Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to speak on this motion on Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean. I would like to congratulate the member for Braddon for bringing this matter to the House—and not just once. The member for Braddon also presented the Defence Act Amendment (Victoria Cross) Bill 2001 to the House on 4 June 2001, which was the basis of the Labor Party’s election promise in 2001 to posthumously award a Victoria Cross to Teddy Sheean.

In speaking to this motion tonight, I pay credit to Frank Walker. Frank Walker was a very close and dear friend of mine who campaigned tirelessly for Teddy Sheean to be awarded the Victoria Cross. I have before me a letter that he wrote to me in December 2007, in which he asked me to pursue the case for the award of a Victoria Cross to Australian servicemen who had been very heroic. In that letter he said he was particularly concerned about Teddy Sheean and his feats on HMAS Armidale. As the member for Braddon mentioned, Frank Walker wrote a book entitled HMAS Armidale: the ship that had to die. In that book, he detailed the great courage and feats of Teddy Sheean and the reasons why he should be awarded the Victoria Cross. Previous speakers have spoken about the fact that Navy personnel have not received the VC when they have deserved it, and Teddy Sheean sure is an example of somebody who deserved the Victoria Cross.

Frank Walker campaigned for many years for Teddy Sheean to be awarded the Victoria Cross. In his book, he talks about the acts of bravery Teddy Sheean performed as a Royal Australian Navy sailor. He talks about how Teddy Sheean tied his gun to himself and kept firing as HMAS Armidale went down. I might just go through some of the feats of Teddy Sheean, because they are outstanding. Although twice wounded, he continued to return fire to try and protect the sailors in the water, bringing down one Japanese bomber in the process and severely damaging two others. Teddy Sheen was seen firing his gun even as the Armidale sank. In fact, witnesses reported seeing tracer rising from beneath the water—Sheean had kept firing underwater. There were 102 survivors of the sinking of the Armidale, thanks to the bravery of one man, Teddy Sheean—although many more were lost in life rafts on that day. That was because of what Teddy Sheean did. The Japanese continued to fire upon the ship and also machine-gunned sailors who had jumped into the water. This happened at around 3 pm on 4 December 1942. Afterwards, Sheean was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery. In 1999 a Collins class submarine was named after him—HMAS Sheean. This is the only vessel in the Royal Australian Navy to be named after an ordinary seaman. His sister, Mrs Ivy Hayes, launched the submarine in Adelaide on 1 May 1999.

This is an exceptionally important motion that we are debating here tonight. I call on the government, through its newly established and independent Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal, to right the wrongs of the past and take up the case of Teddy Sheen and others by establishing a mechanism to address the outstanding issues and anomalies in the military honours system in this country, particularly those relating to the actions of RAN personnel. This is the least we can do for people like Teddy Sheean. Lest we forget. (Time expired)

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