Top military brass to face Senate Inquiry hearing into PTSD

Greens spokesperson for Defence and Veterans’ Affairs, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson will be attending a public hearing of the Senate Inquiry into Veterans’ mental health tomorrow in Canberra, where the top military brass will answer questions about whether they are doing enough to prevent, identify and treat post-traumatic stress disorder within their personnel.

Senator Whish-Wilson established the Inquiry following shocking revelations about the prevalence of mental illness, suicide and substance abuse amongst our defence force personnel returning from deployments and other service.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “The war in Afghanistan alone ran longer than WWI and WW2 combined. Some of our troops have completed four or five or six tours of duty. We are in uncharted waters in regards to the mental stress our personnel have faced.

“So far the Inquiry has heard harrowing first-hand evidence of the impacts that these tours have had on our servicemen and women.

“On Monday I will be putting questions to the top of the Australian Defence Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs about whether we are doing enough to deal with the tsunami of mental health impacts flowing from fighting these wars,” he concluded.

When: Monday 21 September 2015. 9AM-11.15AM
Where: Committee Room 2S1 Parliament House, Canberra
Who:
• Department of Defence:
-ACM Mark Binskin AC, Chief of the Defence Force
-VADM Ray Griggs AO CSC, Vice Chief of the Defence Force
-AIRMSHL Leo Davies, Chief of Air Force
-LTGEN Angus Campbell, Chief of Army RADM
• Department of Veterans’ Affairs
-Mr Shane Carmody, Chief Operating Officer
Greens spokesperson for Defence and Veterans’ Affairs, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson