The final report of the four-year Defence Abuse Response Taskforce was released on Friday afternoon – despite being dated March – and has reversed its own previous recommendation for a royal commission into the ADFA assaults, dating mostly from the 1990s.

The Defence Abuse Response Taskforce, or DART, was set up by the former Gillard government. It was independent of Defence and was tasked with sifting through thousands of complaints with a view to making reparations to victims and recommending reforms to the government.

The cases became known as the "ADFA 24" because the taskforce received 24 complaints from women abused at the academy between 1991 and 1998.

It also revealed that the Australian Crime Commission, which normally investigates organised crime, had rejected suggestions that it take on the cases, saying they were outside its remit.

"The dilemma is that there appears to be common agreement that something should be done about abuse at ADFA, particularly in the 1990s, but none of the possible responses seem likely to achieve a satisfactory outcome for various reasons," the report states.

The taskforce concluded "that it no longer supports the earlier recommendation that the government establish a royal commission".

The taskforce under then chairman Len Roberts-Smith, a former senior judge, called in November 2014 for a royal commission into ADFA abuse.

But the federal government asked Sex Discrimination Commissioner Liz Broderick to give advice on the recommendation.

She wrote a report which the taskforce said was not provided to it. But in "informal advice", Ms Broderick said "doing nothing is not an option" and the women who were raped at ADFA "want action to be taken", but the women "do not believe a royal commission is necessarily the best solution".

The report also says none of the ADFA 24 women wanted their cases referred to police but three wanted them sent to the Chief of the Defence force for disciplinary action.

The women had received 23 reparations payments totalling more than $1 million and some had received counselling or "restorative engagement" talks with Defence brass.

"As the women who have alleged abuse at ADFA, on all the available evidence, do not or are unlikely to support any of the options considered for further action, the taskforce cannot take this matter any further."

As an alternative to a royal commission, the taskforce under new chairman Robert Cornall, a former head of the Attorney-General's Department, asked the ACC to investigate, together with ACT Policing.

But Friday's report reveals the ACC rejected the idea, saying the cases were not within its legislated functions – a fact the taskforce accepted.

After four years and $147 million, the taskforce assessed 2439 complaints of abuse in the Australian Defence Force as a whole. Some 133 complaints made up of 191 allegations were referred to state and territory police.

Those included 71 in NSW, 47 in Victoria, 33 in Queensland, 13 in Western Australia, five in South Australia, 13 in the ACT, eight in the Northern Territory and one in Tasmania.

They included rape, sexual assault, abusing a girl under 10, abusing a girl between 10 and 16, buggery, grievous bodily harm, malicious wounding, assaults and threats to kill.

As of March 31, 2016, the vast majority of the police cases remained unresolved. One had been withdrawn by the complainant, one was listed for hearing in the ACT Magistrates court in 2016, and one was withdrawn by the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions.

Some 132 matters had been referred to the Chief of the Defence Force for possible disciplinary action. As of March, 61 of those had been investigated by Defence and no formal administrative or disciplinary action had been taken. This was usually because there was not enough evidence, the alleged perpetrators had left Defence, action had previously been taken or the victim had withdrawn support for further action.

Informal action of some kind had been taken in relation to seven complaints.

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