About Us

My name is Ian Lindgren, and I am the Founder of the Australian Veteran Community. My wife and I started this initiative because we do not want to continue to see veterans and their families go through what we went through since I was injured in 2000.
I would say that I am a veterans’ policy advocate and as well as being the Executive Chairman of four family owned businesses, I am also the Vice Chairperson of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans’ Association. I do happen to be totally and permanent incapacitated due to my service, so I no longer work at the office and instead do a few hours on our family business each week. The majority of my time is dedicated to the veteran community, and I keep at it until I fall ill, then I rest and get up and go again!
Despite total support from the board of the Peacekeepers, I need to be able to speak freely and not put them at risk, and that is the other reason we established the Australian Veteran Community.

It is not meant to be another Ex-service organisation of a charity and I feel that the next few months will see it disappear or become a company.   I’ll wait and see about the outcomes of a number of initiatives I have underway at the moment.

Next to veteran health and wellbeing, my other concern is that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) has creatively misadvised successive Ministers to the extent that it is so confident at this practice of hiding the truth, that from the Secretary DVA down, many of the senior leaders refuse to answer questions and some “are offended” if senior veterans ask probing questions. 

This culture is so effective at being ineffective that despite the Royal Commission for Defence and Veteran Suicide now running for over a year I see little improvement in outcomes except for words, which are of course not outcomes.

I hope you enjoy the site, and I can always do with volunteer help and also other businesses that wish to help fund things because at the moment it is all self-funded by my family.

.