Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure, somewhere along the line! Again, getting back to the point of this legislation and these amendments, it is so important that we can continue, even in situ, to make sure such records are protected.

From following the history of my natural family and my adoptive family, there are a whole range of strange circumstances, as you can imagine. My mother is in fact older than my grandmother—sorry; that would be a story! I mean my adoptive mother is a few years older than my natural grandmother. That adds some complications. So it is all very interesting when you start to look at your family history.

I have talked about my adoptive mother before in this House who at 87 years of age is still doing very well. She was in the women’s air force in World War II and, during the Battle of the Coral Sea, she was a spotter and plotter up in Townsville. She used to watch for enemy aircraft, spot them and report them. A lot of people do not know that Townsville, firstly, was bombed during the Second World War and, secondly, came to be a front line. Again, there was this gender thing where they always refused to acknowledge any women who served in those forces, unless they were nurses of course; any women who served in those women’s forces were never considered to be front-line. Because of my mother’s tenacity, I guess, if nothing else, and through archives—through my approach and my help, because I have become an expert in archives and delving through them—she finally proved through the RSL and to the Commonwealth government that Townsville was front-line. Lots and lots of other people benefited from the government’s recognition of that site as a war zone. So that is one example.

If you take then my natural family’s history, my natural grandfather was a Gallipoli veteran. Now, I know a lot of people claim that they have those connections. The wonderful thing about the Archives of course is that you can prove that. Interestingly enough, while I had gained access to that information some years ago, you might remember a few weeks ago there was a display here by the Archives where they had Harold Holt’s leather case that he left on the beach the day he disappeared—

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