Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to follow up on a few of the comments that the honourable member for Mallee made. I saw that that was a difficult contribution for him to make; I could feel it. You said that a memorial should recognise all the sinkings. I agree with you; I think that would be most appropriate too. You talked about closure and certainty for families and loved ones. That is something that is difficult to attain but something that we all tried to attain for them. I just wanted to acknowledge your words, Member for Mallee; you are a compassionate man and it was really nice to sit here and listen to you.

I rise to speak at the request of one of my constituents of Page, Mr Denis Green, on this motion commemorating the sinking of the Montevideo Maruin 1942. Mr Green recently attended the dedication of the Rabaul and Montevideo Marumemorialat the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra, on 1 July 2012, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary commemorative luncheon and unveiling. During a speech at the dedication by our colleague the honourable member for Kingsford Smith—who also made a very moving and personal contribution here today—he suggested that those attending contact their local members of parliament to ask them to consider rising on indulgence to note commemorations of the sinking of the vessel. So I am proud and honoured as the member for Page to be able to do that today and I thank the member for Kingsford Smith for suggesting this to Mr Green and the others assembled.

Whilst being transported as a military prisoner, Mr Green's father, Clive Green, perished on board the Montevideo Maruwhen it was torpedoed by an American submarine in the South China Sea on 1 July 1942. During the Second World War, Clive was a superintendent at Keravat agricultural station in Papua New Guinea. It was a government based experimental station through which crops such as coffee were introduced to the area. In January 1942, Japanese forces landed at the nearby Port of Rabaul and, despite the concerted efforts of the civilian expatriate population and a small contingent of Australian soldiers to repel the invasion, they had no option but to retreat into the dense jungle and fend for themselves. Despite being able to evade capture for a few weeks using the Keravat crops and stores to camouflage and sustain the resistance, Clive was captured and interned as a civilian prisoner of war. Avoiding execution after an informant recanted his allegation against Clive and a bank employee concerning the hiding of gold bullion, Clive boarded the Montevideo Maruwith other civilian and military prisoners of war, where they were consigned to locked cargo holds by their captors. The Montevideo Maruthen set sail for the Chinese island of Hainan, then occupied by the Japanese.

On 1 July 1942, approximately 100 kilometres west of Cape Luzon in the Philippines, the United States submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoed the unmarked Japanese freighter at 2.29 am, the vessel sinking stern first some 11 minutes later. The submarine's commander, Lieutenant Commander William Wright, was subsequently found to have been unaware of the human cargo. This was the biggest single loss of life in Australia's wartime history, with up to 845 soldiers and over 200 civilians, including Clive Green, losing their lives.

Clive's great-granddaughter and Denis's granddaughter Caitlin Nash delivered a touching tribute to her great-grandfather to win the Northern New South Wales region's Legacy junior public speaking competition held in Lismore on 5 August 2010. Caitlin is a year 10 student at Catherine McAuley Catholic College, Grafton, and a good deal of the information I have used in this speech today has come from Caitlin's tribute. Her tribute provided a truly personal reflection on such a terrible tragedy. I am sure that Caitlin's grandfather Denis is extremely proud of her in expressing her respect and love for her great-grandfather and his father.

Another local connection is through another constituent, Mr Ian Geyer of Woodenbong. Ian's uncle, Lance Corporal Kevin Geyer of No. 1 Independent Company, was taken prisoner following the Japanese invasion before embarking on the ill-fated vessel on 22 June 1942.

In marking the anniversary of the sinking, the dedication service for the unveiling of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru memorial took place at the Australian War Memorial on 1 July 2012. The dedication was extensively covered and celebrated by the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society's newsletter No. 40, which provided a great run-down of the day, accompanied by many photos of the event. As we know, the honourable member for Kingsford Smith had a personal interest in the unveiling of the memorial, as his grandfather lost his life in the tragedy.

However, the impact of the sinking on past and current parliamentarians on all sides of Australian politics does not end there. An uncle of our current ambassador to the United States of America and former Labor opposition leader, the Hon. Kim Beazley AC, was a Methodist missionary who perished on board the stricken vessel. The brother of Sir Earle Page, who served as caretaker Prime Minister upon the death in office of Prime Minister Lyons in 1939 and from whom my electorate takes its name, was Harold Page. Harold, as Deputy Administrator in New Guinea, commenced the compulsory evacuation of women and children from Rabaul in late 1941 while it was under threat of invasion by Japanese forces. Harold was captured in Rabaul in June 1942 by Japanese forces, before boarding the Montevideo Maru as a civilian prisoner of war. Harold is of course the great-uncle of the Hon. Don Page, the current state member for Ballina—which is within my federal seat of Page—and Minister for Local Government and Minister for the North Coast in the New South Wales Parliament.

Returning to Denis Green—his father's eldest brother, the Hon. Roland F. Green, represented the then Country Party in federal parliament between 1922 and 1937 for Richmond, a neighbouring seat to my seat of Page. So there are a lot of connections—family connections, personal connections, political connections and parliamentary connections. It is something which in some way, directly or indirectly, impacts on all Australians.

I would like to commend to members of the House, including myself, to make a visit to the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru installation at the Australian War Memorial, which I have yet to do, to pay respects to the civilians and soldiers who lost their lives due to this terrible tragedy.

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