Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to honour our Vietnam veterans and to make some comments with respect to Vietnam Veterans Day and the Battle of Long Tan, and to remember all those who fought and those who died, and those who suffered as a result of our involvement in the Vietnam War. In the process, I will mention some of the people I have met in my time in this place, both as shadow minister and subsequently as Minister for Veterans' Affairs, where I have had the honour and the privilege to work with many members of the Vietnam veterans community.

Many speakers have spoken about the Battle of Long Tan and the nature of what occurred on that occasion, the tremendous courage and bravery of all those who fought as part of that engagement and who safeguarded the very real threat to the Australian base at Nui Dat, recently established, and the nature of the struggle that occurred subsequent to that time around the question of honours and recognition. I will not go into the detail of that other than to make a couple of comments about several of the individuals that were involved, to highlight those individuals as examples of the very fine men who fought on that occasion—and recognising them as representative takes nothing away from others whom I do not mention. I will then talk a bit more about some other broader points with respect to our involvement in the Vietnam War. I note the presence of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs prior to me, the honourable member for Dunkley.

You cannot really go past then Major—subsequently Lieutenant-Colonel retired—Harry Smith. Harry is someone who I have had a lot to do with over the years, as I know the member for Dunkley had, in what was for government a very difficult issue to deal with: the question of how to deal with recognition with respect to events long ago when we were but very young lads and when, it is acknowledged on all sides, things did not turn out the way they should have in terms of acknowledging the great courage and sacrifice that occurred.

Harry is an amazing bloke. He is as tough as nails, as hard as they come. There were times, it is fair to say—and I am prepared to say it now that I am not minister—he was bloody unreasonable. But, if I were ever in the dire situation that D Company was in, with its support units at that time, in that awful rank jungle, in that terrible driving rain, facing such a numerically superior force, I would have wanted someone like Harry Smith there to help me maintain what I needed to do in the circumstances. I have no doubt—from dealing with him over the years with respect to the outstanding matters which relate to acknowledging his men for what they did—that he is a man of enormous conviction, enormous courage and the sort of guts that a lot of people in this place, me included, can only dream about.

Harry remains committed to continuing to focus on and fight for recognition for a number of his men who he feels have not been recognised. I welcome the recent granting of the unit citation as long overdue recognition. It took a long time to get to the stage of being able to have the presentation. There were certainly issues around that, but I will not go to that today. I know from speaking to Harry very recently that those other issues remain outstanding and he remains concerned with aspects of the decisions taken at the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal. I think there are issues around the operation of the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal. Several issues have come before it where there have been legitimate concerns raised. I think it has an incredibly complex role to play dealing with outstanding matters of recognition, but I think it is also time for that tribunal to be reviewed. It has been in operation for long enough for that to occur, and it would be a positive step forward to ensure that a tribunal which does, by and large, a very good and important job is meeting the requirements that the government had when it was established.

I also mention Captain Morrie Stanley, who, as other speakers have mentioned, recently passed away. Then Captain Morrie Stanley was the forward artillery observer attached to the artillery, a Kiwi and a man who directed some 61 artillery fire missions into the site over 3½ hours in the most desperate times and the most appalling conditions. Morrie was able to be granted the unit citation in the time before his passing. Morrie Stanley was a modern epitome of the great linkage between Australia and New Zealand that dates back to the time of Gallipoli and he was a man that was enormously respected by those he worked with. No doubt, given the work he did at that time, his professionalism, his dedication and his skill saved many Australian lives. One other person I would mention in passing—again, someone who would be known to the former minister—is Lieutenant Adrian Roberts, who was in charge of the APCs that arrived in support of D Company. Adrian is one of the people whose individual acts of valour I do not believe have been sufficiently recognised. He came back a man suffering from the circumstances of his service but, always dedicated to helping others, he became involved in the TPI association and served fellow TPIs with great distinction in some of the years since.

I recently came back from Afghanistan. I was talking to a bunch of young blokes at Tarin Kowt, who were serving, and a young bloke came up to me and said, 'I think you might know my grandfather.' He was in fact Adrian's grandson serving in a very similar unit and therefore following on a great tradition. He is a young bloke whom I am sure Adrian is very proud of, and I believe Adrian has every right to be incredibly proud of him.

But it was not just Long Tan. This was a day to recognise the tremendous courage, sacrifice and service of the more than 60,000 who served in Vietnam and the region throughout the conflict. It is a time to recognise that it was not just the Army; it was also the Air Force and it was also the Navy. It is a time to recognise that, although more than 500 died and more than 2,400 were wounded, many others have returned and have suffered from their service. It is a time to acknowledge that service. It is a time to recognise that these men did what they were asked to do on behalf of the governments of the day and many suffered in silence for years afterwards. It is important to recognise that at that time it was a difficult situation in Australian society in dealing with the issues of that conflict—partly, in my view, because it was in effect the first TV war. In those circumstances, the issues we deal with today, with the sorts of reporting that we now almost take for granted, were in fact incredibly new at that time. We were not used to seeing the sorts of scenes that were coming across our TV screens on a nightly basis. We as a society, and frankly our political leaders, were not able to understand at the time or reflect properly on the reality of that and what it meant for a society dealing with the circumstances around a conflict of that nature. I think that that impacted on those who went, their families at home and the broader community and we did a disservice, as a nation, to those who returned in those circumstances.

But rather than focus on that I would like to focus on some aspects of what has happened since then that really highlight the great courage and camaraderie of many of those who went. I will briefly speak about a particular group of individuals who served in the Vietnam War who were also very familiar to the former minister, those around Operation Aussies Home. People like Jim Bourke and Peter Aylett, who never forgot that there were some six individuals who were missing in action subsequent to our involvement in that war; people who remembered that and never forgot; people who have dedicated in recent years a lot of their time, money and efforts to doing all they could to bring those men home. The work that they did has been acknowledged in this place before, but I am very pleased to acknowledge it again today. Jim and Peter in particular are two of that group whom I know reasonably well. Again, they are tough old so-and-sos. They are as gutsy as they come—dry and funny when they want to be and determined and tough when they have to be. It has been a great privilege for me to have known them over these years and to have worked with them. And I am sure that the former minister, the member for Dunkley, would share those sentiments. The work that they did ensured that the Defence Force followed on from that in a manner which ensured that the remains of those brave servicemen, the last of our remains from Vietnam, were returned home over a number of occasions, starting in effect with Parker and Gillson, under the time of the member for Dunkley as minister, through, in my time, to John Gillespie, David Fisher, and then on to Herbert and Carver, the last two who were returned home. Jim Bourke is now working on getting a PhD at a university in Melbourne. I now call him professor and he is now looking at the very issue of what this means in respect of what occurred at the time and also what it means about the efforts to understand remembrance and the work that was done to return these men home. I think his work and the work of those like Peter Aylett with him is in fact work that we can all be very, very proud of.

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