SENATE BILL: Protecting our Service Men and Women 2013 (Passed)

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I will be harassing the sponsor...

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Some points in relation to this.

The first is that the reporting of serious crimes against the person is much lower in the military than in the general population, which is too low already.

Research shows that a large impediment to reporting of these crimes is the use of military justice over the civilian justice system. There are many cases of serious cases being dismissed for operational and other reasons, not related to the legality of the crime or any sort of resolution.

The purpose of this Bill is two fold, the first is to direct more resources for training of those in positions of care and leadership as to the proper way to handle serious crimes against the person, including taking responsibility away from the military for the prosecution and punishment of these crimes and placing them in the hands of civilian authorities whose only purpose is the application of the law.

The second purpose is to send a message to military leadership that they need to lift their game, too often, serious crimes, especially sexual assaults are left unreported or un-managed, purely for the sake of 'cohesion'. Civilian justice's concern is the application of the law, without being encumbered by such concerns.

I've heard a lot about what current law covers... now this isn't a Bill purely about the laws in isolation. It's about reforms to the current system of military justice to address a significant shortcoming, that is, that operational concerns can trump the protection of service personnel and there is clearly not a culture that is open to such claims. Plus there is also the problem that many, many people in the chain of command and those is positions of pastoral care for service personnel are not doing their jobs properly.

I don't see this as any kind of slap in the face of the military, but accepting that the current system is allowing too many cases of serious crimes to slip through the cracks, is not workable.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Respectfully, I'm kind of startled that this Bill's intent is not clear.

There is a tremendous problem of crimes against the person, especially sexual assault, within the armed forces.

The current arrangements within military justice have been proven to be inadequate and ineffective when it comes to the management, investigation and punishment of these crimes.

This Bill is designed to take the responsibility for the handling of crimes, such as these, out of the hands of military justice and into those of civilian authorities. As well as increase resources to better train military leaders and support staff to better handle these crimes.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Thank you Senators.