David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to respond to the ministerial statement by the Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Hon. Stuart Robert, and I take this opportunity to formally congratulate him on his appointment to that important role. The opposition, the government and all other members of parliament recognise the significance of the centenary for the nation, and we continue to offer our bipartisan support for the Centenary of Anzac national program. In my capacity as shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs I had the very great honour of attending the Anzac Day commemorations in Turkey this year with the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten; the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott; the former Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson; and many thousands of Australians and New Zealanders, including 10 widows of Australian First World War veterans. All the commemorative events were remarkably moving and powerful, all of them were brilliantly organised and all of them kept faith with our nation's resolve to commemorate those events 100 years ago in a way that does service to the men who went ashore a century ago and the resonance that that moment has had for contemporary Australia and our identity as a modern Australia. I thank all of those who worked so hard to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings.

Although the dawn service in Gallipoli in April this year was central to the significant commemorative events, there will of course be many important dates to commemorate over the four-year period of the centenary, including Armistice Day in 2018. For Australia, the Great War was tragic, profound and transformational. From a nation of some four to five million people at the time, over 400,000 Australians volunteered for that war and more than 330,000 served overseas. Of those, more than 60,000 never came home. Alongside the carnage and the suffering, we were witness to courage, tenacity, resilience and mateship—values that helped shape a young nation. Indeed, echoing the point made by the Minister for Veterans, Affairs, one of the most redeeming qualities of our commemoration of Gallipoli in particular is the tribute we paid to the bravery of troops who fought on both sides of that struggle, and it is of course a Gallipoli that we find the birth certificate of not just Australia but also the modern republic of Turkey.

During the Anzac Centenary, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honour the service and sacrifice of those Australians who permanently linked these values and qualities with the name 'Anzac'. The Centenary of Anzac national program to date has achieved just that. We have commemorated more than a century of service and sacrifice by Australian service men and women in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations in which Australia has participated and continues to participate. The program honours generations of Australia's service men and women, past and present, and shows the continuity and strength of the Anzac inheritance.

Planning for the Anzac Centenary was begun by the former Labor government on Anzac Day 2010 with the establishment of the National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac Centenary. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the vital contribution made by two former ministers for Veterans Affairs—Warren Snowdon and Alan Griffin. The commission, led by former prime ministers the Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser and the Hon. Bob Hawke, reported to government in March 2011 and recommended the establishment of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board to carry the baton forward by developing a blueprint for a program of Anzac Centenary initiatives.

Since its establishment in October 2011, the board has provided regular advice to the government on the development of a blueprint for the Anzac Centenary Program. The board has also undertaken extensive consultation with the states and territories and local communities. On 21 April 2013 the former Labor government released the board's report on a program of initiatives to commemorate the Anzac Centenary. The board report put forward 25 recommendations, all of which we were accepted. I would like to thank the board and its chair, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston AC, AFC (Ret'd), for their excellent, well-considered document—and I know that he continued to work with the former minister, Senator Ronaldson, in setting up and implementing the architecture for the commemorations.

The desire of Australians to participate in commemorations marking the centenary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli is great and we welcome the minister's commitment to a program of domestic events in 2016 that will establish solemn, dignified and respectful commemoration. We also appreciate the update of international commemorative events for 2016. It should never be forgotten that we Australians are invited to Gallipoli, each year, to commemorate Anzac Day thanks to the government and the people of Turkey. It is by the goodwill of the government and the people of Turkey that so many Australians are welcomed so warmly each year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the Australian people, the Turkish authorities and people who help us stage Anzac Day services. I also congratulate the Australian embassy in Turkey and our consulate in Istanbul. Their work is extensive and vitally important to the success of these occasions. I extend our appreciation to the government and the people of Turkey for the ongoing cooperation, support and even enthusiasm for allowing us to hold commemorations, on a yearly basis, on Turkish soil. Our longstanding relationship and combined dedication to preserving and protecting the Gallipoli battlefields is paramount to the commemoration of the service of our forebears.

In France and Belgium we find the sites of some of the most significant Australian battles fought during the First World War, the battles of the Western Front. In April 2013, the former Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon. Warren Snowdon MP, signed a memorandum of understanding with French minister Kader Arif that laid the groundwork for Australia's participation in commemorations in France. I welcome the minister's update to the House, today, regarding the commemorative events scheduled to mark the 100th anniversaries of the Battle of Fromelles and the Battle of Pozieres as well as the 14 July Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

I also welcome the government's update on commemorations planned for both the Vietnam War and the Korean War. On 18 August 1966 the Battle of Long Tan was fought primarily between Delta Company of the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, supported by other Australian task force elements, and a force of up to 2,500 men from the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Starting in the afternoon, the Battle of Long Tan was fought in a rubber plantation and lasted until the early morning of 19 August. The Australian Forces—remarkably—were able to repel the enemy assaults and inflict very heavy losses on the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.

It was, arguably, the most significant action of the Vietnam War for Australian forces. It is certainly a battle that has captured and held the imagination of the Australian people and become one of the emblematic moments of that war for our nation. Eighteen Australian soldiers died and 24 were wounded. The Vietnam War took a heavy toll on our nation. As ever, the Australian soldiers serving in Vietnam upheld the very high standards of the ANZAC tradition and remained faithful to one another and their duty to the nation.

I also congratulate the minister for speaking to the Korean War. I know if former Prime Minister Julia Gillard were here she, too, would be delighted to see the Australian contribution to the Korean War given the substance and significance it deserves. In April 2011 Julia Gillard travelled to South Korea to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the very significant Battle of Kapyong. Fought in 1951, the Battle of Kapyong witnessed the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, side by side with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, withstand an advance of many thousands of People's Liberation Army soldiers, enabling our allies to withdraw to Seoul. It was a desperately fought action. Many lives were lost. So extraordinary was the Australian effort in that action that 3RAR was secured a US presidential citation. Perhaps in contrast to Long Tan, this is not an action that is well known in Australia but it deserves to be. That is why I am so pleased to hear it spoken of, today, by the minister.

We see greater and greater attendances at our commemorative events. While there is the occasional commentary about the appropriateness and place of these in our national life, Australians are voting with their feet. We see the crowds, gathering with dignity and solemnity at these events, grow year on year at local events and, centrally, at the major events here at the Australian War Memorial and elsewhere. Community participation is the way to ensure the Anzac legacy is passed to our next generation.

This is one of the main aims of the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program, which was an initiative introduced by the former Labor government to offer every Australian electorate the opportunity to commemorate the immense sacrifice our Anzacs made at the local level. The program provided grants to each of Australia's 150 federal electorates to support communities commemorating the centenary in ways of their own choosing. I congratulate the government on overseeing 1,800 applications, with 1,651 approved grants totalling $16.8 million, and I thank honourable members—on all sides of this House—for working with their communities to generate the ideas and make the most of this initiative.

In my home electorate of Batman, the program has made it possible for a wide range of local organisations and schools to pay tribute as we commemorate the centenary of World War I. Like every community, the community of Batman has its own unique Anzac story to tell, and this program ensured it was heard. The very first Australian casualty of World War I, Able Seaman Billy Williams, was a son of Northcote in my electorate. He was killed in the Battle of Bita Paka as a member of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force that successfully expelled the Germans from, what was then, German New Guinea. It is a deep privilege to have been able to work with so many members of my community to ensure that we have honoured our Anzacs, and I know that has been replicated in 150 efforts around the country.

Although the government made a number of significant funding commitments to the Anzac Centenary, to supplement this funding the former Labor government established an Anzac Centenary public fund to collect corporate donations. The minister has paid proper tribute to that today. I join with him in commending the significant role played by Mr Lindsay Fox, who has left no stone or high-wealth individual untouched in his effort to encouraging corporate donations and private philanthropy. I thank him for his remarkable efforts. I also join with the minister in acknowledging those Australian companies that have made very significant contributions to this fund: ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank, the National Bank of Australia, Telstra, Woodside, BHP and Rio Tinto.

I would just like to touch on the recent attacks on World War I graves that we were saddened to learn of just last week. Labor condemns the mindless vandalism of the Australian war graves in West London at St Mary's Churchyard Cemetery in Harefield. A quarter of the 112 graves of Australian soldiers killed in World War I and laid to rest there were targeted by vandals for the second time this year. This deliberate attack on Australian war graves is disturbing. Australian war graves are sacred places for all Australians, and attacking these graves is a cowardly and obscene act deplored by us all. These soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and their graves are honoured by every Australian and, indeed, by thousands of Australians every year visiting Europe and visiting those places.

I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission not only for their swift work in restoring these graves and ensuring they are returned to their original condition but also for the work they do every day of the year. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission does an outstanding job, caring for and maintaining Australian war graves right around the world, and one cannot help but be affected by the sight of these carefully nurtured places in various places around the world, and by knowing that this fine and upstanding organisation, backed by Australians, does the job it does.

I also acknowledge the many other organisations that partner with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which do an outstanding job. I was pleased to host, on 13 November, a visit to Australia by Warrant Officer Didier Pontzeele, head of the Belgian war graves service, who gave a wonderful series of speeches around the country and in my own electorate of Batman about the work he and his colleagues do, tending Australian graves in his country. It was a deeply affecting contribution but also very heartfelt, and it is a fine thing to know that people of his calibre look after these places right around the world, including of course, in his case, in Belgium.

In conclusion, the centenary is one of the most significant periods of commemoration in our nation's history. It is a time to reflect on the Anzac values of mateship, courage, sacrifice, loyalty and resilience, and on how these values are upheld by Australia's service men and women today. It is a time to reflect upon the impact that these struggles and fights, these failures and successes, have had in shaping modern Australia.

I thank the minister for his update and I thank all those who have ensured, and will continue to ensure, that our Centenary of Anzac national program achieves a series of commemorative events that allow us to reflect on our history as well as our future as a nation and to thank all those who have served and sacrificed for their country. I thank the House.

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