Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to come back to that, but time absolutely precludes me from doing so, so I will conclude by commenting on two further issues. Firstly, I encourage the minister to look at the reason why there are such long delays in the provision of this medal, and why there are anomalies arising where people with the same sorts of service eligibility are being, on the one hand, rejected, while others in exactly the same situation, on the other hand, are being approved. Something is wrong here and the minister needs to get a handle on it.

The last question I will ask the minister relates to the bravery awards following the Battle of Long Tan. I know the minister is aware of this issue, and I want to ask him whether he feels that the officers who actually fought in the battle have been treated fairly. I want to know whether he feels that the downgrading of their bravery awards was a fair thing to have happened at the time and, particularly in this year—the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan—what action he intends to take to review those bravery awards, which were given to the officers who actually took part in the battle—the trigger pullers, the men who fought the fight? I want to know what steps he is going to take to rectify what is now becoming a longstanding embarrassment to our honours and medals system.

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