Australia must draw a line in the sand on alleged war crimes committed by elite troops in Afghanistan or risk "callously" increasing veteran suicide, a parliamentary inquiry says.
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A committee report found the country needed to "rebalance" the national conversation about this chapter in Australian military history.
Former judge Paul Brereton's damning 2020 report found credible evidence of allegations that 25 Australian soldiers had murdered 39 Afghan civilians.
But the chair of the defence sub-committee Julian Hill, warned in the report released on Thursday the nation's special forces should not be defined by individual or institutional failures which occurred more than a decade ago.
"The sub-committee concluded that, frankly speaking, it is time to draw a line in the sand and rebalance our national conversation about this period," the Labor MP said.
"Most Australians who served in Afghanistan did so with distinction. SASR has a proud history, has accepted responsibility, sought to learn from past cultural failings and transformed.
"As a society, Australia risks repeating another Vietnam and callously increasing veteran suicide if we lose perspective and balance."
Mr Hill pointed to security classifications preventing most of the "good work" done by the Special Air Service Regiment from ever being publicly known.
He said the government, the parliament, and media outlets bore the responsibility to highlight the importance of their service.
The committee spent time at Campbell Barracks in Western Australia with the SASR, where discussions "made clear" the scale of the regiment's transformation.
The inquiry into defence's annual report found "serious issues" in recruitment and retention.
Instead of net growth of 1000 personnel, the Australian Defence Force went backwards by about 900 people, and was 5.6 per cent below recommended levels from the last financial year.
Defence forecast it will only achieve 72.8 per cent of the 2022/23 financial year enlistment target.
This makes it significantly lower than what is required to offset the number of personnel leaving the ADF, with the separation rate about 6600 people.
There are 42 workforce categories and occupations which have been classified as critical in 2023, and include a high number of STEM roles.
In the report, the committee said it was concerned by the department's latest figures which didn't "inspire confidence that Defence will be able to stabilise current numbers, let alone grow the workforce".
Defence had not appeared to have fully developed measures to adjust its workforce planning in response to evolving needs, it added.
The defence strategic review, which was released earlier this year, found reliance on the ADF for disaster recovery undermined its ability to protect the nation.
The inquiry found more than 50 per cent of Defence members had been assigned to domestic disaster relief tasks.
Mr Hill said the risks to Australia were "genuine and profound" and governments needed to lift their game in building crisis response.
"The near-persistent requirement for Defence to respond to domestic crises is unsustainable and creates unacceptable concurrency pressures that will soon degrade the ADF's warfighting capability," he said.
The committee handed down 12 recommendations, which included Defence reporting back every six months for the next two years on its efforts to retain personnel.
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Australian Associated Press
