Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak tonight on a very important local community event that happened in my electorate of Richmond recently. In the lead up to Remembrance Day, we had the first ever occasion of Richmond Remembers. Richmond Remembers was a series of events and exhibitions designed to honour our local veterans. The occasion was held over several days so that our whole community could properly pay its respects to all those who sacrificed so much over so many conflicts. In Richmond we are very fortunate to have one of the highest populations of veterans. Our veterans are an integral part of our community—they are our relatives, our friends, our neighbours, our parents and our grandparents.

Richmond Remembers was launched on 3 November with the unveiling of the Long Tan plaque at the South Tweed Sports Club’s Vietnam Veterans’ memorial gardens. It was a fantastic launch and I would like to give full credit to both the South Tweed Sports Club and to Peter Crocket for their organisation of the launch. Peter Crocket, who we all affectionately know as ‘Davy’ Crocket, is a Vietnam veteran and a good mate. It was great to see so many local veterans and their families present, and of course it was wonderful to hear the St Joseph’s choir sing with the legendary Normie Rowe, who travelled down to the Tweed for the day.

Later that evening at Club Banora there was a black tie function followed by the premiere of the movie A Soldier’s Shots, which is a movie about local veterans created by local film maker Alison Flynn. Over the weekend there were yarn days and opportunities to meet local authors from the veteran community. We really are blessed to have such a wealth of talent amongst our local veteran community.

The triumph of Richmond Remembers to my mind was the schools day on Monday. Local school children came along to talk to veterans and to see their memorabilia. The children were so fascinated by the photos, uniforms, letters and medals on display. They listened with absolute attention to the tales the veterans had to tell about their experiences. It was so moving to hear the children talk amongst themselves with such respect for those who have served our nation, and one student was so proud that one of the veterans there was his grandfather. By the end of the morning the whole school had adopted the veteran as their grandfather. The children also made poppies for the poppy wall in honour of our veterans.

I think what was most important about Richmond Remembers was the level of awareness raised within the community, and that is truly commendable for all those involved. The children were able to gain a level of insight from that face-to-face contact with the veterans that can never be learned from books. I would like to add that the overwhelming lesson that the children took away from their day was the importance of peace.

Our veterans are truly remarkable people. It was so wonderful to speak to our veterans on many occasions throughout this event. I know how much each of them enjoyed participating in the overall project and that they also appreciated the opportunity to bring greater awareness to our local community. They appreciated being able to speak and tell their stories on so many different occasions, whether it was to young children or speaking with other veterans.

I am pleased to report that following the resounding success that was Richmond Remembers the community is very keen to see this happen on an annual basis. We are all very committed to making sure next year’s events are even bigger and better throughout the entire electorate. As I said, Richmond has one of the highest veteran populations in the country. They are certainly very pleased to be involved and want to make it a bigger and better event.

I would like to acknowledge the great work of the local Department of Veterans’ Affairs office for all the work they did in preparing for this event. As you can imagine, there was a huge amount of preparation involved in coordinating so many members of the community—veterans groups, schools and local clubs. In particular I would like to acknowledge Rosemary Beard, whose dedication and commitment really are an inspiration to us all. Rosemary is held in very high esteem by the local veteran community for the tireless work she does for them always.

In closing I would like to say that Richmond Remembers was truly a community initiative. I would like to congratulate and thank all of the people involved, and there were so many. The success was due to the involvement of the whole community. It was the community coming together to remember the sacrifice and commitment of so many. I particularly thank all those from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs local office; the local RSL clubs, which worked tirelessly with all veterans in our area; all the children and local schools that participated in coming along to the yarn days, talking to veterans or participating in laying poppies on the poppy wall or in all of the school projects that they did—they put in so much time and so much effort it was fantastic to see—and also to all the local clubs which supported this event. (Time expired)