Access to Information Inquiry open for public submissions
The Acting Commissioner is inquiring into the Government’s implementation of recommendations 9 to 13 from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s Interim Report.
The inquiry is about how information held by the Department of Defence (Defence) and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) can be accessed by serving and ex-serving members of the Australian Defence Force (the ADF), and their families.
This inquiry is an important first step for the DVSC in its role of overseeing the implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide (Royal Commission).
The objective of the inquiry is to assess the implementation of the Australian Government’s response to recommendations 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the Interim Report of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, and the effectiveness of these reforms.
The Government agreed to these recommendations in its response in September 2022.
The DVSC is assessing whether the implementation of these recommendations meets the intent of the Royal Commission and whether they ultimately improve suicide prevention and wellbeing for serving and ex-serving ADF members.
The inquiry is open for public submissions until 24 March 2026. We particularly want to hear from current and ex-serving ADF members and their families, and other individuals and organisations with experience of engaging with the information access process in Defence and/or DVA. You can read more about this inquiry, including how you can get involved, on the Access to Information Inquiry page.
