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

There is a man in my electorate named David Williams. He is the New South Wales President of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services Association. Twenty-seven members of David's family have served in the Australia military and he himself has served in the Navy for 30 years. He is an extraordinary man. If all he had managed to do with his life is raise the amazing children he has raised, that would be enough, but he has also served our country for 30 years.

David joined the military at a time when you could join as an Aboriginal Australian. He has been a proud Aboriginal serviceman ever since, but he spends considerable time reminding me and anyone else who he can find that many, many Aboriginal servicemen have not received the appropriate recognition for the service they gave to their country and were in fact appallingly treated on their return to Australia. Like many servicemen, he also points out that, while serving, they were well treated by their fellow soldiers. It was their return and the conditions of their enlistment which are a stain on our society still today.

We know that Aboriginal Australians served in the first Boer War right back in 1880, the second Boer War, World War I, World War II, the occupation of Japan, the Korean War, the Malayan emergency, the Indonesian confrontation and the Vietnam war. We also know that it was in the Vietnam War itself that they actually became citizens and were entitled to call themselves Australians—that late. Many, many Aboriginal people had served this country before they were given that right. But they served in the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, Afghanistan, the second Gulf War and in peacekeeping in East Timor and the Solomon's. An extraordinary record of contribution.

We know that there were at least 500 Aboriginal servicemen in World War I and maybe 5,000 in World War II, but we do not know the numbers because Aboriginal Australians were restricted by the Defence Act 1903 from joining. In order to join, they had to deny their Aboriginality. Many pretended to be Maoris or Indians to join our services. Again, that is something that must have been difficult for them to do and it indicates an extraordinary commitment to serving this country. We know that over 95 per cent of the entire male Torres Strait Islander population of age served in uniform during World War II. I will repeat that number: 95 per cent of the population of age.

They served in either the Torres Strait Island Light Infantry Battalion, the Torres Strait Island coastal artillery or Army small boats units. It was the largest volunteer group from any Australian community. They are known, but what is less known is that they were only paid about one-third of the wages of their white counterpart soldiers and that wrong was only addressed when additional compensation was paid in the early 1980s. Again, it was an extraordinary contribution by the male Torres Strait Islander population at that time.

The government has taken steps so that we can know the stories of our Aboriginal veterans. We do not know all their names; we certainly do not know their tribal names or what tribes they came from. I know from talking to the Aboriginal Australian veterans in my area that knowing the tribal names and the tribe they came from is equally important to knowing when they served. In July, we committed more than $1 million to a major new research project as part of the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding. The project is titled 'Serving our country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia'. It is a four-year project that will be led by researchers from the Australian National University, with partners from the Department of Defence, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the National Archives of Australia, the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Australian War Memorial. It will commence in 2013 and it will take four years—a massive research undertaking to identify the names and backgrounds of thousands of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who served this country before they were legally allowed to do so in 1949. It is a remarkable project that will help us understand the full contribution and pay respect that is due to these remarkable Australians.

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