Many of the soldiers wounded in Afghanistan suffer horrific injuries. Roadside bomb explosions have blasted limbs from bodies and robbed sight from eyes. PAUL ALEXANDER: Because the most severe injuries are those that occur through, you know, improvised explosive devices and blast injuries then we therefore see a significant amount of orthopaedic injuries, soft tissue injuries as a result of the blasts, some degree of concussion that occurs as well, as well as some hearing problems that occur in the short term.
PAUL ALEXANDER: The issue in relation to the injuries is that we want to ensure that whatever happens, we provide the best possible physical and mental health services and those individuals can remain quite vulnerable during the early parts of their rehabilitation. We're very conscious of that and we do what we can to ensure that they are given the best possible chance to fully recover.
Terry Meehan is the Queensland president of the RSL and he's especially worried about a condition known as traumatic brain injury, caused by roadside bomb blasts. That's - they don't necessarily have to be inside a bushmaster, it's hard to know the range that the blast will affect people with the roadside bombs.
They could be 10, 15, 20 metres away from it, be knocked off their feet have a little bit of a headache, think nothing more of it. But there's now evidence to suggest it leads to the early onset of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, cluster headaches. Does that make sense? They can't get behind the lines for a rest or a break.
They always have to be on their toes and they always have to be aware and this is because of the improvised explosive devices that are being employed and because, given the whole nature of the war, a lot of them will come back and say we don't know who was good and who was bad. And that's - that constant risk of danger to one's life or fear for one's own life, is corrosive I think in some ways psychologically, so that's probably the big reason.
Not only are they acting different but they can't talk to their partners and family members about why they're different. There's also there's also a sense of shame not only with their families but a sense of shame amongst their work colleagues or in other words the other military people that they haven't been able to manage.
So they find themselves very isolated and very unwell. Short tempered and different things like that. He fought in Iraq not Afghanistan, but like so many soldiers from both conflicts, he suffered acute PTSD and was medically discharged from the army against his will a year ago. It was conducted around a coffee table by a commanding officer who spent 15 minutes of his time to give me a certificate in an el cheapo frame with my history and saying goodbye to myself and especially to my wife.
My wife had to endure all the hardships throughout my military career - they deserve the medals not us. They're not put back onto the front line, but there's other jobs within Australia with our qualifications that we can pass on to other members that are coming through the ranks. We've now formalised a policy where individuals can remain in service long term with physical and mental illness to ensure complete recovery and for that recovery to incur however long it takes, in service.
He points to US research, which shows 10 times more soldiers who've returned from the Middle East have committed suicide than died in action. ANDREW KHOO: As a doctor it's pretty hard for me to condone sending our young men and women away to places where we know that, you know, 10 to 20 per cent are going to come back with a psychiatric illness. When we've got to really look at the difference we're making, so I think as a country and as individuals, we need to really sit down and think how much of a difference is our presence making and is it worth not only losing our young men and women, but having them come back and be, you know, significantly psychiatrically unwell.
But she's had second thoughts since October when three Australian soldiers were killed by a rogue Afghan they were training and 10 others were wounded within a fortnight. Our boys are there for a reason but now I think maybe it's time to bring our boys home. I think yeah, it's maybe getting a bit out of hand and I mean I know it's not as simple as that either, it's just we decide to bring them home and we can, but I do think that maybe, maybe it's time. Obviously we don't want any of our boys to get killed, but they're over there to do a job.
KIEREN KEKE: We believe given the experience that we've had in hosting the facility in Nauru that we know how that can work, we've seen how well it can work, we can- we believe that we can work very constructively with the Australian Government in this.
The so called "Pacific Solution" had prompted claims that asylum seekers were being mistreated on the island - living in prison like conditions, with poor facilities. The asylum seekers in Nauru were actually treated very well. They had excellent facilities. Initially, obviously, it was established quickly and so the facilities were developed over time but they did have excellent facilities.
They were well looked after. They had freedom on Nauru to move about. They went swimming, bike riding, got involved in community activities, attended the local university extension centre.
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The anniversary shows how history is repeating itself. Bins in the disability car space show accessible parking measures need an overhaul. Work halted on Alec Baldwin film at centre of prop gun fatal shooting. And later on the Chinese Government took this as a very important opportunity to blame me, to defame me, that singling out me as a sole agitator of this unrest in Urumqi.
If they didn't do that, if they refused to cooperate with the Chinese Government then their life would be jeopardised. In order to live in China you have to lie or you have to learn how to lie and this is a politically fabricated lie that, and even my children they're duped into believing that I might be the sole agitator of this unrest. The woman who all the fuss is about says China is doing what it always urges other countries not to do and that is meddle with another nation's issues.
Regrettably this festival has nothing at all to do with politics but the Chinese Government has made it politicised.
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