Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

If there is one piece of legislation which says everything about this Labor government, it is this one.

You can laugh all you like, Minister. You can mock this, but I am, frankly, galled by what we are debating today. I've got respect for the Minister for Veterans' Affairs—I do. The minister, the shadow minister at the table and myself have all been ministers for veterans' affairs. It's a tough role. You have to have respect. You have to have a listening ear. You have to pay homage—you must—to the service and sacrifice of those who have proudly worn the uniform of Australia, the uniform of freedom. No-one knows this more than those who have bled for this country—those people who have chosen to protect and serve; those brave men and women who have shown such pluck and courage; those who have gone through the gates of the home of the soldier, Blamey Barracks, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, in Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga; those who have served our Navy and potentially gone and served it at Forest Hill, Wagga Wagga; or those who have served where air power starts, at RAAF Base Wagga. I'm very proud of each and every one of them.

The minister at the table, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, on 11 November—Remembrance Day and Armistice Day—last year said this:

Private Norden personified the ANZAC spirit—disregarding his own safety to put his mates first.

I want to acknowledge and thank the veteran community for your advocacy for the appropriate recognition of Private Norden.

I'm so glad that especially today we can acknowledge Private Norden's gallant actions with the Victoria Cross for Australia.

What has changed, Minister? What is different now that wasn't the case back then?

The minister, when he said those words, when he uttered those phrases, was absolutely correct. Private Norden from Gundagai absolutely deserved a Victoria Cross for Australia, just as Teddy Sheean deserved a similar honour. And then we have Frank Alcorta OAM, the late Barry Eugene Magnussen, Colonel Francis Adrian Roberts OAM, Neil Raymond Bextrum, the late Ronald Howard Brett, Ian Martin Campbell, Noel John Grimes, Geoffrey Michael Peters, William Alfred Roche and the late Second Lieutenant Gordon Cameron Sharp—10 Australian soldiers, heroes all, who were recognised for their bravery more than 50 years after they fought in the Vietnam War's Battle of Long Tan. Those 10 men and Teddy Sheean VC and Richard Norden VC would not have received the recognition, that medallic tribute, had it not been for an appeals process—a process put in place to look at decisions made or the fact that they were overlooked at the time of their gallantry—which in more recent times has given them their due honours. No-one was prouder of the fact that those brave dozen received their awards than their own families.

Why are we debating the process for future Victoria Cross for Australia recipients—they'll be nonrecipients now. Why are we debating this? Why are we meddling in medalling? It just does not make sense. I would appeal to the minister's good heart—and I know he has a good heart; I know he does. I think he should withdraw what the government is proposing. There would be no shame, Minister, in doing just that. There would be no criticism from the RSLs, from veterans, from families or from those who are still alive who feel as though they have been let down by the system. They would say that the minister went to the parliament, had a piece of legislation and changed his mind. You can be wrong, you know. It's okay to change your mind for the good, in the national interest. It's alright to say, 'I got it wrong.' It's not alright to push on regardless.

I'm pleased the minister is in the chamber. I note that we have the absence of Labor speakers on this particular bill. We had the member for Sturt, a new member. And I grant that she had the talking points from the government to push the point. I note we don't have any of the crossbench. We all know what they're like when it comes to whistleblowing and when it comes to veterans matters per se, the teals dripping in pious pontification and sanctimony. And that's what they are. Where are they when it comes to sticking up for what's right? No doubt they're listening to what I'm saying. If you are and you're on your monitors, get down into the chamber and stick up for your RSLs. Get down to the chamber and stick up for your veterans, just for once! This is important.

It might not seem that vital or that critical, because we have a cost-of-living crisis and we've got lots of debates in this place which, granted, are probably considered far more important, but you've got Teddy Sheean and Richard Norden getting posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross because we had a process in place that went beyond 20 years. You've got those other 10 who put their lives on the line at Long Tan in the jungles against overwhelming odds, outnumbered. They didn't think that they were doing what they were about to do because they might get a piece of tin on their chest to march down the street on Anzac Day on April 25. They didn't give that a moment's thought, but they did what they did for their mates. They did what they did for the loyalty and the service and the dedication and the application that they were taught when they put on that khaki.

That's what our soldiers do. That's what those who proudly wear the white or the blue of the Navy and the RAAF do. And we owe them the respect and the honour to make sure that, if they go above and beyond—and every one of them does—and they had that particular piece of valour, that gallantry, that moment where they go above and beyond and it's overlooked, it's forgotten, it's neglected by the process or we have some military tribunal that doesn't see fit to award them at the time, then there should at least be a pathway down the track for recognition. We owe them that much. They place their lives on the line so that we could have a fair and free democratic society.

And it's no coincidence that, if you go from the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and walk a direct line, you will go past the Menin Gate lions, through the front door of the Australian War Memorial, that shrine of remembrance brought to us by Bean, that great Australian, and you walk a direct line straight through the front doors of this place, the house of the federal parliament, through the cabinet room and straight to the front door of the Prime Minister's office. It was done deliberately that way so that we would never ever forget that we owe the free and fair democratic society and the parliament to that place, that shrine put in place by Charles Bean, who thought it up on the battlefields of World War I, so that we could remember.

And what are we doing today in the House of Representatives? We're spurning them. We're shunning them. We're telling them that if it wasn't within 20 years then we don't care. It's not right. And, yes, I am upset. I am really upset. But the emotion I'm showing is nothing compared to the emotion our RSL clubs will be showing. I'm not a veteran. Those veterans who gave so much for our country deserve better. They truly do.

I cannot understand, I cannot fathom or contemplate, why the minister thought this was a good thing. Minister, it is not too late. I cannot understand, if this went through a cabinet process, why those important people around that important table thought that this was a good idea. Why are we doing this? Why are we tarnishing the memories of those veterans who could, potentially and deservedly, receive recognition for their efforts? They didn't go out into the battlefields, the jungles, the deserts, the air or the sea to achieve greatness for themselves. They did it for their mates. They did it for their comrades. They did it for their country. They did it for freedom. They did it for the flag. And today is National Flag Day. They fought under the flag.

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