Recommendations Are Not Outcomes: Where the Royal Commission’s Reform Agenda Stands in 2026

ANZAC Day is a day of remembrance. It is also a moment of responsibility.

Each year, Australians pause to honour service and sacrifice. But remembrance also comes with an obligation: to ask whether we are doing enough, in practical terms, to meet the commitments we make to Defence members, veterans, and their families.

This year, that question carries real weight.

In September 2024, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide handed down its final report, a seven-volume body of work built on nearly 5900 submissions, 346 witnesses, and 101 days of public hearings across the country. It identified 1677 certified deaths by suicide among serving and ex-serving ADF members between 1997 and 2021, and made clear the true number is likely much higher. The Commission delivered 122 recommendations.

In December 2024, the Australian Government responded, agreeing or agreeing in principle to 104 recommendations, while noting a further 17 for continued work.

Now, more than a year on from that response, the question is no longer whether the recommendations were necessary. The question is whether implementation is keeping pace with the seriousness of what the Commission uncovered.

Where things stand

There has been progress.

In December 2025, the Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs released a one-year update on the Government’s response. That update pointed to several tangible steps: finalising the Defence Charter for Military Justice Proceedings, redeveloping mandatory sexual violence workshops, piloting a Healthy Relationships Program for new recruits, launching the DVA Suicide Prevention Framework, and progressing work with the Australian Human Rights Commission and Our Watch on a sexual violence prevention strategy aligned to the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032.

Further work was also flagged for 2026, including the establishment of an independent complaints unit, the implementation of workplace health and safety audit findings, and stronger research-sharing arrangements between Defence and DVA.

That progress matters. But it is important to be honest about what it represents.

These are not end states. They are early steps in what was always going to be a long reform effort. The Royal Commission did not call for symbolic adjustments. It called for structural change. And structural change is only real when it is operational, resourced, accountable, and durable.

That is especially true of the Commission’s most consequential recommendation: a new, independent oversight body with specific responsibility for preventing suicide among serving and ex-serving members. The success of that reform will not be measured by whether it is announced. It will be measured by whether it functions, whether it is trusted, and whether it improves outcomes over time.

Why this is not just a government conversation

One of the clearest messages from the Royal Commission was that responsibility for veteran wellbeing does not sit only with Defence or DVA. It sits with the country.

That matters, because it challenges a very common assumption: that these issues belong only to government, specialists, or the veteran sector itself.

They do not.

Government must lead on policy, systems, and accountability. But civil society has a role too, and not a token one.

From where I sit, there are three practical ways that role matters.

First, we need to keep the conversation alive.

Reform often slows when public attention fades. ANZAC Day can bring these issues into focus, but meaningful reform depends on what happens after the commemorations are over. Civic organisations, veteran service organisations, schools, community leaders, and the media all play a role in ensuring these findings do not drift out of view.

Second, we need to equip the next generation to scrutinise implementation.

The Royal Commission’s recommendations will take years to fully land. Many of the young Australians who will inherit the consequences of how well or poorly that work is done are still in school today. At the Odyssey Leadership Foundation, that is one reason we care deeply about civics education and youth leadership. A healthy democracy does not just produce recommendations; it produces citizens capable of asking whether those recommendations are actually being delivered.

Third, we need to support the organisations carrying real weight on the ground.

There is a space between policy reform and lived experience, and it is often filled by community organisations. Grassroots groups like Trek4Vets, Open Arms, Mates4Mates, Soldier On, and Legacy do work that is immediate, practical, and human. Showing up to events, volunteering time, donating where possible, and keeping those organisations visible in the public conversation are not complicated acts, but they matter.

What to watch in 2026

There are many moving parts in the reform agenda, but three markers stand out this year.

1. The independent oversight entity

This remains the keystone reform. If it is properly established, with genuine independence, clear statutory authority, appropriate resourcing, and transparent reporting, it has the potential to create lasting structural accountability. If it is diluted, delayed, or overly constrained, the broader reform effort risks losing its centre of gravity.

2. The independent complaints unit

Flagged for establishment in 2026, this body is intended to provide a safer and more credible pathway for serving personnel and veterans to report unacceptable behaviour. Its effectiveness will depend heavily on its design. If people do not trust it, they will not use it. If it is not meaningfully independent, it will not do the job it was created to do.

3. DVA claims processing reform

For many veterans and families, the reform agenda becomes ‘real or not’ in the claims system. Legislative and administrative reform is underway, but the practical test is straightforward: are claims being processed more quickly, more fairly, and with less unnecessary burden on the people navigating the system? Over the next 12 to 18 months, wait times and complaint volumes will tell an important story.

ANZAC Day, and the work that follows

The compact between the country and those who serve it is not upheld by ceremony alone. It is upheld in systems, decisions, timeliness, and accountability.

This ANZAC Day, the Foundation’s Directors walked with Trek4Vets through the Newcastle night. It was a meaningful gesture of respect, and one we were proud to make. But gestures are not enough on their own.

The harder work is slower. It is less visible. It happens in policy implementation, institutional reform, community support, and public accountability. That work does not belong only to government, and it does not belong only to those in uniform. It belongs to all of us.

The Royal Commission gave the country a roadmap. The question now is whether we are moving fast enough, and with enough seriousness, to follow it.

Because recommendations are not outcomes.

And the distance between the two is measured in time, trust, and, too often, lives.

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 Mario Kondosorov is Secretary and Programs & Policy Director at the Odyssey Leadership Foundation. He oversees program delivery, policy development, and Foundation governance.

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