Justin Huggett: Why Decorated Afghanistan veteran won’t le this family near the military

Decorated Afghanistan veteran Justin Huggett proudly served in Australia’s military but wouldn’t let his son join.

After three years of harrowing evidence, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide released its final report on Monday.

Key recommendations include setting up a permanent body to monitor progress on the findings and establishing an agency to help with the transition from military to civilian life.

The Albanese government says it will consider all the findings but hasn’t given a date for its response.

Awarded the Medal for Gallantry for his action fighting the Taliban, Mr Huggett says the permanent body should have been up and running three years ago and Australia is already on the back foot.

“There will be more dead veterans and soldiers by the end of the year,” he told AAP.

He said “under no circumstances” would he allow his son to join the military.

“I’ve got an almost seven-year-old son who brought a photo home at the end of the school last year that says ‘when I grow up, I want to be a soldier’,” Mr Huggett said.

“It’s terrifying for me and I’m telling you now, no one will take my son to the army.

“I will go out of my way to talk so much s**t about how bad the army is so that it is poison to him to even think about joining.

“I don’t want any of my family anywhere near it.”

Mr Huggett criticised Labor for not acting immediately upon the recommendations, particularly relating to sexual assault convictions.

The inquiry found defence force personnel convicted of sexual crimes under the military justice system remained in service.

The Australian Defence Force also did not know how many of its members had been convicted in civilian courts - even if the offending was against another member.

Royal commissioners called for defence force members guilty of sexual crimes to be kicked out of the military.

As the Defence community grapples with issues of accountability, the inquiry urged ADF leadership to make positive cultural change.

Its report documented shocking episodes of physical violence and senior officers abusing their power.

One witness described being kicked, dragged along the ground, punched in the head and having a knife held against their throat.

Liberal MP Phillip Thompson, also an Afghanistan veteran, said “heads should roll” over the failings.

Mr Huggett believes cultural change in the ADF will take at least a generation and casts doubt on the current leadership’s ability to do that.

“It’ll never fix because all we do is have the same type of human being end up leading the ADF and look at the mess we’re in,” he said.

“All they’ve done for the past three years is duck for cover.

“It’s been the greatest deception plan you’ve ever seen in your life.”

Speaking ahead of the report’s release, chair Nick Kaldas spoke of the failure of leadership within Defence.

He said he was worried officials were waiting for the inquiry to finish, before going back to business as usual.

According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data at least 1677 serving and ex-serving members died by suicide between 1997 and 2021, more than 20 times the number of personnel killed in active duty during that same period.

The royal commission estimated the true number of preventable deaths to be more than 3000.