Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I first acknowledge the presence in the chamber of the member for Herbert and hope that he behaves himself in such a way that he will not have himself removed from this chamber.

An honourable member: He just came in to say goodbye!

I would like to speak today about a meeting I have had with the Geelong Vietnam veterans association around the development of their memorial on the corner of Swinburne Street and the Princes Highway in North Geelong. This is a great project that seeks to build upon a monument which was first established in 1995. They will seek to reincorporate, or reinvigorate, the old shire of Corio gates into the beautifully designed memorial, complete with interpretive signs which they want to ensure have on them the name of every Australian who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam war. It would be an unusual monument within Australia, because not many monuments in Australia dedicated to the Vietnam war commemorate every one of those names. They are seeking funding from a range of places. It is a cause that I want to ascribe my name and I say to them: I will be doing everything I can to help them in raising the money to develop this memorial.

They have one concern which it is appropriate to raise in this place. On the other side of the Princes Highway, running from Swinburne Street to Mackey Street, is the Vietnam veterans' avenue of honour of Geelong. This is a really important strip, as are all avenues of honour around the country, but on this one the City of Greater Geelong have placed a large community billboard. It is simply not consistent with commemorating and honouring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War and, indeed, all of those who served. This billboard should be moved by the council now. It was simply a mistake to put it there and I am sure all good-minded people within the council would want to do that. Equally, there is another sign, a smaller one, which describes the Avenue of Honour and tacked onto that is another one which talks about the Maritime Museum, itself an important place. But it is not appropriate, again, to put that onto a sign which is honouring a very significant event.

Along the same road, the Princes Highway and Latrobe Terrace, there is the Korea War Memorial, one of the only war monuments to the Korean War in Australia. There is also the Boer War Monument. These need to be appropriately maintained because along this strip of the Princes Highway and Latrobe Terrace we now have a road through Geelong which honours all of these wars and can become a road of enormous significance.