The Abbott government has been told to establish a royal commission to excise the "cancer" of sexual and other abuse in Defence ranks.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon said the formal inquiry was just as necessary as two other royal commissions the government initiated to look at the bungled home insulation program and trade union corruption.
Senator Xenophon was responding to the findings of an upper house inquiry into the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce.
The inquiry recommended the taskforce's term be extended so it can consider new abuse complaints up to the end of June 2015.
It also suggested the government consider establishing a royal commission.
Senator Xenophon, a member of the committee which conducted the inquiry, said the issue went to the heart of defence force integrity.
"This actually casts a pall over those overwhelming number of good men and women who serve in our defence forces," he told reporters in Canberra.
"We need a royal commission to excise this cancer."
The taskforce was established in late 2011 to examine some 2400 complaints of sexual and physical abuse in the defence force, many dating back decades.
It concluded some 2000 were plausible and so far has paid out more than $46 million in reparations to about 1100 complainants.
The Senate committee said it was generally impressed by achievements of the taskforce.
But it concluded that the ADF was showing a lack of urgency in undertaking some critical reforms.
It cited a three-year delay in clarifying when administrative or disciplinary action should be taken over sexual assaults.
The committee said the taskforce report into abuse of young sailors at HMAS Leeuwin between 1960 and 1984 should be referred to the child sex abuse royal commission.
But it stopped short of calling for a specifically defence-related royal commission.
It said the taskforce and government should consider a range of responses to defence abuse in assessing whether there should be a royal commission.
"The welfare of victims of abuse in Defence should be the primary consideration in any decision made," it said.
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