Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With some regret, I have to say that I also cannot support this motion, because it is not really the parliament's role to look at the expenditure decisions of the Chief of Army and pick and choose which ones we as a parliament would have changed. It is just not our role to do that. This is a decision that the Chief of Army has made.

The reason why I say it is with some regret is that I know the Army Band Corps very well. My father was in the 1st Military District Band for 20 years and won an Order of Australia for his services to the military as a musician in the army bands. It is a sound I know well. I was raised with it. I spent a lot of time in Enoggera. I spent a lot of time watching parades and listening to my father. I understand the extraordinary contribution that the army bands have made not just to the community but to the broader community by the provision of those full-time positions throughout our community and the support that those positions give to teaching, to part-time musicians that work in clubs in various bands. The effect of those full-time positions and the quality of that work feeds out to the music industry generally, so it has a double purpose.

I am delighted to see in the decision that the Army made an absolute strong commitment to the maintenance of that professional band corps through the Army band in Canberra, the four army support bands, the six regional Army Reserve bands and also the Defence Force School of Music. There is in its decision an extraordinary commitment to maintaining those professional bands both full-time Army and Reserve bands.

I would say this as an observer to both the Army and the regiment: bands like the lancers are very much a part of our community. It is the oldest surviving regimental band in Australia. It was formed in 1888. It is one of three bands in Parramatta that are over 100 years old. We also have the Parramatta City Brass band, which celebrated its 100th last year, and the Parramatta Citadel Band from the Salvation Army, which is also over 100 years old. We have three in Parramatta, but the lancers is associated with the oldest functioning barracks and the most decorated regiment, which was formed for the Boer War. It has this history which we in Parramatta take on as very much a part of our own—an extraordinary barracks because of the nature of its buildings and the nature of its history. It is where our men and women enlisted for the first and second world wars. It is an extraordinary place.

The member for Berowra is incorrect in referring to them as superannuates and retirees. They are actually not; they are reservists and soldiers who have other jobs in the Army and do this on a part-time basis in their spare time. It would be reasonable, I would think, for a clarinettist always to provide their own clarinet and a trumpet player to provide their own trumpet—as they do in every band, by the way. The drums and the instruments, on the other hand, are a slightly different matter and are really quite expensive. So this will provide a difficulty for bands like the lancers and it would be quite tragic if in the course of time we saw these bands, particularly a band like this one with its extraordinary history, substantially weakened or disappearing. I would hope that in the transition period we are quite sensitive to the needs of these bands. Mind you, I am talking for the one I know; I am sure there will be other communities around Australia that will talk for their regimental bands as well in exactly the same terms as I do. Once again, I do not criticise the Army for the decision it has had to make because I do not know of the other decisions it has had to make. This is one of a suite of decisions—you cannot look at one alone. But I would say again that bands like the Lancers, in the role they have had, carry an extraordinary part of our military history and the loss of even one of these bands would be a tragedy. It is going to be quite an interesting transition. I will be working with the band through that as best I can, but I have to support the Chief of Army in the suite of decisions he has had to make.

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