Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Benjamin Disraeli said that the legacy of heroes is a memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. Private Gregory Michael Sher is indeed a great example to all Australians, and it is with great pride mixed with some sadness that I rise to honour this fallen warrior, the eighth since 2002 to give his life serving our country in Afghanistan. I pass on my sympathy and support to his family: his parents, Felix and Yvonne; his brothers, Steven and Barry; his grandmothers, Sylvia and Molly; his partner, Karen; and his aunts and uncles, Bertha and Harold Milner, Hazel and Alan Fine and Rael and Diana Dushansky.

Greg was 30 years old, a young man to lose his life fighting on a foreign battlefield. As we age in this place and around the country, age shall no longer weary Private Sher. Remembrance Day this year will see his name etched on the roll of honour, as Remembrance Day last year saw so many names etched there. As the ancient adage has taught us, ‘Good men must die but death cannot kill their names.’ Private Sher was killed in a rocket attack in Oruzgan province at the hand of Taliban insurgents. He was serving with the Sydney based 1st Commando Regiment as part of the Special Operations Task Group. Yet he was born a long way from these shores, in South Africa, and moved to Australia with his family in 1986. He fully embraced our great nation as his new home and joined the Army in 1998 as a reserve infantryman. In 2002 he served in East Timor and was subsequently awarded the Australian Active Service Medal, the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor Medal, the Infantry Combat Badge, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the NATO Medal and the Australian Defence Medal. His family describe him as a man of purpose and committed determination, a quiet achiever who always got the job done. I think we would describe him as a deadset hero and a man who truly put sacrifice above self.

Private Sher and those like him are beacons of inspiration for others who strive to defend freedom, restore peace and hope and provide a better future for the people they serve—those of Afghanistan. He fought for those who simply could not fight for themselves. He stands tall, as a man who believes that all people, wherever they may live, should have the opportunity to live in a better world that is free from violence, intimidation and repression. I know it can only ever be a small comfort to his family, but Private Sher sacrificed his life doing what he loved: soldiering and serving his country.

The saying, ‘We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm,’ is attributed to George Orwell. If freedom is indeed the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it, then Gregory Sher stands tall in this nation’s history as a man who had the courage to defend what he believed to be true—in the great tradition of Pericles, the ancient warrior, statesman and king, who founded the Athenian empire 2½ thousand years ago and led that nation for the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles once said that what you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.

The Minister for Defence has just spoken eloquently about Private Sher’s mates. He painted a picture of the boys having a few quiet ales together in the pub the night before Private Sher’s funeral, reflecting on his life and drafting his eulogy. The minister painted a picture of what Private Sher had woven into the lives of others. Such memories cannot be outdone or outshone through monuments of stone; they live and breathe every day in the lives that are left behind.

This parliament is very proud of Private Gregory Sher. We thank his family for the great sacrifice they have made. It is unimaginable what it would be like to lose a son, but Private Sher died fighting for his country. He died proudly. He died a soldier’s death.

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