Every 16 hours, a serviceman or woman contemplating suicide comes on the radar of Queensland police or paramedics. That’s two every three days, 10 a week, more than 500 a year either seeking help or being in a crisis that screams out their need.

These are not repeat contacts but new contacts, some still in uniform, most out of it but victims of yet another institutional failure that sits with the leaders of our armed forces and the politicians who have aided their ignorance for far too long.

Now, they’re bipartisan in resolving why too many of our veterans are taking their own lives and trying to stop them.

Shamed into action? Yes, as they should. The final report of the royal commission into defence veterans suicides released yesterday is a confronting expose of something deeply wrong in the culture of our nation’s military leadership and the politicians who have tolerated it.

We already know and understand the rot allowed to set in among our most elite forces and its most prominent and decorated members.

The veteran suicide report shows a different form of rot, one even more pernicious because of the sheer scale of deaths of veterans at their own hands.

Some of this relates to existing mental conditions that have gone unrecognised and untreated through the stress that goes with military service.

Some of it relates to the bullying and sexual abuse that has been permitted for too long as part of military life.

This is a moral crisis for the military and for a country that does not act on it.

The lowlights from yesterday’s report include data showing males who have served in combat are twice as likely as the rest of the population to die from suicide. The risk is even higher (2.1 times as likely) for female combat veterans.

The royal commission exposes of the numerous barriers (that) prevent serving and ex-serving ADF members from accessing quality care and support that could reduce the severity of physical and mental health conditions, and the likelihood of poor wellbeing outcomes arising in the longer term ».

Decoded, this means our serving military and veterans are being hung out to dry.

Suicide is the worst outcome but the conditions that prompt it are at least as troubling.

Buried in the report is an illuminating Queensland study which looked beyond deaths and exposed the high numbers of veterans contemplating suicide.

For both the veterans and those around them, this is an appalling condition. It’s a life spent walking on eggshells, a life not due to those we trust to support and protect us in our times of greatest need.

The Queensland study, conducted by the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, is a serious and unemotional look at the data on suicide crises involving serving and ex-serving members of the defence forces.

This is the source of the shocking statistics I highlight at the top of this column. To repeat: one new serving or non-serving veteran facing a suicide crisis comes to the attention of Queensland police or ambulance every 16 hours.

Four-fifths of these are ex-serving military. Every one of them is a human with family and friends deserving our support.

This a serious research study, one of hundreds of resources that contributed to the royal commission report into a serious subject. Its numbers are staggeringly high but they still don’t represent the full picture. They obviously don’t capture those in a crisis state who either aren’t seeking help or coming to the attention of emergency services.

And (this is truly difficult to fathom), they don’t include services provided by either Defence Department or Veterans Affairs agencies.

The researchers sought this data but were denied it on the basis that: « Defence Health information is subject to an equitable duty of confidence. »

Equitable duty? How about an equitable duty of care? Show more of that and we might have more faith that the leadership of Defence or Veterans Affairs can solve this crisis that has festered on their watch.

If you or anyone you know needs help, phone one of these 24/7 services:
Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
Lifeline on 13 11 14
MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN on 13 92 76
Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
Headspace (chat with a clinician 8.30am-midnight) on 1800 650 890