Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to speak for longer than 10 minutes.

Leave granted.

I rise tonight to honour and farewell one of Australia's greatest heroes. Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, affectionately known as the 'White Mouse', passed away on Sunday 7 August only a few weeks short of her 99th birthday. This extraordinary and incomparable lady will always hold a very special place in the hearts of generations of Australians. Though never wearing this country's uniform, she became our greatest war hero when fighting the Nazis in Europe during World War II. Nancy Wake effectively eluded Hitler's Gestapo, saving up to 1,000 allied soldiers from certain death.

She was, as we know, a leading figure in the French Resistance movement and was directly involved in preparations for the D-Day landings in Normandy. So remarkable and effective were her achievements that by 1943 she was one of the Gestapo's most wanted persons, with a 5 million franc bounty on her head.

Notwithstanding her nickname, Nancy Wake was no mouse by nature. She did what had to be done—she put her own life in jeopardy time after time to save the lives of others. I am reminded of the story of her confronting and removing an SS sentry with her bare hands, squeezing the very life out of him to prevent him raising an alarm during a raid. This was an extraordinary woman with the courage of a lion; a woman of iron-willed determination, of breathtaking bravery and of infinite resourcefulness in the battle of the just.

For those generations born after World War II, we can only read about her life and wonder what the formative triggers were in turning a small Sydney schoolgirl into one of our war heroes. She certainly had to fight for her place in life from the very first breath she drew. As we have heard, she endured a difficult and challenging childhood, with her father leaving his wife and family of six children. Nancy was the youngest child and her father never returned to Sydney after he left for New Zealand. He sold up the family home while they still occupied it, and one can only imagine the emotional stress that this would have put on all the family—and particularly the youngest of the family, Nancy.

At the young age of 16 Nancy left the family home to forge her own way in life. She trained as a nurse to make ends meet, but it was a £200 windfall inheritance from a distant aunt which was to change her fortune. She first travelled to New York and then to London, where she talked her way into a job as a journalist by pretending to be fluent in Egyptian. At this interview, she clearly showed the first signs of her remarkable talent to get things done in her own inimitable way.

She did not stay in London. Instead she moved to Paris, where she also worked as a journalist and learned to speak French like a native. It was then that her life would change forever. She witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and saw firsthand the direct outcomes of his regime in Berlin and Vienna, where she observed how storm troopers publicly persecuted Jews. At that moment Nancy Wake swore to herself that one day she would do everything in her power to fight this inequitable regime. And she did when she finally had the chance, which made her one of those rare jewels who step up to their promises.

This turn of events must have surprised some friends, colleagues and acquaintances of Nancy. Before the war she was a sultry glamour girl who enjoyed the life of champagne and caviar with her first husband, the French playboy Henri Fiocca. But when the war broke out Nancy Wake did not hesitate a second and became a courier for the French Resistance and also joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow. When the network was betrayed she had to immediately flee the country. She had to leave her husband behind, who was later captured, tortured and executed by the Gestapo because he would not reveal the whereabouts of his wife. Nancy Wake, tragically, only learned of his fate after the war and blamed herself for his death.

She fled to Britain, where she signed up to the Special Operations Executive, who trained her in clandestine work. Back then it was one of the few military areas that men and women could equally participate in. She was taught survival skills in very difficult conditions. She learned to parachute, how to operate a radio and the use of weapons and explosives. She also learned how to kill silently before being parachuted back into France. Her SOE superiors remembered her as 'a very good and fast shot' and that she possessed excellent field craft. The White Mouse, they noted, 'put the men to shame by her cheerful spirit and strength of character'.

A French colleague once said about her: 'She is the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then she is like five men.' What a woman, and wouldn't we have all loved to have met her. Nancy Wake was without doubt a stunner and an Australian bombshell. Those who say that a beautiful girl can be very dangerous certainly were spot-on when referring to Nancy. She fought in the war with both male and female weapons. In her autobiography she recalled:

I'd see a German officer on the train or somewhere, sometimes dressed in civvies, but you could pick 'em. So, instead of raising suspicions I'd flirt with them, ask for a light and say my lighter was out of fuel.

She told how she would get beautifully dressed and hang around making dates with Germans to get information. She wrote:

A little powder and a little drink on the way, and I'd pass their posts and wink and say, 'Do you want to search me?'

Her looks clearly helped her in deceiving and tricking the soldiers. However, she was everything but idle when being parachuted into enemy territory, hiding in trenches, ducking machine gun fire, attacking German installations and local Gestapo headquarters, or famously cycling more than 500 kilometres in just 70 hours through several German checkpoints to recover important radio codes.

When the 1944 Normandy landings were approaching, Wake's resistance groups were diverting as many German troops as possible. This meant they were constantly on the move, sleeping rough and engaging the enemy in numerous fire fights. Wake led a force of more than 7,000, which was a highly motivated army that made life decidedly uncom­fortable for about 22,000 German storm troopers stationed in the area. She did an extraordinary job in leading those troops, especially when you consider that she lost only about 100 of the fighters, whilst more than 1,400 German soldiers were casualties.

In response to this she received numerous honours after the war such as the Legion d'Honneur as well as three Croix de Guerre and a French Resistance Medal, Britain's George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom. Nancy Wake was one of the highest decorated female servicewomen of the war. It fills me with great sadness that it took Australia almost six decades to honour her incredible achievements with her Companion of the Order of Australia. It is also a tragedy that she felt that she needed to leave Australia in 2001 following her disappointment at the lack of acknowledgement in this country.

Her medals are on display in the Second World War Gallery at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. What is not on display is the fight she took up after the war. Nancy Wake's determination was again demonstrated when she stood three times as a candidate for the Liberal Party in the 1949, 1951 and 1966 federal elections. In all those elections she was up for a fight and tried the impossible by going after one of the more senior guys in the Chifley government. Sadly she was unsuccessful, despite achieving remarkable record swings in all three campaigns.

In the 1949 campaign, for example, she ran against then Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs, Dr Evatt. She went to the polls with the cry, 'I am the defender of freedom; Dr Evatt is the defender of communism.' This campaign resulted in a huge 13 per cent swing against Dr Evatt. However Labor retained the seat with 53.2 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. The second time Nancy Wake ran against Dr Evatt was in the 1951 election, when she came even closer in defeating the then Deputy Leader of the Opposition by reducing the margin to less than 250 votes. One can only imagine how this extraordinary woman must have felt after having been defeated in federal politics. The word 'surrender' surely did not exist in her vocabulary. One can only imagine how different things may have been if she had achieved electoral success. There is no question she was a trailblazer and would have served with the same level of passion, vigour, merit and integrity that guided her in her life. Her family and former friends have so much to be proud of and we will never forget the amazing contribution she has made to our lives.

In reflecting on Nancy Wake's courageous stance against anti-Semitism in the 1930s, I am reminded of recent disgraceful protests and boycotts in the heart of the central business district of Melbourne, scenes that I am sure would have captured the attention of Nancy some 80 years ago. The fact that anti-Semitic protests are happening in modern day Australia is an outrage that we should all roundly condemn. I speak of the recent violent protests orchestrated by the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement outside the Max Brenner chocolate shop in Melbourne, when some 19 demonstrators and three police were injured.

The BDS movement unashamedly targets companies that have any sort of connection with Israel. It is a disgraceful movement, one that was supported by the Marrickville Council and one that receives support from members of the Greens to this day, including Senator Lee Rhiannon. Their aim is to economically cripple the only democracy in the Middle East and the one country in which the region's Arabs are guaranteed safety. The serious consequences of this political movement cannot be overstated. Colleagues should pick up a book or view the old news footage of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the night in which Jewish homes, shops, towns and villages in Germany were ransacked. To think that activists can justify what was essentially a picket of a legitimate business because it is an Israeli company is contemptible.

I wish to applaud the swift response from the Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, the Hon. Michael O'Brien, for taking immediate action and requesting an investiga­tion by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into the legality of their actions. At the recent ugly Melbourne protest, BDS activists prevented potential customers from entering the store as part of an orchestrated campaign to impose a secondary boycott on the com­mercial activities of the business and demonstrate that they could boycott businesses that have any association with Israeli owners. The Maritime Union of Australia, Geelong Trades Hall Council, Green Left Weekly, Australians for Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign are all involved in or support the BDS campaign.

It is shocking that the purpose of this boycott was to cause substantial loss or damage to the Max Brenner business. Such conduct could potentially contravene section 45D of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. I support Minister O'Brien's request to the ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, to investigate these matters and consider seeking injunctive relief preventing further disruptions to the Max Brenner business.

Senate adjourned at 20:11