The father of a soldier who committed suicide after being humiliated during his time with the Defence Force says he has little confidence an investigation into sexual misconduct aboard HMAS Success will effect change.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Force Chief Angus Houston have received the first part of a report into allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying onboard HMAS Success in 2009.

Mr Smith says the report "does not make good reading" and the Federal Government will take a zero-tolerance approach to such behaviour.

But Charles Williams says he has heard this before and there is no sign things will change.

Mr Williams's 20-year-old son, Jeremy, killed himself after suffering intimidation and abuse from commanding officers and trainees at the School of Infantry in Singleton, north of Sydney, in 2003.

After a broad-ranging Senate inquiry into the military justice system in 2005, Air Chief Marshal Houston vowed abusive behaviour and bullying in the Defence Force would be stamped out.

"Despite all the promises, protestations from the Chief of the Defence Force, from the various ministers about how they were going to clean-up the military... here we are again six years down the track," Mr Williams said.

"What could there possibly be to suggest that things are going to change or things are going to be different when we have this ongoing track record over many successive years.

"[We have] this culture of abuse and bastardisation re-emerging and re-emerging time and time again."

'Very concerning'

It is alleged there was a long-running culture of bullying aboard HMAS Success.

Sailors on deployment in Asia in 2009 allegedly celebrated Anzac Day by having sex on a pool table in a bar as other sailors cheered.

It is also alleged a group of male sailors put a "bounty" or dollar value on each female sailor they had sex with and there were drinking games during shore leave to get female sailors drunk so they would be more compliant.

An initial Defence investigation was deemed to be biased, and early last year Air Chief Marshal Houston ordered a commission of inquiry by a former Federal Court judge.

He says the 400-page first report raises "very serious issues" and broader cultural and institutional concerns and it will take time to analyse and understand the detailed findings and conclusions.

Mr Smith says it is a "very concerning report" and he wants maximum transparency, intending to make some of the report public once Parliament resumes in a fortnight.

"There are issues of individual, personal conduct and accountability," he said.

"Individuals concerned have rights of process, so I need to be very careful not to, in anything that I authorise to be public, trample on anyone's rights of due process."

But the Minister says he has confidence in the Defence Force command.

"To be blunt about it, it doesn't make good reading, either about... the suggestions of individual conduct nor the suggestions of the discipline nor the suggestions of a particular type of culture," he said.

"To its credit, the Navy, not only the Chief of Navy but the Chief of the Defence Force and the command structure down, have zero tolerance for such unacceptable behaviour."

'Bastardisation'

Meanwhile, Mr Smith says there will be an investigation into another alleged incident of military abuse.

Young soldier Guy Luther-Dan last night went public with allegations of bullying.

"There was a group of us out field and we all got stripped down to our underwear, blindfolded, covered in gun grease," he told the Seven Network.

"You can call it bastardisation. That's what they call it. It's just officers and senior NCOs [non-commissioned officers] picking on soldiers.

"Usually everyone is drunk, so it's very messy. It's very full on - drinking a cup full of gravel oil and grass, cigarette butts."

Mr Smith says the Government cannot completely stamp out individual incidents.

"In the end you're dealing with human beings and like all of us, we have faults," he said.

"What we do want to do is to do our best to minimise those and do our best to make sure it doesn't become an institutional part of culture."

But Mr Williams says the abuse is entrenched in the military.

"[Stephen Smith] may have a zero tolerance, but he is only the minister," he said.

"He can't ensure that zero tolerance is implemented through the chain of command because the chain of command has demonstrated that it does not have a zero tolerance to this behaviour.

"This behaviour is in fact condoned by components and parts of the chain of command. That's why it continues to occur."