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The Toxic Culture in ADF Leadership

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Right now, the top brass in the Defence Force is avoiding responsibility, and the Labor government is letting them get away with it. Why hold a Royal Commission into veteran suicide or an inquiry into honours and awards if the government is just going to ignore the findings?

One Nation proudly stands with Senator Jacqui Lambie’s urgent motion.

We are calling on the government to hold the top brass accountable; adhere to legal and moral obligations to our ADF members; and ensure no ADF member is denied legal protections or access to justice just because they are serving overseas.

It’s time to end sexual discrimination and ensure every man and woman in uniform is protected under the law.

It’s time to fix this problem.

— March | Senate Speech

Transcript

Senator Roberts: I thank Senator Lambie for moving this motion. The Australian Defence Force, as Senator Paterson has just said, protects us and it relies upon its people to do so, and we need to protect the Australian Defence Force people.

One Nation supports getting this on the record and noted urgently—urgently! I agree with Senator Gallagher; this place is a shambles, and the Labor government is making it even worse. Labor is destroying formal motions. We saw yesterday a stunt persecuting and denying Pauline Hanson justice that was cooked up days in advance. It was in the media. So, yes, we agree with you; this place is a shambles. The top brass in the Defence Force is avoiding responsibility and that is what Senator Lambie is after here.

Why have a royal commission into veteran suicide, why have an inquiry into honours and awards and just ignore both of them—ignore everything—and just let the top brass run? We need to hold the top brass accountable. 

As I read this motion, Senator Lambie is calling the government to immediately abandon this position, adhere to its legal and moral obligations to ADF members and ensure that no ADF members are denied legal protections or access to justice because they were serving outside of the Australia at the direction of the Commonwealth. She just wants women to be protected. She wants all people in the Defence Force to be protected. The key issue here is sexual discrimination and an answer from the government to fix this problem regardless of whether it goes to court.

We support Senator Lambie. 

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Fatal Flaws, Zero Charges

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A Comcare investigation alleged that the Department of Defence committed serious workplace health and safety breaches. Defence knew the “TopOwl” helmet displays could show incorrect altitudes yet overrode internal systems anyway, sending pilots into low-altitude, night-time conditions.

Why did the Commonwealth prosecutor decline to press charges? Surely they should release their legal reasoning to give the victims’ families closure.

Senator Farrell acknowledged the tragedy and confirmed that Comcare handed its investigation findings over to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. However, he declined to provide further details or release the prosecutor’s legal reasoning, stating that independent investigations by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force and the Queensland Coroner are still active. The government maintains it is inappropriate to comment on or interfere with these ongoing processes.

September 2025 | Question Time

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: My question is to the Minister representing the Attorney-General, Senator Farrell. We remember Captain Daniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Phillip Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs. Minister, the Comcare investigation into the fatal Taipan Defence helicopter crash in the Whitsundays, released in response to my order for the production of documents, revealed the national health and safety investigator alleged serious breaches of workplace health and safety laws by the Department of Defence. There has been no explanation for why the Commonwealth prosecutor did not lay charges, despite these clear findings. Minister, given this new information, will the government release the Commonwealth prosecutor’s reasons for not pressing charges, despite the allegations from Comcare to give the families of the crash victims closure and ensure that these allegations are properly tested in court? 

Senator Farrell: I thank the senator for his question. This issue obviously is an issue concerning the Attorney-General, but, as you have said, Senator, we do recognise and pay tribute to the fallen MRH-90 aircrew who were lost in Lindeman Island on 28 July 2023. As to the specifics of your question, Comcare is the independent federal work health and safety regulator responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act. In July 2023, Comcare began an investigation of potential work health and safety offences relating to the fatal crash which you referred to in your question. The investigation focused on the Department of Defence’s duty owed to workers under the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act. Comcare conducted a thorough investigation and have provided their findings to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. There are ongoing independent investigations on this matter by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force and the Queensland coroner, who is also supported by the Queensland police. As these investigations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on them at this stage. 

The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, first supplementary? 

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, the clarity of these Comcare documents provides a real justification to waive the immunity on legal advice and understand why this case was not progressed on behalf of the victims’ families. Do you accept there are genuine grounds to understand why? Will the government release the reasons why the prosecutor chose not to follow the advice Comcare provided? 

Senator Farrell: I thank Senator Roberts for his second supplementary question. I don’t believe the Attorney-General does believe that in these circumstances. There are certain relatively fundamental principles that apply in all these cases where further investigations are being undertaken. We feel great compassion for the families of the people who were lost in this terrible accident. There are investigations underway. I think the Senate ought to leave those investigations to the appropriate authorities to make a final determination of the issue. I think that’s the appropriate course of action in these circumstances. 

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Backing Our Diggers Means Holding the Brass Accountable

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A report revealed from a motion I put into the Senate, that the government kept a helicopter flying for more than 5 years with a defective engine part.

That MRH-90 helicopter that crashed in Jervis Bay without any fatalities was a stroke of luck. Four months later, another helicopter crashed in the Whitsundays, resulting in the death of four Defence personnel. This report reveals that senior “leadership” of Defence was willing to put people’s lives at risk with defective engine parts. The question must be asked – how many other risks were they willing to overlook or explain away?

One Nation backs our Defence Personnel.  The Government can’t claim they do unless they hold senior members of the Defence Department accountable for their failures.

Transcript

I rise to speak on the document produced in response to order for the production of documents No. 200. This order relates to the MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash in Jervis Bay in May 2023. The helicopter call sign Bushman 82 was hovering low to water on a training exercise, with divers suspended below, when it experienced a catastrophic failure of its left-hand engine. The helicopter ditched into the water—in a stroke of luck, without any fatalities. Just one month later, Defence gave the MRH-90 helicopter a completely clean bill of health and authorised it to continue flying. The Senate agreed to this OPD in May 2023, requiring Defence to hand over any safety reports and documents in relation to the crash. We wanted to know how Defence had certified the helicopter as safe so quickly after such a significant incident. In defiance of the order of this Senate, the Minister for Defence refused to hand over any documents, citing an ongoing internal investigation, despite the helicopter already being back in the air, threatening lives. The government and Defence advised that that investigation should conclude in October 2023. 

In June 2023, a month after, the Senate reiterated its order for the documents in motion 243, with a new deadline of November in accordance with the advice of the government. We gave them a go. They failed to produce even a response to that order until the Senate sought an explanation in December of 2023. We can see how time marches on and is irrelevant to Defence. 

Now we fast forward to September 2024, 18 months after the crash and nearly a year after the government promised to respond. We finally have a response and documents, yet it is not a compliant response. It’s a redacted version of an executive summary to a single report. The order very clearly specified ‘all incident reports, safety evaluations, briefing notes, correspondence and information held by the Department of Defence, the defence minister or the defence minister’s office’. The executive summary to one report clearly doesn’t satisfy this request. 

Minister, where are your briefing notes? Where is your correspondence? Are you telling the Senate that you and your office had nothing to say about the Jervis Bay ditching? The executive summary is dated 2 August 2024. That’s three months and two weeks ago. Did Defence sit on this report before giving it to the minister? Why the delay? The six pages of redacted executive summary we do have are from the Defence Flight Safety Bureau’s aviation safety investigation report. From what we do have, a few things are clear: 

The engine failure was caused by the rupture of Blade 34 from the High Pressure 1 (HP1) wheel in the High Pressure Turbine (HPT). 

They know the cause. Another quote reads: 

… in 2017, as a result of several HP1 failures across the global fleet, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) issued a NH90 Service Bulletin recommending that operators … replace HP 1 blades with modified blades. 

Another quote reads: 

The investigation highlighted that there was no definitive evidence of the completion and recording of hazard analysis and safety risk assessments related to HP 1 failures during MRH-90 PCS operations. 

Defence decided to keep flying the helicopters without the modified parts and eventually get around to it while failing to consider and document the risk that these things would lose an engine during low-level flight because of this. In 2023, five years after the bulletin was given to Defence, Bushman 82 was still flying in Jervis Bay, without the recommended modified parts. 

This report, while not compliant with the Senate’s order, is important because it again demonstrates Defence was willing to overlook serious risks when it came to this helicopter—risks involving lives. How many other problems with the MRH-90 helicopter did Defence overlook? How many times did they allow this thing back in the air, knowing it would unnecessarily put our defence personnel at needless risk? How many potentially catastrophic issues, like the TopOwl headset, were supposedly mitigated or did Defence just explain away? 

These documents are important because this helicopter should have been pulled from service a decade ago. The MRH-90 should have been permanently grounded after Bushman 82 ditched into Jervis Bay—the latest, at the time, of a series of incidents. It wasn’t pulled from service, and, four months later, Bushman 83 crashed in the Whitsundays, resulting in the death of four personnel: Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph Phillip Laycock—Phil, as he was known; troop commander Captain Danniel Lyon; Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent; and Corporal Alexander Naggs. May they rest in peace. Blood is on the hands of the Defence leadership and successive defence ministers who kept this helicopter in the air when it belonged on the ground. I seek leave to continue my remarks later. 

Leave granted; debate adjourned. 

News Article from The Australian

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