RSL Clubs Reminded Their Top Priority Should Be Our Veterans, Not Dark Rooms Full Of Reverse ATMs

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

Despite our yearly nationwide commemoration events, and media-charged professional football matches and public holidays, it seems that Australia’s returned war veterans are not getting anywhere near the amount of support they require.

Data released last month shows that 1,840 serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members died by suicide between 1997 and 2023, according to The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

This comes just over a year after the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s scathing seven-volume final report into this ‘national tragedy’ was made public.

The findings outlined the urgent need for systemic changes to address a ‘catastrophic failure’ in the management of Veteran’s Affairs.

While the Department is slowly working it’s way through 122 recommendations to improve the health of serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, questions are now being asked about the non-government organisations that are also supposedly meant to be helping.

Namely, that famous 109-year-old institution of national folklore that was set up to provide support to people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force.

The RSL, which literally stands for the Returned Serviceman’s League, is facing growing criticism from both the media and the public over the fact that the mulit-multi-multi-million dollar organisation seems far more focused on providing our veterans with venues to drink and gamble on ANZAC Day.

Today it was revealed that the President of the NSW chapter of the RSL, and three board members, had resigned in wake of an ABC investigation into severe conflicts of interests, which coincide with a drafted parliamentary bill for a new central trust to take control of millions of dollars in sub-branch assets.

With more pokie machines than the entire Las Vegas strip, and billions of dollars worth of property to their name, the RSL is being reminded that their job is to actually look after veterans – and that should be a much higher priority then their attempts to turn an ex-serviceman charity into Australia’s largest gaming and hospitality empire.