The federal government has published a previously secret report recommending an overhaul of the military justice system after it was discovered online alongside exhibits tendered to the royal commission into veteran suicide.
Labor frontbencher Malarndirri McCarthy told the Senate on Wednesday the report had been published on the royal commission website “in error” after being provided on a confidential basis.
“I am advised the office of the royal commission removed the document from its website after becoming aware of the error, but it is now public as I’ve just tabled it,” McCarthy said.
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie had previously urged the government to publish the document – a review of the first 20 years of operations of the Office of Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).
Lambie told the Senate on Wednesday that the government’s handling of the issue had been “disgraceful”.
“The truth’s already there,” Lambie said of the military justice system, before the government tabled the review.
“Have you not been watching the royal commission? Sure you have. People from the department have been there every day … I am sick of the cover-up. You say you want to make changes, you say you want the culture to change, you say you want to reduce veterans’ suicide. But you are part of the problem. You are not holding them accountable.”
The report first came to light on Tuesday when Greens senator David Shoebridge found it on the website of the recently concluded royal commission into defence and veterans’ suicide. He and Lambie tried to table it in the Senate but the government blocked the move.
On Wednesday morning, Shoebridge and Lambie distributed the review which contains 51 recommendations including re-establishing the IGADF under new legislation.
The review says a statutory overhaul would secure “the appearance of independence, as well as its fact” to help rebuild broken trust with defence force personnel.
It proposes establishing an independent ADF director of military prosecutions and a registrar of courts martial. The review recommends that whistleblower protection be widened to cover more military justice issues.
It also says special guidance should be issued to commanders and those in pre-command training to “discourage any tendency to conceal potential military justice problems from higher authority”.
Conducted by former federal court judge and former Keating government attorney general Duncan Kerr, the review states the IGADF should be given the resources and authority to conduct more frequent and detailed investigations and that its remit should be expanded to investigate any death of a former member of the ADF – permanent or reserve force – when it occurs within two years of them having served.
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It also recommends the creation of an offence of “taking reprisal action against any person because they have or are suspected to have made a complaint to the IGADF”.
After Shoebridge and Lambie raised the issue on Tuesday, the report was removed from the royal commission’s website, prompting the senators to demand the government explain who ordered it be taken down.
“The government yesterday, in another appalling example of their addiction to secrecy, sought by hook and by crook to prevent this coming out in a timely fashion,” Shoebridge said on Wednesday.
The opposition Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, said the government needed to explain the report’s handling.
“The chaos and the mishandling and the on-again, off-again responses from the government and the accidental publication of the report all deserve to be explained,” he said.
A spokesperson for the defence minister, Richard Marles, declined to comment on the handling of the report.
“The review is complete and is currently being considered by the deputy prime minister [Marles] in the context of the royal commission recommendations to ensure a holistic and pragmatic approach to any proposed reform,” the spokesperson said.
“To respond to one report in isolation of the other would be impractical and ineffective. The deputy prime minister has said the government will agree to implement the thrust of the recommendations of the royal commission, of which reform to the IGADF and military justice system forms a large part.”
