NSW Governor David Hurley has called for "a new direction" for the state's RSL, which he says has been "wounded" by recent financial scandals.

In what can be read as a direct challenge to the embattled RSL NSW council, the highly respected former chief of the Defence Force, who is patron of the state league, raised the spectre of the military's own "Skype affair" sex scandal to underscore the damage the financial abuse allegations have caused the veterans' group.

In his first public remarks about the financial scandals, Governor Hurley used a speech opening the RSL NSW's state congress in Albury to "address that wounding" and focus on its core mission of helping past and present military personnel and their families.

The congress will elect a new council with results expected on Tuesday afternoon but the gathering is overshadowed by auditors' findings that former president Don Rowe withdrew more than $200,000 on his corporate credit card and that some past and present councillors received tens of thousands of dollars in unexplained consultants' fees from the league's aged care arm. The NSW government announced a royal commission-style inquiry last week.

Governor Hurley stressed he would not go "anywhere near" what the outcomes of inquiries or investigations might be.

"But we are all wounded by this as an organisation," he said. "We are all wounded.

"After the Skype affair at ADFA, the ADF was wounded. Despite your good work in the sub-branches and elsewhere and across the board, we are wounded.

"So this conference in particular must address that wounding. All good people involved in this organisation. All people with good intent."

The Skype affair refers to an incident at the Australian Defence Force Academy in which a cadet filmed himself having sex with a female fellow recruit without her knowledge and streamed it to his friends. The incident prompted years of major reforms to Defence culture.

Governor Hurley urged the the NSW RSL to go back to its "noble mandate" of providing for veterans, serving members and their families.

He said at least two or three times the number of soldiers who were killed in combat while he was Defence chief have killed themselves since then. The RSL as the nation's best known and largest veterans organisation was "the biggest gorilla in the fight".

"So do it for them. When you leave here in two or three days' time, you need a new direction," he said.

NSW RSL president John Haines is presiding over the congress, despite having pledged along with other remaining council members to stand aside pending investigations. He is seeking re-election.

Mr Haines told the congress the council had supported investigations into the "governance problems" as well as more stringent auditing and the need to re-examine the connection between the RSL and its aged care arm, RSL Lifecare.

However NSW Veterans Affairs Minister David Elliott has openly expressed frustration that the RSL was too slow to investigate itself before the state government eventually intervened with a formal inquiry.

The current council came under fire on the first morning of the congress for refusing to provide audited financial statements, prompting members to pass a motion expressing concern.

The councillors had said the audited financial reports were privileged though accounting services do not typically attract legal privilege in the way legal advice does.