Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“I'd like to finish by saying that the current senior leadership of the Air Force are cowards. You demand courage of everyone who serves under you through the ADF values statements, but you lack the moral courage to stand up to the bullies, the abuses and the sexual perverts who prey on the men and women who've signed up to protect their country and serve under you.”

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From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

The Royal Commission into veteran suicides is probing the ugliest parts of the Australian Defence Force.

Putting the spotlight on accountability and leadership, evidence heard by the commission has cast doubt on Defence’s ability to protect the wellbeing and safety of its people.

One former defence chaplain shared the story of the abuse she experienced, and says when she sought help, she was told to deal with it herself.

Today, senior political reporter for The Saturday Paper, Karen Middleton, on allegations of lies, cowardice, and poor leadership in the ADF.

And a warning - this episode discusses abuse and suicide.

It’s Thursday, September 7.

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ANGE:

Karen, you've been following the royal commission into veteran suicides. There's been hundreds of witnesses so far, plenty of harrowing evidence. But last week, you were drawn to the story of Nikki Coleman. Can you tell me about her and why she decided to speak up?

Karen:

Yeah Ange. Dr. Nikki Coleman was a member of the Defence Force. She was in the Royal Australian Air Force, and she's a chaplain with the Uniting Church and she's also a military ethics specialist. She actually left the Defence Force in March of this year so she could give evidence to the Royal Commission because a number of things had happened to her in recent years that had prompted her to make some complaints and she was told that she wasn't allowed to give evidence to the royal commission if she remained a serving officer. So she made a decision to leave so she could actually speak.

And what she told them was that in 2019, a colleague began abusing her effectively in a range of different ways. Some of that behaviour was all the way to indecent assault, general assaults, threats to kill and other allegations of bullying and harassment. She told the commission she endured it for three months and then she says she approached a senior chaplain to seek some advice about what she should do, how she should manage this.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“When I was thinking about making a complaint, a senior chaplain, I would say, directed me to think very clearly about whether I wanted to make a complaint, encouraged me to not make a complaint outside of the branch for a whole heap of reasons.”

Karen:

The counsel assisting the commission said very clearly that in listening to her evidence, it was not going to focus on the alleged abuse itself. It was going to focus on how the complaints were handled, because this part of the royal commission is looking at accountability and leadership.

And so she talked about having gone to this senior chaplain and said, what should I do? Her first advice that she was given was a Bible verse, I think it was Matthew Chapter 18:15-17 and the implication of it is, sort it out in house. If you've got a problem with another person, go to them and sort it out yourself.

And then the second lot of advice was, well, if you absolutely have to make a complaint, which is what she decided she wanted to do, you must not include all the most serious allegations because you haven't got any hard evidence.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“So I was directed by a senior chaplain that I couldn't include anything in that complaint, that I didn't have eyewitness or written evidence for or photographic evidence for. I was really lucky that I had some photographic evidence. I was really lucky that I had witness evidence and some written evidence.”

Karen:

And in fact, the chaplain she had gone to for advice had also suggested to her that the other reason for not making those really serious allegations was that it would be casting aspersions on an innocent man and that it would be unfair to him and to his family.

Audio excerpt -- Speaker:

“One was, and I'll be paraphrasing from your statement, but one was that it would be unfair to cast aspersions on an innocent man such as your abuser.”

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“That would be a direct quote that was said to me, that is correct, yes.”

ANGE:

Right. So Nikki Coleman goes to this senior chaplain, gets this advice that, by the sounds of it, was not entirely appropriate for what she was asking for. What does she do from there? Does she tell anyone else about what's going on? How does this continue to unfold?

Karen:

Well, she decided she did want to proceed and she went away and drafted a complaint. She took a long time to do it, a number of months. And she made a complaint that had 12 allegations. They gave her the bare minimum information that her complaints, ten of them had been substantiated, but they weren't going to tell her officially, and they still have never told her officially what action they took as a result of that.

Audio excerpt -- Speaker:

“Were you actually told at that point or ever officially what action would be taken in respect of the abuser on account of the substantiated complaints?”

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“No, I'm not allowed to know that. Air Force has never officially told me. I verbally objected to that and was told that the Air Force has a different interpretation of the Privacy Act…”

Karen:

And so she felt that that was an inappropriate process and it weighed on her mind that she hadn't been allowed to make the other allegations formal either. She did confide in another colleague, a female colleague, about the more serious allegations. And eventually that colleague said, I think you should report those other allegations as well, and that that was then done. So the second lot of allegations were then investigated. And so there was at least preliminarily some substance worth investigating in that case as well.

ANGE:

So, I guess that sounds promising. This secondary investigation, her allegations were being investigated. What did that process ultimately lead to?

Karen:

Well, she was ultimately told in November of last year that charges were not going to be pursued, firstly because the allegations were serious enough that they could be referred to the civilian justice system so that maybe the military justice system wouldn't deal with them. And secondly, because the person she was accusing was leaving the Defence Force and going to be a minister in a parish outside, and so he wouldn't be serving anymore. So they really didn't have jurisdiction. And she was feeling like he was leaving in order to avoid that happening. So it sort of again, it became a bit of a black hole. She already felt that the system had been favouring this person over her because the arrangements that were made for them to both continue doing their job while all these investigations were going on, she felt had allowed him more room to move around than her, for example, when colleagues invited her to go have a coffee or something in another area, she couldn't go because it was in part of the place that she wasn't allowed to go to and she couldn't tell them why.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“I was just cast aside. I was uninvited from chaplaincy events that I would normally be attending so that my abuser could attend. I was ostracised, I had…”

ANGE:

And what do we know about where the senior chaplain that gave Nikki Coleman this advice has ended up? He's still a serving member, right?

Karen:

He is a serving member.

The complaint she made against the senior chaplain who had advised her was found not upheld in terms of unacceptable behaviour. So they said he had demonstrated “poor leadership” was the phrase but not unacceptable behaviour. And part of the reason I thought his story was so remarkable was that the senior chaplain who had advised her was then allowed to take up a role in support of the royal commission.

That occurred before Dr. Coleman had left the Defence Force and before she'd made a final decision to give evidence to the Royal commission. But the senior chaplain is one of dozens of people from the Defence Force who are working in roles in support of the Royal Commission. And one of the tasks that they have is to support witnesses, defence witnesses.
So it did seem strange that a senior chaplain who had been accused of not handling things well and against whom there had been a finding of poor leadership, albeit not anything stronger than that, was then appointed to a position where Dr. Coleman ultimately, and others presumably who were aware of her story, may be giving evidence. And he continues to be there as far as we know.

ANGE:

After the break… how a culture of secrecy in Defence is contributing to poor mental health and suicides.

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ANGE:

Karen, we're talking about the case of Nikki Coleman, who was let down at multiple turns by defence when she was reporting allegations of abuse by a colleague. Can you tell me a bit about what her evidence demonstrates in terms of how the ADF handles these kinds of serious complaints?

Karen:

Ange, this was another interesting aspect of all of this. Nikki Coleman is the Uniting Church Minister, Chaplain and the person against whom she made the allegations and the senior chaplain to whom she went with the allegations are from a different denomination to hers. She pointed back to the findings of another royal commission, the Royal Commission into Institutional Handling of allegations of child sexual abuse. And she said that, you know, as a result of that, there is now a responsibility upon all clergy to report to the Church any indication that there was evidence of some practice or behaviour that could make someone unfit for ministry or unable to perform their ministry to the appropriate standard in some way? So she felt she had an obligation to report this. She asked the senior chaplain to do it and he didn't do it. So in the end she went and did it herself. And the church did undertake its own investigatory process and came to its own conclusion. So she did not spell out what they were. But what she did say was the church communicated those findings to her and also communicated them to her colleagues. And she made the point that that was quite a bit different to the way the Defence Force had handled it and arguably a little bit better.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“It's a shock to me that a church can handle sexual abuse claims better than the Air Force.”

ANGE:

Karen, This story obviously illustrates the issues Defence has when dealing with serious complaints, and it's not a good picture by, you know, listening to this evidence at least. But this Royal Commission is into veteran suicides. Can you tell me about how Nikki Coleman's story fits into that and why it's so important to hear evidence like this?

Karen:

Well, I was quite struck by the framing of Nikki Coleman’s evidence, and she said from the beginning that, you know, she as an ethicist, is always interested in moral courage and she felt she couldn't in good conscience talk about moral courage and encourage it in others and then not have moral courage herself. She said, if people don't show moral courage, that it risks undermining the important work and purpose that the Australian Defence Force is engaged in. She's not anti-the Defence Force at all, but she makes the point that they're actually undermining their own capabilities if they're not encouraging people to act on conscience and to uphold the moral dimensions of their job as well as the physical ones.

And she is, of course, one of the many witnesses, as you say, who have given evidence and spoken about the psychological impact of some of the ways that Defence and Veterans Affairs have handled the transition out of the Defence Force. when people leave the Defence Force, the communications with people and still while they were serving, and that she has said and others have said that they feel that these processes are contributing significantly to people taking their own lives. And we have seen, you know, the terrible statistics of people committing suicide or self-harming because they're somehow not coping anymore with life either while they're still serving or when they've left their service. And she points very clearly to the processes within those departments and government overall as not being adequate and letting people down.

ANGE:

And Karen, you mentioned that this block of hearings is focusing all on leadership and accountability. What do you think Nikki Coleman's story tells us about leadership in the Defence Force, but also specifically within the area that Nikki Coleman was in the Air Force?

Karen:

Well, she was scathing about leadership in the Air Force.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“You are cowards because you don't..you know the scope of the problem. But instead of doing something about it at a defence wide level, or even at an individual case level, when you have the opportunity, instead you look the other way, effectively protecting the abusers by allowing them to continue to serve.”

Karen:

She called them cowards and liars.

Audio excerpt -- Dr. Nikki Coleman:

“You lie when you say you take unacceptable behaviour and more serious abuse seriously. You lie when you say that people are your most important asset...”

Karen:

And she was allowed to do that. And that goes to what this whole Royal Commission is doing. And it's a sunlight exercise. It's about bringing things to light that are hidden either because people feel ashamed or grief stricken or just don't talk about it, or they're outside the Defence Force and no longer the problem of the system.

But the system clearly is not functioning properly. People are suffering and it's very important that we hear the personal experiences of people who've moved through service in the Defence Force, maybe those who are still in the Defence Force and how the system manages it, because that's the only way we get accountability. And I think the takeaway from this story with Dr. Nikki Coleman is there's still a default to secrecy and protection of reputation and avoidance of complication and embarrassment.

And if we can't get past that, how on earth are we going to help people and stop them resorting to the terrible things they have in order to get relief?

ANGE:

Karen, thanks so much for your time today.

Karen:

Thanks Ange.

ANGE:

If you or anyone you know needs help, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Support for ADF members and their families is available from the Defence All-hours Support Line on 1800 628 036. Veterans and their families can contact Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today…

Co-chair of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament design group, Marcia Langton, has said that clever falsehoods from the 'No' campaign are deceiving Australians.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Professor Langton said that the Yes camp has had their arguments misrepresented, and that it’s crucial they deliver the facts and figures to counter them.

And

Nationals leader David Littleproud is facing an internal push to dump the party’s net zero policy, according to reporting in the guardian.

A motion submitted by Barnaby Joyce ahead of the National party conference this weekend… is calling on the party room to abolish its commitment to achieving net zero by 2050.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

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