CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA) – Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australia will hold a Royal Commission to examine suicides among serving and former military personnel. He is expected to have made the announcement bowing to public pressure to find ways to stem a mounting toll.
“I think and I hope it will be a healing process. “I hope it will be a process by which veterans and families can find some comfort, but it obviously can’t replace the loss,” Morrison told in Canberra, as he announced his call for a commission to be set up.
Government data shows that more than 500 poeplee have died from suicide since 2001. The statistics has fuelled public anger, including among the prime minister’s own Liberal party.
The issue became prominent in Australia following a high-profile campaign by Julie-Ann Finney, whose son David, a former naval petty officer, committed suicide in 2019 after he had earlier been deployed to Iraq, East Timor and Bougainville.
