Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

on indulgence—On behalf of the coalition, I want to thank the men and women of the Australian Defence Force for their tireless effort over many events, from the east to the west, from the top of our country to the furthest point south. They are there in the hour of need. As the minister rightly points out, they will go to the aid of Australians, they will provide logistics support, and they will help in the recovery and in the rebuild, as we have seen in various floods and natural disasters around the country.

I want to pay tribute to all of those who have spent time away from their families. If you join the Australian Defence Force, you're there to protect and to defend our country. It's not their first call or first preference to be deployed on some of these operations, and we're respectful of that, but they do lend a very significant hand. They provide a lot of support to those communities, and we would work very closely with the government—there's still the outstanding issue of medal recognition for those in relation to recent deployments. We very strongly support the awarding of that medal. It would send a very clear message to them and to their families for the sacrifice that they've made in our country's name. We would be very willing to entertain those discussions with the government.

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