Defence has 'failed' veterans, army chief says

Lieutenant General Simon Stuart appeared at the defence and veteran suicide royal commission on Friday.

The inquiry, sparked by a rash of suicides among veterans and defence personnel, is holding its final public hearings in Sydney this month, with a final report to be handed down in early September.

"Our focus and our capability has always been on people," he said. "We have failed along the way."

Lt-Gen Stuart said it was "axiomatic" Defence had a responsibility to proactively work to increase support and protective measures for personnel, despite the traumatic nature of some aspects of service.

"I'm very glad there is a royal commission because I think it provides us with a once in a generation opportunity to focus on making a difference."

Lt-Gen Stuart said a key challenge facing his organisation was the many data sources that needed to be simplified in order for leadership to have a complete picture of what was happening.

He said currently, that had to be brought together manually.

Asked if there was a system to receive reliable data identifying where there may be a high number of incidents of self harm for a cohort or a location, Lt-Gen Stuart said there wasn't.

"We are seeking the ability to use and correlate the some of the data sets we already have, in a way that doesn't require people to spend inordinate amounts of time finding, assembling, correlating, analysing," he said.

"Then we can better use our people's time to do analysis ... for the purpose of assisting me to make better decisions."

Defence Minister Richard Marles and Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh both previously told the royal commission there had been issues of timeliness and accuracy of the advice from Defence leadership.

An interim report released by the royal commission in August 2022, made 13 urgent recommendations for the federal government.

Australian Associated Press