Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week I had the honour of attending a couple of Vietnam Veterans Day services in my electorate. We had six, and I got to tour them—one down at Burpengary in the morning and then Bribie Island in the afternoon. They're sombre events indeed, and I'm always touched by the stories they share. The one at Burpengary particularly struck me this time because they shared the story of a gentleman who had gone to war in Vietnam and, as we know, the Vietnam veterans were treated pretty poorly by the Australian people when they returned—very sad. This particular gentleman got married in the late 1970s and had adult children. He died in 2006, and the first time that his wife of over 25 years and his children knew he was a Vietnam veteran was at his funeral. That's how badly the Australian people treated these Vietnam veterans—he was actually ashamed to share that experience with his family.

As I looked at the Australian flag, and I thought about all the soldiers and servicemen and servicewomen who have given their lives in service to the country, I thought that's why if it comes up next week I'm going to be proud to support Bill Thompson's bill to make sure that it's a criminal offence to desecrate our flag, because it means a lot to these servicemen and servicewomen.

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