A mountain of work is needed to deliver more than 100 recommendations from a damning veteran suicide royal commission, the government concedes.
Nine recommendations have been fully implemented and a further 110 are under way, Veterans' Affairs Minister Matt Keogh told parliament on Thursday.
The limited progress comes almost a year after the inquiry's final report was handed down, but the minister said a suite of reforms would ensure members of the defence force, veterans and their families received the care they needed.
"We will continue to do what's right to take action on the royal commission as quickly as we can. It's the least we can do," he said.
Labor provided its response in December, accepting the overwhelming majority of the 122 recommendations.
A task force set up in 2024 to guide reform found four priority areas, such as establishing a Defence and Veterans’ Service Commission and addressing military sexual misconduct.
The commission, legislated within three months of the government's response, will receive $44.5 million over four years and lead implementation of other recommendations.
It will be operational by the end of September, as the government recruits a commissioner to head the body.
Sexual misconduct remained a "systemic" issue for the Australian Defence Force, with the government agreeing to a standalone inquiry into the issue.
Measures that will allow defence force personnel convicted of sexual crimes to be booted from the military would be in place by the end of 2025, Mr Keogh said.
Work continues to ensure troops convicted of serious crimes during their military service get a civilian record of their offending.
This involves co-operation between civil agencies and government departments to feed records into the national police reference system.
Opposition veterans' affairs spokesman Darren Chester accused Mr Keogh of "putting lipstick on a pig".
"It was extraordinary that the minister came in here and endeavoured to pretend this is a good reform when it actually disenfranchises our veterans and their families," he said.
The opposition was given less than a day's notice about Mr Keogh's progress report, which Mr Chester claimed had been worked on for weeks.
Mr Chester told parliament he agreed with the broad themes in the royal commission, but was concerned its findings risked a false narrative.
"It's important that we don't feed a vicious media cycle of despondency, desperation and helplessness when help is available to our veterans and their families," he said.
"The vast majority of Australian Defence Force personnel are proud of their service."
Following the royal commission, an independent inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force began in 2024 into claims the military justice system had been "weaponised" to cause harm to some personnel.
Mr Keogh said the inquiry uncovered systems that were "frankly broken, of culture that was toxic, and that simply not enough was being done to support our Aussie personnel in and following service".
The royal commission found 1677 serving and former serving defence personnel had died by suicide between 1997 and 2021 - more than 20 times the number killed in active duty during the same period.
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