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Medicine Woman's avatar

My family history of military service and the 12 years I spent meeting with and speaking to and helping veterans and their families in my role as Pharmacy Adviser at the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) Adelaide office has me in tears every time I read about the treatment of this man - it is a witch hunt. WHO IS DRIVING THIS? We now find that the government has apparently spent $300 million of our taxes to pursue this man for the past 10 years; he is the latest in a line of military veterans treated shamefully by our govt, which runs an agency which should have been able to prevent the Bondi massacre but failed, and instead harasses men who have served their country. The lack of support for Vietnam veterans (my age group) when they returned contributed to development of many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - no "welcome home parade" as there had been for previous conflicts, but at least one was held 20 years later, and my friends who served in Vietnam said it was helpful for them. Another contributing factor was the theatre of war - unlike previous conflicts, there was no front line, so nowhere safe to rest. I can imagine Afghanistan veterans, who served in the most awful theatre of war I've ever heard of, and their families, being traumatised by this debacle which is playing out so publicly - WHY ON EARTH WERE FILM CREWS TIPPED OFF? APPALLING. The week I started at DVA was the week the body of the Unknown Soldier from World War 1 was repatriated, and we were encouraged to watch the whole event on live TV - a service in front of Parliament House and later at the War Memorial. The honour shown in Canberra then is light years away from what is happening to our veterans now. WHY?

I don't watch TV news but I did watch Topher Field on YouTube, and his revelation about how our govt advertised in Afghanistan for people to come forward for monetary reward for comments about Aussie soldiers doing bad things - what could possibly go wrong? Disgusting. Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars of our taxes that have been spent pursuing this man for all these years, instead of fixing hospitals or providing housing for homeless people, etc, etc.

I expect to see a huge rise in PTSD claims by veterans of this conflict, not to mention the effects on their loved ones.

Many thanks for letting me get this off my chest today!

Liz Turner's avatar

Labor must go asap

This is worst government of my lifetime

Sorry millions will support Ben War Hero not money wasting Tax payers $ by this useless mob

$300 million we need to start saving not paying huge interest on borrowed money

Matt Canavan & Pauline Hansen only two Australians with backbone

God bless them

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