High rates of suicide among serving Australian military and veterans is “undeniably a national tragedy”, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has been told.

The inquiry – set up in 2021 to look at systemic issues and risk factors related to military and veteran suicides – is sitting in Adelaide for two weeks from Monday.

The Adelaide hearings will look how aspect of military life such as leadership, postings and promotions, deployment and career management can impact mental health.

The 10th block of public hearings comes after Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie – a military veteran – last week queried whether the inquiry was going “hard and fast enough” and said veterans were starting to question its utility.

In initial comments on Monday, inquiry chair Nick Kaldas said it was often a bleak situation, but the commission was committed to overcoming “inertia”.

“The high rates of suicide and suicidal behaviour among our military community are undeniably a national tragedy,” Mr Kaldas said.

There were at least 1600 Australian veteran deaths by suicide between 1997 and 2020.

The “numbers speak for themselves”, he said.

The rate of suicide among male veterans was 27 per cent higher than the general Australian population and for ex-military women it was 107 per cent higher.

“The impact of these losses is a tidal wave of grief and anger that washes over friends, family, colleagues and the wider community,” Mr Kaldas said.

He has previously said the commissioners had issued more than 900 notices to produce material and analysed about 230,000 documents.

Discussions were ongoing to resolve stonewalling by some officials, he has said.

Before the Adelaide hearings the commissioners visited the Edinburgh RAAF base in the city’s north to hear from serving members about issues of concern.

A final report with recommendations is due to be delivered to the governor-general by June 2024.

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– AAP