Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I join the Minister for Defence in supporting the motion of condolence for Lance Corporal Jason Paul Marks, who was tragically killed in Afghanistan on 27 April 2007. Our nation’s gratitude to the men and women in our Defence Force is immense. They willingly commit to putting their own lives in danger, on the line daily, for others. While we have immense gratitude to our service men and women, sadly when we lose a fine soldier like Lance Corporal Marks the pain too is immense. Words can never do justice to the fine soldier that we have lost in Lance Corporal Marks. Beyond the pain we as a nation feel when we lose one of our internationally respected Australian soldiers is the loss of the man that was Jason Paul Marks. The loss of this man—this husband, son, father and friend—is immeasurable.

Australia presently has more than 1,000 personnel in Oruzgan province, including the Reconstruction Task Force and the SOTG, comprising members of the 4RAR (Commando) Battalion and Special Air Service Regiment. Lance Corporal Marks was in the lead platoon preparing for a company level assault 25 kilometres to the south-east of Tarin Kowt, in Oruzgan province, when they were attacked by the Taliban on 27 April 2008. There was a heavy exchange of small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades between the Australian troops and the Taliban. Even though coalition air support involving Apache helicopters and F16 fighter bombers struck back at the Taliban position, four soldiers were wounded by small arms fire in the same action that took the life of Lance Corporal Marks early in the contact with the Taliban.

I was indeed humbled to be on the tarmac at Richmond RAAF base for the ramp ceremony on Saturday, 3 May, when this brave soldier’s body was returned to his homeland, to his wife, Cassandra, and to his family. It was an incredibly moving experience to bear witness to soldiers from his regiment, 4th Battalion, RAR (Commando), forming an honour guard as his casket, draped in the Australian flag he so valiantly fought under and decked with flowers, was carried from the C17 military plane. An Army piper played as the solemn procession made its way across the tarmac; a more poignant scene is hard to imagine. The tributes for this young man, this son, husband and father who has made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, flowed in.

Defence Force head, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, has described Lance Corporal Marks as one of the country’s finest soldiers. The Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, paid attribute to Lance Corporal Marks on behalf of the Australian Army when he said:

He is a true Australian hero, a great bloke ... admired and respected ...

He said Lance Corporal Marks had become a part of Australia’s history and the history of the Army and that that would be revered. Major General Tim McOwan, commander of the Australian special forces, said Lance Corporal Marks was a remarkable soldier who was extremely dedicated to his role as a commando and as an Australian soldier. Major General McOwan struck at the core of the feelings that Lance Corporal Marks’s colleagues had for Lance Corporal Marks, when he said:

Jason epitomized what every commando strives for: courage, strength and determination. He certainly had a strength of character that set him apart. Jason was an extremely well liked man and his loss will be keenly felt throughout his unit and the wider army.

Lance Corporal Marks was also a vital member of a family. He was a much loved husband to Cassandra and a father to two small children—Ella, five months old, and Connor, five years old—who will not know their father in the years to come. Hopefully, they will be comforted in part by the extreme outpouring of emotion and genuine feelings from his colleagues and the Australian public. He was a man who would be nameless to the people of Afghanistan but who gave his life so that they may live in hope of a better life.

Born in Broken Hill in New South Wales, Lance Corporal Marks grew up in Yeppoon in Queensland. He enlisted in the Australian Regular Army on 2 March 1999. After recruitment and initial training, he was posted to the 4th Field Regiment as a gunner until 2003, whereupon he transferred to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps as a medical assistant. In 2005 he undertook special forces entry and commando selection, after which he was transferred to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and posted to the 4th Battalion (Commando) in the Royal Australian Regiment. After completing his specialist commando training he was posted into a commando assault platoon, where he served as a commando assaulter, signaller and mortar specialist. Lance Corporal Marks was also a combat fitness leader and a Pashto linguist.

Lance Corporal Marks was a decorated soldier who had seen operational service in East Timor and Afghanistan, and he was employed to both theatres on more than one occasion. Jason had been awarded the Australian Active Service Medal, clasp East Timor and clasp International Coalition Against Terror; the Australian Service Medal, clasp Timor Leste; the Afghanistan Campaign Medal; and the Australian Active Service Medal. He was also awarded the Unit Citation for Gallantry as part of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan in 2006.

According to his wife, Cassandra, all Jason ever wanted to do was join the army. She said:

All Jason ever wanted to do was to join the army …

He was the type of of man who knew what he wanted, even from the age of 12. All Jason ever wanted to be was a soldier.

Becoming a Commando was a dream of Jason, he was proud of who he was and proud of what he did.

Buried in his childhood home town of Yeppoon in Queensland, his name will now forever be recorded in history linked with the Anzacs and other brave men and women before him on the town’s cenotaph. I say to his wife, Cassandra, to his two young children, Ella and Connor, to his mum and dad, Sharon and Paul, to his brother, Lance, and to his brother-in-law, Phillip: our nation shares your loss and grief. I can assure them that at the going down of the sun and in the morning we shall remember Lance Corporal Jason Paul Marks. Lest we forget.

See this speech in context