anonymously at the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Wednesday – said during his time in the navy it was common for diver trainees to self-medicate and cover up injuries.
“I had a young family at the time so my whole life was invested into it. It wasn’t an option for me to be removed (from training) so I just had to continue on,” he told the commission.
The witness said pseudoephedrine medications such as Sudafed were called “dive lollies”, to be taken if people were sick but needed to complete training.
During a punishment drill the witness was made to dive six metres to the ocean floor repeatedly by an instructor, causing a perforated ear drum.
The witness told the commission when he saw a medic about the issue he was told not to mention the punishment.
“The instructor told me to say it had happened while I was diving, that it didn’t happen during any punishment,” he said.
“They wanted to keep it hush-hush and waited outside the doctor’s office for me, to ask what I had said.”
The witness told the commission about the “bastardisation” and “belittling” punishments instructors would put recruits through.
This included racking up thousands of push-ups a day for small mistakes like dropping a piece of paper and being untidy.
The witness also spoke about his experiences in the navy after becoming qualified and the poor mental health of people on his dive team.
He told the commission four people from his former dive team have died by suicide.
“Being sick was seen as a weakness. It was a boys’ club. Everyone wanted to be a big, tough warrior,” he said.
“I saw quite a few people experiencing poor mental health on the dive team.”
Meanwhile, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed it did not keep separate data on suicides of current or former defence force members.
ABS mortality data centre director Lauren Moran told the commission when compiling the number of suicides in Australia each year, statistics are not separated by workforce.
“We don’t get a notification if someone is a veteran, we only receive notification of an individual death,” she said.
The royal commission will for the next fortnight probe what the defence force is doing to address issues with its culture and the support being provided to veterans.
The commission has previously been told accounts of bullying, poor treatment of women, a lack of support for veterans, and new recruits being forced to undertake ‘hazing’ initiation rituals.
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