Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This year marks 75 years since the battles of Kapyong and Maryang San, where the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment—old faithful, my old battalion—and Canada's 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, showed remarkable courage. Incidentally, on Friday back in Darwin I caught up with the new CEO of the Larrakia Development Corporation, Anthony Whitfield, and, through chatting with Anthony, discovered that his father had fought in these battles with the Australian Army. There are great connections everywhere. In the six months between those two battles, Australia and the United States were formalising a security partnership, ANZUS, that has grown stronger ever since. This year we also mark the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty. Last week I was pleased to open an event at the United States Studies Centre, and that organisation is a testament to the deep relationship between Australia and the United States. I was pleased to open that event on behalf of Dr Gordon Reid, who is the government chair of the parliamentary friendship group of the United States. Like Gordon, I take a longer term view of the Australia-US relationship that stretches back 75 years, to both battles in the Korean War and to the establishment of ANZUS.

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