By Renee Wilson, CEO, Families of Veterans Guild
Yesterday the Australian Government announced the biggest peacetime defence spend in our nation’s history. Nuclear submarines. Ghost Shark drones. Hypersonic missiles. A strategy built for what is looking to be the most challenging era since World War II for our nation.
Buried deep in the document, there is a short section about people — our “most important capability” — with a thank you to ADF members and their families for their “continued commitment and service.” A thank you. After everything they give and will be expected to give. I am sure it is appreciated, but where is the firm commitment of an investment in people and their families in the $53bn boost to defence?
The 2026 National Defence Strategy set out yesterday should be a wake-up call for Australia. We are living in dangerous times and need people willing to stand in the path of that danger. Their families will also need to make extraordinary sacrifices so Australia can remain strong, peaceful, and secure — these families will carry the long-term consequences of their loved ones’ service. In the 98-page document families are only mentioned four times.
Meaningful action for families is a national imperative
Like in the Strategy, people are repeatedly described as Defence’s most important capability, yet they remain chronically underinvested in. While the rhetoric around people and defence and veteran families is shifting — with families finally starting to receive more airtime in Defence and veteran circles — it is time to move beyond words and turn that recognition into meaningful action and investment.
Meaningful action has been lacking for defence and veteran families for some time because the system of care and its key players assume:
- Family support must be conditional on what has happened to a veteran.
- Families are supported when the veteran is supported.
- Families do not need support because they did not serve.
Our 2025 Veteran Families Survey conducted by YouGov, which spoke with nearly 600 family members of current and former ADF personnel, tells a different story. More than half (52%) of Australian defence and veteran families experienced mental health challenges. Anxiety. Depression. PTSD. They are twice as likely to face these challenges as the average Australian. Yet only 36% believe Australia’s mental health services service their unique needs.
Almost half also reported difficulties accessing basic healthcare. GPs. Specialists. Hospitals. Not specialist trauma care — basic healthcare. Furthermore, a third of those with a person with disability in their household couldn’t access the services they needed.
And Veteran families aren’t just sacrificing their health; they’re sacrificing their livelihood as well. Our survey showed they experience unemployment at more than three times the rate of the general population. Three times. Unsurprisingly, more than half are worried about their finances, which no doubt is being exacerbated by the current impact of the fuel crisis on our economy.
These are not edge cases. These are the families of the people we are now asking to crew our submarines, operate our drones, and staff the force that will supposedly deter conflict across the Indo-Pacific.
A self-reliant Australia must support defence and veteran families
The 2026 National Defence Strategy speaks of self-reliance. Of denial. Of deterrence. But there is nothing self-reliant about a force whose families are quietly breaking under the weight of service. There is no deterrence without retention. And there is no retention without genuinely supporting the people who sit at home through deployments, pack up their lives for the fourth posting in six years, and watch their own careers slowly disappear.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was explicit: families are central to the veteran system and are under-supported. That was not a suggestion. It was a finding.
We have the evidence. We have the data. We have the voices telling the government exactly what they need. What we do not yet have is veteran and defence families being recognised as the defence capability priority that they should be — not a welfare afterthought, but a core pillar of current and future capability.
The Families of Veterans Guild is calling, again, for a Ministerial Advisory Body dedicated to the needs of veteran and defence families. We are calling for the Veteran White Card for mental health to be extended to immediate family members. We are calling for family support to be named — explicitly, funded, and measured — in the next iteration of this strategy.
The Strategy and Integrated Investment Program contain a very serious $425 billion commitment to keeping Australia safe. We do not dispute the need. But you cannot build a force of that scale and ambition while continuing to treat its families as an afterthought or feel-good statement.
The families of our veterans and serving members enable defence. They champion it. They dedicate their lives to it. It is time the defence and its strategy said so — and tangibly proved its commitment.
