Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on this issue of the Rwandan service by Australian defence personnel in the House. In fact, I am very pleased to be a part of this debate because it is a historic day for this issue. When the then Minister for Defence sent the first rotation of troops supporting a medical mission to Rwanda, he sent them off on the basis that it would be non-warlike service, and the member for Bruce has recognised that. The member for Bruce has said in the past that this decision by the Labor government at the time was a failure of policy. That certainly is the case because at that time there was an awful lot of history and concern in relation to Rwanda and the repeated massacres that had occurred. The troops, however, went off and Australian defence personnel served their time in Rwanda between 1994 and 1996. Over that period, more than 630 ADF personnel participated. There were medical troops, but there were also support personnel and a group of infantrymen to support the activities of the medical personnel.

The member for Bruce referred to what occurred at Kibeho. I think that is the salutary lesson to be learnt from the whole event. Basically, a massacre occurred there and Australian troops on the scene were unable to take action under the terms of engagement upon which they had been sent. They had to be extremely brave and, in the face of people being murdered before their eyes, they had to take action to clear the area of the belligerents and to try to evacuate displaced people who had been hacked at and injured to deliver them up for medical treatment.  Across the world there was recognition of those horrors. There is no way that anyone in this parliament can say that information did not get back. It did get back; it was known just what kind of severe trauma faced those troops in that difficult circumstance. The knowledge that that trauma was going to lead them towards post-traumatic stress disorder and those kind of illnesses was obvious from the outset.

This government did recognise that there was a need to review conditions of service in examples such as this and began a nature of service review in 2002 looking at all these issues. The outcome of that process in relation to the Rwanda issue is now known. An announcement has been made today that the service in Rwanda of those more than 630 ADF personnel who contributed to Operation Tamar has been upgraded to warlike service. That was announced this morning by the Hon. Bruce Billson, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence. I congratulate the minister on that because there are many of us on the coalition backbench committee who have argued this issue for many years. It is important that it be recognised that these troops did undergo very trying, warlike service in every respect and that their service on that occasion was exemplary. They can be held out across the world for their achievements at a time when the world community was failing the civilians of Rwanda.

Warlike service is something that Australians have shown over the years they can contribute to very effectively under all those difficult circumstances. Now, however, Rwanda veterans will receive the gold card, the service pension at age 60 and all the other benefits that apply under warlike service. It is an honour to be here on the day when that occurs and to acknowledge the importance of giving recognition to troops who contributed so much in such difficult circumstances. (Time expired)

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