Long periods at sea in close quarters onboard Australian Navy vessels does not explain reported rates of sexual misconduct, a royal commission has been told.
Australian Navy Chief Vice Admiral Michael Noonan believes cultural reform undertaken over the past two decades means sailors are now more likely to report abuse.
"I have two teenage daughters. I would not have wanted them to join the Navy that I joined in 1984, but I'd be very ... proud if they were to join our Navy in 2022," he told a hearing of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
Between 2000 and 2011, a Defence Abuse Response Taskforce found "the Navy had the highest number of sexual abuse and sexual harassment cases sampled, a high percentage of which cases involved abuse on ships".
"I acknowledge that Navy's reported incidents of abuse may appear to be higher than others, but I would contest that is a reflection of the culture of openness and people being prepared to report incidents at all levels," Vice Admiral Noonan said on Tuesday.
He told the hearing he was aware of 23 women employed by the Navy who had killed themselves since 1990, with five of them serving at the time.
He admitted the number could be higher and said it was difficult to know about somebody's death if it happened many years after their service.
Earlier, commissioners were told an 18-year-old Navy recruit was told to "suck it up" by a superior officer after she was sexually assaulted during a training exercise.
In a smoke-filled ship and wearing breathing equipment and overalls, Danielle Wilson was in a fire simulation drill after joining the Navy with aspirations of being a cook, she told commissioners.
It was the late 1980s, and recruits had been told to remove their underwear which could stick to their bodies in extreme heat, and Ms Wilson remembers noticing the pockets of her overalls had been cut.
"You weren't to leave anyone behind so you had to touch the person in front of you," she told the hearing.
During the drill, the person behind Ms Wilson reached down through her pockets and sexually assaulted her, she said.
The smoke and the breathing apparatus made it impossible to identify her attacker, and Ms Wilson said she did not get any help from her superiors.
"I still don't know who it was because everyone just sort of came out at once," she said.
"Once I calmed myself down, I went on to report it to my supervisor but was pretty quickly dismissed.
"He just said to suck it up, don't worry about it. He just dismissed it, it was no big deal."
Ms Wilson joined the Australian Navy in 1987 and left in 1990, and the experience has had a lasting impact on her life as she suffered depression and panic attacks.
During her service she was also headbutted by a sailor who "didn't like women in the navy" and told by a superior officer that he would "ruin her sex life forever" if she didn't do better in drills, commissioners were told.
It wasn't until Ms Wilson made a complaint to the Commonwealth Defence Ombudsman in 2020 that she felt believed.
The Navy eventually apologised to her, saying what happened should have never been tolerated or ignored.
The royal commission will examine over the next fortnight what defence is doing to address issues with its culture and the support provided to veterans.
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