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

Last weekend, the Defence Community Organisation ran a fantastic event, another 'welcome to Darwin' or 'welcome to the Top End' gathering at the Darwin Convention Centre. It was fantastic, so congratulations again to DCO. It was a really successful event and was really well attended. For me, it was great to get some valuable feedback from Defence families, both those who have been here for a time or those who have just been posted in at the start of the year. It was great that those families could walk around and visit all the exhibitions from every sector of society and get the local information that they need to make their start in the Top End a lot more successful.

It was a really great event, and I was really heartened by the positive reception that the new boots policy that Labor has announced got from the members of the Defence forces with whom I spoke. I know myself, from doing a fair bit of stomping in general purpose boots, that one size doesn't fit all. For a few soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen, the issued boots they get will fit them spot-on. But, for many others, they go and buy their own boots. We don't think that's appropriate, so it was great to talk about the new policy we've announced where there'll be a range of boots that ADF members will be able to choose from but the system will pay for that very important piece of kit, because boots are very important for members of the ADF in doing their job well. I believe that, when members have the boots they need to do their job, it will save us a lot of injuries as well.

Keeping on the military theme, this coming Tuesday is another commemoration—this one, the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. This has become a national day of significance, and it is because it was the first time that Darwin and the mainland came under direct attack in World War II. One hundred and eighty-eight attack aircraft were launched from aircraft carriers. There were 54 land based bombers in the second raid. All up, over 260 enemy aircraft were involved, which killed at least 252 Allied service personnel and civilians. The big civilian toll is something that I'm keenly aware of and remember each year. Unfortunately, due to our sitting here in this place next week, I won't be able to attend the memorials and the commemorations, but I will pay my respects when I return to Darwin.

We'll have the ceremony at the USS Peary memorial in the morning, before moving down to the Darwin cenotaph where we'll remember that, just before 10 o'clock on 19 February 1942, the sirens rang out. There is also a ceremony down at Stokes Hill Wharf, where the Maritime Union of Australia and others will commemorate all those seafarers and waterside workers who were killed when the bombs rained down on Stokes Hill Wharf that morning.

We have a significant defence history in the north, and in Darwin in particular, and this year the Northern Territory government has launched Territory Tribute, a range of events starting on 19 February and going through to Anzac Day. This great series of events will reflect on the involvement of the Australian military, Indigenous Australians and our neighbours in South-East Asia, with participation from the US and Japan—an inclusive, respectful and truthful reflection of our wartime history. There will be a couple of showpieces, which I will quickly mention: the International Veterans Art Exhibition—and well done to ANVAM—the Military Writers' Festival from 5 to 7 April; and also an event called Overture to Peace, which will be on the eve of Anzac Day. These are fantastic events in our Territory Tribute.