A damaging cycle of abuse within the Australian Defence Force is likely to continue without a "circuit breaker", the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has been told.
The former chair of the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (DART) and retired judge Len Roberts-Smith continued his evidence on the eighth day of hearings in Townsville on Wednesday.
DART was established in 2012 to assist complainants who had suffered abuse, harassment, and bullying in the ADF prior to April 2011.
Mr Roberts-Smith told the commission how senior personnel exercised their power to inflict abuse on junior recruits at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and other defence training facilities.
"[Junior soldiers] are in no position to challenge the giving of the order but they do know that if they fail to obey an order they are going to be in serious trouble."
The taskforce had found sexual abuse in the ADF was experienced almost entirely by women, the commission heard.
"The majority, in my recollection, were more an exercise of power and abuse in the context of hazing and initiation by multiple offenders," Mr Roberts-Smith said.
Former DART chief says 'cycle continues'
The commission was told the number of sexual abuse incidents reported to DART had declined since peaking the 1970s.
But it was still prevalent in the Navy, which made up 41 per cent of cases despite comprising just 25 per cent of ADF forces.
The DART report also found more than 60 alleged perpetrators were still serving in the ADF when it handed down its report in 2014, the commission heard.
"It's hard not to think there was just a fundamental failure by Defence to protect these young people," Commissioner Peggy Brown told the commission.
Mr Roberts-Smith said that was "the obvious conclusion that is reflected in our [the taskforce's] report".
"I think the potential continuing ramifications are that the cycle continues," he said.
Mr Roberts-Smith told the commission that DART had raised the idea of introducing an abuse complaints mechanism that sits outside the ADF chain of command.
"It could be an avenue for them to go to the Defence Force Ombudsman," Mr Roberts Smith said.
"He only does administrative reviews at present, but he could be given a function of receiving complaints of … allegations of abuse."
Reports hidden from public
During its tenure, DART made a number of interim and quarterly reports about its findings, but the commission heard they were not easily accessible to the public.
"I was disturbed to find, when I came to prepare for this royal commission, that I had great difficulty in locating the taskforce reports on the web or anywhere else, and there are very few hard copies available," Mr Roberts-Smith said.
"I thought that was a very unfortunate state of affairs and one which I think should be rectified.
The hearings will conclude in Townsville on Thursday before resuming in Hobart in August.
