Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) in 2019 the independent 11-member Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal did unanimously recommend that the extraordinary bravery of Ordinary Seaman Edward 'Teddy' Sheean should be recognised with the posthumous awarding of the Victoria Cross; and

(b) the Government rejected the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal's unanimous recommendation; and

(2) calls on the Prime Minister to take immediate action to reverse the Government's rejection of the tribunal's recommendation, and take the actions necessary to progress the tribunal's recommendation.

The matter of whether Teddy Sheean deserves a Victoria Cross is settled. The 2019 report of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal outlines in comprehensive and compelling detail why the Tasmanian 18-year-old should be awarded the Commonwealth's most distinguished military honour. I urge every member to read it.

The issue bedevilling the government is not whether Sheean deserves the Victoria Cross; it's about the paperwork. Defence has an internal policy that compelling new evidence or evidence of maladministration must be provided in order to consider a retrospective application for the Victoria Cross. It's a policy. The High Court has considered the matter of policy and what weight should be placed on it. It has held that, while a general policy may be taken into account, a decision-maker must not preclude themselves from considering a matter on its merits. More recently, the Federal Court also discussed the issue:

The boundary is clear: policy is not to become a rule of law. The statute is the expression of the rule of law. Executive policy cannot, in form or more importantly in substance, be perceived by decision-makers as, or operate as, a rule …

And yet it is this policy that the Prime Minister is treating as holy writ—as a rule. He has commissioned a new panel to examine the sole question of whether the tribunal's recommendation abides by the policy. In commissioning the Nelson review, this Prime Minister has elevated an internal bureaucratic mechanism which has no legislated authority behind it above eligibility criteria which is laid out in statutes.

Let us be clear: if the Nelson review returns with a verdict that the policy has not been met then, irrespective of whether legislated eligibility criteria have been, the government will continue to block Teddy Sheean's nomination. In effect, Prime Minister Morrison is prepared to deny Teddy Sheean the Victoria Cross not because he is unworthy but because someone didn't do the paperwork. It is, frankly, inconceivable to me that any serviceman or servicewoman should ever be denied consideration for combat decoration because of bureaucratic inconvenience. The only consideration should be to assess whether action in the face of the enemy meets the eligibility criteria for the decoration in question.

And there is no doubt—none—that Teddy Sheean exceeds the requirements for the awarding of a Victoria Cross. Conspicuous gallantry in the face of the enemy: Sheean made the conscious decision to man the aft cannon rather than obey the order to abandon ship. He decided upon this action himself; he required no order. Furthermore, Sheean was ordinarily the cannon's loader, not its gunner. In strapping himself to that weapon and firing that gun, bringing down at least one enemy aircraft, he went above and beyond what was expected both of his station and of his training. Self-sacrifice: Sheean did not hesitate to place himself in mortal danger to save his shipmates from being machine-gunned in the water. Badly wounded and unable to stand, he continued firing until the Armidale sank with him below the waves.

I urge all in this place to read the stories of the 181 men who earned the Victoria Cross in World War II, and I defy anyone to say that Sheean does not deserve to be in their company. This boy who, in the last minutes of his life, personified the values of this nation—courage, mateship, a larrikin spirit and self-sacrifice—deserves better than to have his legacy held hostage by bureaucracy. It find it extraordinary that there can be such unity on the merits of Sheean's actions but such deep division over how those actions should be recognised.

In short, according to this Prime Minister and the mandarins at Defence, merit is not enough: the paperwork has to be right because, if the paperwork isn't right, it may upset the British Admiralty or perhaps the Queen herself. If we are to have a fight with the British over the awarding of the Victoria Cross for Sheean, then let's stop wasting time and have at it. The Prime Minister must abandon the folly of this panel he has announced and, instead, come into this parliament to declare that he will now advance Teddy Sheean's deserved nomination for the Victoria Cross. This entire parliament and, indeed, every man, woman and child in Australia will be behind him. Let the British, if they dare, seek to deny our Australian son the award that he earned with his last breath and his last drop of blood. Let the British admirals sweat and worry at the thought that the Australians are coming and will not be denied.

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