Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The now Prime Minister issued a media release on 24 May 2020 titled 'Tasmanian war hero Teddy Sheean deserves Victoria Cross', and I quote from it:

It is never too late to honour the meaning of Lest We Forget, or to commemorate the courage of one of our own.

Prime Minister, does the 20-year time limit your government is placing on inquiries on the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal mean that Teddy Sheean's gallantry would not have been a reviewable action?

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, because it goes to the heart of one of the problems in his critique of the legislation that's being considered by the House at the moment. While we are attempting to modernise the way in which the tribunal operates, he tries to use as an example, which he did just then, (1) a matter where an application could still be brought to Defence for such honour to be bestowed, (2) a matter that an inquiry could still be conducted in relation to and, most importantly, (3) one in which he tries to imply that what the tribunal did in the case of Teddy Sheean was the thing that affected the previous government's decision.

The reason the Prime Minister put out that press release in the first place was that the previous government, despite the tribunal's recommendation, said no and set up a completely separate process because of the pressure brought by veterans and by this government when it was in opposition. Stop misleading people, shadow minister.