Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1)

notes that:

(a)

the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea is a place of great historical significance to Australia as the site of one of the great battles in the greater Battle for Australia in the Second World War where many young Australians fought and died in the defence of their country against foreign invasion;

(b)

there are serious concerns that mining activities along the Track will damage and deface the landscape and deter visitors wishing to pay their respects to those who fought and died, supported by loyal Papuans and New Guineans; and

(2)

calls on the Australian Government and the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs to:

(a)

work with the Government of Papua New Guinea to protect the natural environment and the historical integrity of the Kokoda Track;

(b)

ensure the safety and enhance the significance of the Track for visitors and walkers by improving the amenities and interpretive materials, and protecting the memorials along the Track; and

(c)

report back to this House within 12 months on progress in implementing these actions.

The Kokoda Track symbolises the battle for Australia in World War II. It must be protected. Nineteen forty-two was our finest hour: Australians stopped the Japanese advance at Milne Bay and Imita Ridge and pushed them back along the Kokoda Track. Here Australians fought and died for the first time not as allies in defence of another nation but for us, for Australia.

It was the Australians who inflicted the first defeat on land of the previously invincible Japanese army. On a previous occasion I called on the Australian government to recognise the ‘Battle for Australia Day’. I repeat that call. This would be a day on which we recognised the participants in major battles of that year. It would not be an alternative to Anzac Day or a public holiday; it would be a day when we and our schoolchildren discussed that part of our history.

Today’s motion, however, is more specific. It is to protect the Kokoda Track. I recently walked that 96 kilometre track. Other members of this parliament have also walked it, including the member for Griffith, who will speak later, as well as the speaker following me. Many Australians do walk it. I walked it with a group of friends, in part as a personal challenge but, importantly, to pay homage and to reflect on the heroism and sacrifice of those brave young Australians who were ill equipped and undertrained, fighting against the odds. It is a very hard walk. One can only imagine how hard it must have been for the men of the 39th, the 2nd/14th, the 2nd/16th and the 2nd/27th battalions. They were massively outnumbered by better trained opponents. They were fired on by snipers and artillery in thick jungle canopy, over precipitous drops, by fast flowing rivers and in constant mud and rain. They were diggers in desert fatigues fighting an army trained in jungle warfare.

Many personal stories of heroism and sacrifice occurred on the Kokoda Track. The diggers walked the track the hard way—during the war. One such person whom I have met on a couple of occasions visiting this place died only two weeks ago. He was 96. His name was Maurie Taafe. He served in the Middle East, riding his motorbike along the murder mile in Syria through sniper fire. He was one of the diggers recalled to Australia when Prime Minister Curtin forged our independence from Britain, overruling Churchill and ordering our men back to defend Australia. He served in all the battles up the track. He was wounded, but as he used to tell his family he was one of the lucky ones—he came out. Others did not, like Bruce Kingsbury VC, whose heroism turned the battle of Isurava, and Butch Bissett, who died in his brother’s arms near the Surgeon’s Rock. To visit these sites is emotional. To reflect at them with friends is moving. Their stories are like so many others of great courage and selfless sacrifice for this country. They are reflected in the words inscribed on the columns at Isurava: courage, endurance, mateship, sacrifice.

There is a threat to the Kokoda Track from mining. This motion calls on our government to work with the government of Papua New Guinea to protect the track, to improve its safety and to enhance its significance. We must avoid the kind of destruction and bungled construction that has occurred at Gallipoli. It is interesting that, since putting this motion on the Notice Paper last Tuesday, I received a briefing from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday, the same day that the first interdepartmental committee was convened on this issue, and last Friday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs wrote to the PNG government, expressing concern and seeking information. On Friday as well, Frontier Resources put out a positive press release and they said that their work will not have an impact on the Kokoda Track. I welcome that assurance, but I have written to them seeking a meeting. We must save that which helped save us. The sacrifice demands nothing less. I commend the motion to the House. (Time expired)

Kim Wilkie (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on this motion. In fact, this is the third time since I have been a member of this place that we have debated a private members’ motion on the significance of the Kokoda Track. Back in 2002, my nine-day track experience took me from Kokoda to Owers Corner just in time to attend a very moving ceremony on Anzac Day at the Bomana cemetery. To follow in the footsteps of the 500 Victorian men who formed the 39th Battalion is a truly humbling experience. It is humbling because we now know that when these men arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1942 they were ill prepared and underresourced for the task that lay before them. These brave men, who gave so much in sacrifice, were ordered to be the Australian line of defence against an approaching and until then—as the member for Hotham said—invincible Imperial Japanese Army. They were ordered to defend the line at all costs—not to retreat but to buy time, while diggers from the 2nd/14th and the 2nd/16th, returning from the Middle East, could be diverted to the track. In due course, many other units took their place in the bloody battles. In the past I have spoken about some of those battles.

When I returned from my trip to Kokoda, I lamented in my own private member’s motion that the heroism and deeds of the soldiers on Kokoda are the stuff of legends but that, sadly, we had not had as proud a record in honouring our heroes as had other nations. I said at the time that I could recognise the beginnings of a change in that area and that observation has been borne out.

The member for Hotham has moved that this House notes that the Kokoda Track is a place of great historical significance to Australia. The members of parliament and their constituents are doing just that in increasing numbers as they too walk the track. Every year more and more members of this place are participating in treks along all parts of the track. So far, it is my understanding that seven members of parliament have walked the track, including the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, the Minister for Human Services, the member for Lindsay, Senator McGauran, the members for Griffith and Hotham and me. Some of us undertook the trek with less fanfare and media attention than others. No matter how we did it, the fact is that it was a gruelling experience for all of us.

All who undertake this activity are to be commended. They return from the journey strong advocates for the protection of the track, and its significance in our history. It gives those of us who sit here a better understanding of a part of Australian history that is so important, an event that has shaped our concept of self-identity, in the way that Gallipoli has done.

We would be right to be concerned if the environment surrounding the Kokoda Track were to be disturbed to such an extent that the track became unrecognisable. Part of the benefit that is gained from walking Kokoda is drawn from the fact that you have to endure discomfort and difficulty during your time there. I have often commented that to walk the Kokoda Track is to understand one’s physical and mental resilience. It is a ‘psychological endurance test’.

I am asked whether I enjoyed the experience and what the scenery was like. I say that most of the scenery I looked at were my feet. Whatever discomfort we experienced, it can never compare to the pain and hardship suffered by those men who laid down their lives in the battle for Australia. Nobody was shooting at me. I had ample food. I had a satellite phone to use to get me out if I was in trouble. The soldiers of the Kokoda Track did it the hard way. A lot of them paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The PNG government is acutely aware of the significance of the Kokoda Track to Australians and to their own people. The people of Papua New Guinea and Australia stood side by side to defend that land, and that will never be forgotten. To assist in the long-term management of the track, the PNG government established the Kokoda Track Authority in 2004. On behalf of the Australian government, the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby assisted in establishing the Kokoda Track Authority. We continue to have a close working relationship with the Kokoda Track Authority.

Chief among the authority’s concerns is the safety of trekkers and provision of amenities on the track. Working in conjunction with local landowners this has been possible and was a memorable feature of my own experience. The warmth and generosity of the villagers as we passed through their land was greatly appreciated by weary and drained walkers.

In 2002, I outlined my belief that the Kokoda Track should be classified as a national memorial park. I remain convinced that this is the most appropriate course of action if we are to protect the integrity and significance of the land. I do however recognise the difficulty of such a classification, considering that Kokoda is in another nation’s sovereign land. It is important that the Australian government continues to provide interpretive materials at Sogeri, Isurava and at the Herbert Kienzle Memorial Museum at Kokoda. (Time expired)

Kim Wilkie (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allocated for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.