Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about a couple of recent initiatives by the Rudd government, particularly by our outstanding Minister for Veterans’ Affairs. These initiatives are resonating in my electorate of Port Adelaide, particularly among those who have served our country in past wars. The first one I want to talk about quickly is Merchant Navy Day.

Former and serving merchant seamen, RSL members from, among many others, the Semaphore and Largs Bay RSLs, the Merchant Navy Association SA, the Vindicatrix Association SA and the Maritime Union of South Australia will join many members of the Port Adelaide community to take to the streets of Port Adelaide next week on 3 September. They will be marching to celebrate Australia’s inaugural Merchant Navy Day. Already the streets of Port Adelaide are filled with special Merchant Navy Day flags promoting this historic event.

It was fitting, and I was very pleased, that the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs announced the proclamation of this day in my electorate of Port Adelaide on 4 July this year. Port Adelaide has a rich maritime history of which the merchant navy is an important part. The date of 3 September was chosen by the merchant navy community. It marks the loss of the first allied merchant ship in World War II, and the United Kingdom and Canada also honour their merchant seamen on this date. Thousands of Australian merchant mariners served during the two world wars to supply goods around the world to sustain our armed forces serving overseas, and they were regularly targeted, as members of this House know, by Nazi Germany U-boats and by imperial Japanese naval vessels. Sadly, hundreds of them lost their lives performing this vital and dangerous work. Merchant Navy Day will give the mariners a prominence in Australian wartime history that is long overdue and richly deserved. I must mention the tireless work of John Williams from the Merchant Navy Association of South Australia for his efforts in making this day an event that I am sure people will remember for a long time.

The Port Adelaide march begins at Fisherman’s Wharf markets and will wind its way down Queen’s Wharf to the old Ports Corporation building, concluding with a commemoration service at the Navigator Memorial. That memorial commemorates the sinking of the SS Admella some 149 years ago at one of the worst maritime losses in South Australian history. So participating in the march along with those who support the rich merchant navy history of our community will be some 160 people representing 44 survivors, victims and rescuers from the tragic loss of that ship.

The second initiative I want to talk about briefly is the recognition, finally, of the Battle of Long Tan. As members of this House know, in 1966 the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam saw Australia lose 18 men, 17 from D Company—including the young commander of 11 Platoon—and one from 1st APC Squadron. Twenty-four men were also wounded.

The Rudd government recently announced changes to military awards in response to the independent review of Battle of Long Tan recognition. Harry Smith, the commander of D Company 6RAR, will be offered the Star of Gallantry, which is the equivalent to the Distinguished Service Order. Platoon commanders Dave Sabben and Geoff Kendall will be offered the Medal for Gallantry, which is equivalent to the Military Cross. The strength of D Company 6RAR in Vietnam on 18 August 1966 will receive approval to wear the former Republic of Vietnam’s Gallantry Cross, with Palm Unit Citation emblem. Any other unresolved concerns regarding individual awards for Long Tan will be referred to the independent Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal, and the government has indicated it will be bound by the tribunal’s recommendations on such matters.

On 18 August this year I attended the Long Tan Day commemoration at Henderson Reserve in the Montague Farm Estate at Pooraka. The estate is dedicated to those who served, suffered and died in Vietnam, and all 50 streets on the estate are named after South Australian service personnel killed in action in that conflict. The initiative was undertaken as part of a Vietnam veterans’ awareness project, which also involved the erection of various commemorations in the local reserve. A community garden has also been created by students of Mawson Lakes Primary School, who have long had a relationship with the local veterans’ community.

On a personal note, my father served in Vietnam shortly after the Battle of Long Tan, during the period around the Tet offensive in 1968, and I got an SMS message from him, while he was having lunch with his Vietnam colleagues, saying how pleased they were about this initiative. (Time expired)