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The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide concluded with the delivery of its Final Report on 9 September 2024. All enquiries should now be directed to the Attorney-General's Department. See the contact page for more information.

For information about Defence and veteran support services, please see our crisis support information.

Final Report – all volumes

  • Report
Publication date

The Final Report of the Royal Commission is the culmination of three years of inquiry into the suicide crisis in Australia's Defence and veteran population. It comprises seven volume and nine parts – and contains the Commission's analysis of complex cultural and systemic issues relevant to suicide and suicidality among serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members. The Final Report also includes 122 recommendations to Government, which form the Royal Commission's blueprint for real, meaningful and long-lasting reform.

Download: Volume 1: Executive summary, recommendations and the fundamentals [PDF 5.67MB]
Volume 1 of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide final report includes the executive summary and our 122 recommendations. It also sets out how we conducted our inquiry, describes our trauma-informed approach, and introduces our three commissioners – Nick Kaldas APM, the Hon James Douglas KC, and Dr Peggy Brown AO – and our two assistant commissioners – Bob Atkinson AO PSM and Dr Susan Young.

Download: Volume 2: Serving the nation, and Defence culture and leadership [PDF 4.89MB]
Volume 2 contains five chapters on the theme 'Serving the nation' in which we look in detail at life in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

This volume also contains the public report of an in-depth inquiry we conducted and a case study into Navy Clearance Divers.

Download: Volume 3: Military sexual violence, unacceptable behaviour and military justice [PDF 5.55MB]
This volume encompasses two distinct themes: Part 3, Misconduct, complaints and military justice (Chapters 8 to 10); and Part 4, Governance and accountability (Chapters 11 to 13). 

Download: Volume 4: Health care for serving and ex-serving members [PDF 3.6MB]
Volume 4 contains nine chapters on the topic of 'Heath care for serving and ex-serving members' including the provision of healthcare services by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA).

Download: Volume 5: Transition, DVA and support for ex-serving members [PDF 4.42MB]
Volume 5 contains four chapters on the theme of transition and support for former serving members once they have separated from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) – including support provided by DVA.

Download: Volume 6: Families, data and research, and establishing a new entity [PDF 4.77MB]
Volume 6 contains three chapters on matters of importance to the whole Defence and DVA ecosystem, and a final chapter in which we recommend the establishment of a new, independent oversight entity with specific responsibility for preventing suicide of serving and ex-serving members.

Chapter 30, Beyond the Royal Commission, calls on the Australian Government to create a new entity with specific responsibility for preventing the suicide of serving and ex-serving ADF members.

Download: Volume 7: Appendices [PDF 6.3MB]
This volume contains 14 appendices related to the establishment and operations of the Royal Commission, research and quantitative data, details of previous reports and inquiries, and our procedural fairness letters and responses.

Return to the Final Report main page