Recruit standards linked to risks in ranks
Deborah Cornwall |
A decision to lower entry standards for military recruits has driven a spike in personnel who would have previously been rejected on physical and mental health grounds, a royal commission has been told.
Brigadier Duncan Hayward, director general of recruitment, said lowered Australian Defence Force entry standards partly reflected the different fitness levels of young Australians from 20 to 30 years ago.
It was also more difficult to attract young people to the services.
Appearing before the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Wednesday, Brig Hayward conceded retention rates among young recruits was also a challenge, with 15 per cent leaving or medically discharged in the first 12 months.
Counsel assisting the commission, Peter Gray QC, repeatedly pressed Brig Hayward over the ADF’s recruitment practices, and their possible link with high suicide rates in the defence community.
Mr Gray said a clinician who worked in defence recruitment had sent a submission to the inquiry, warning that the reduction in standards at the ADF was “likely to perpetuate, if not increase, the rate of veteran suicide and will probably increase the prevalence of … suicide attempts”.
The clinician reported he had seen a “significant increase in medical separations (from the ADF) due to injury”.
This, the clinician said, included “quite a few trainees who are injured during the pre-conditioning phase – ie the physical fitness baseline is so low that some recruits are injured before they even start the recruit course”.
Research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identified medical discharges from injury or “involuntary separations” as a heightened risk for suicide.
Mr Gray asked if there was “a conflict of interest” for the ADF given it was “willing to take … the potential risk of an increased incidence of physical injury during training” to enlist more people.
“I don’t see it as a conflict,” Brig Hayward responded.
“I don’t see anything nefarious about that because we only want people to be successful through training. It is too hard, too expensive, to set someone up for failure.”
Brig Hayward was also questioned by Commissioner Peggy Brown why recruits were not warned during the seven-stage recruitment process about the potential risks.
“If you don’t tell them about the rate of medical discharge, which is substantial, and you don’t tell people about the known risk for suicide … how informed is that consent?”
Earlier on Wednesday, the 16-year-old daughter of two veterans described the devastating impact of growing up “confused and scared” as she and her three siblings lived with the consequences of her parents’ crippling PTSD.
She told the inquiry her first memory as a three-year-old had been waking in bed with her mother, watching her go through “night terrors”.
Her mother “always had pre-made meals in the freezer in case she were to die” and was so overwhelmed by normal family outings, during trips to the shops she had to communicate with her in “hand signals”.
She told the inquiry the lack of support her family was “appalling”.
The commission’s series of Hobart hearings concluded on Wednesday, with an interim report due to be released on Thursday.
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AAP
