Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

It is indeed a great privilege and an honour to have the opportunity to participate in this debate and to join with others, including the previous speaker, the member for Cowan, in congratulating Trooper Mark Donaldson on receiving the prestigious Victoria Cross for Australia. As others will have said, Trooper Donaldson, aged 29, is the first Australian in almost 40 years to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth’s highest military honour.

We know that Trooper Donaldson was born in 1979. He left his home in New South Wales to join the Australian Army in 2002. We have read of the tragedy of his early life and the fact that he was orphaned. But it should not surprise us—this is a really good and great Australian story—that someone who had much hurt and pain early in his life has now made an enormous and historic contribution to the Australian record.

At the Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka, Trooper Donaldson was awarded prizes for best shot and best at physical training in his platoon. Given what we now know, it should not surprise us to learn that he was later presented with the award for the most outstanding soldier in his platoon at the School of Infantry in Singleton. In 2004 Trooper Donaldson completed the Special Air Services Regiment selection course—no easy feat—and was subsequently deployed on operations in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq.

On 16 January this year, at an investiture ceremony to mark the occasion at Government House here in Canberra, Her Excellency the Governor-General of Australia presented Trooper Mark Donaldson with the Victoria Cross for Australia. I had the privilege of attending that ceremony, where Trooper Donaldson was accompanied by his wife, Emma, and daughter, Kaylee. It transpired that I had previously met Trooper Donaldson at the SAS headquarters at the Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, in Perth, on the range during a visit last year.

As we have learnt, Trooper Donaldson’s receipt of this most significant of awards comes as a result of conspicuous acts of gallantry in action which he displayed during an incident on 2 September 2008. As others have said—and it is now clearly on the public record—Trooper Donaldson displayed exceptional courage under incredibly dangerous circumstances.

The incident occurred when an Australian, US and Afghan vehicle convoy was ambushed by a numerically superior enemy. Again we know from the public record that Trooper Donaldson saved the life of a severely wounded coalition interpreter. While doing so, he exposed himself to intense and accurate machine-gun fire, placing himself in danger to assist another.

As Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, I am constantly aware of the outstanding achievements of our service men and women. Indeed, less than a month ago I was in Afghanistan with the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. During the visit I saw firsthand the professionalism and dedication of the serving Australian Defence Force personnel. But clearly, as the record again tells us, we do not often have the opportunity to pay tribute to exceptional courage and self-sacrifice of the type displayed by Trooper Donaldson in September last year. Because of the rarity of the award that he has been given, Trooper Donaldson now joins 96 fellow Australians who have also received this prestigious award. In the Boer War, six Victoria Crosses were awarded. A total of 64 were awarded in World War I. Two were awarded in northern Russia. Twenty Victoria Crosses were awarded in World War II, and in Vietnam four Victoria crosses were awarded.

Trooper Donaldson, not long after he was given the distinction of this great award, put the award on display at the Australian War Memorial, where it joins 62 others, so that it can be shared with the Australian community. This, of course, is the largest publicly held collection of such medals in the world. Trooper Donaldson’s resolve to return to combat operations in Afghanistan is further testament to his commitment and dedication to his service and his country. As the Prime Minister stated yesterday:

Through his deeds, Trooper Donaldson has brought a great honour upon himself, his family, the Australian Defence Force and our nation.

We should know that the intense battle that led to Trooper Donaldson being awarded the Victoria Cross also saw other exhibitions of great heroism and courage. I want to now take the opportunity to publicly acknowledge another Australian soldier, one of Trooper Donaldson’s comrades, for his actions in this battle. As part of the Australia Day honours, a second special operations command soldier has been recognised for his exceptional service during the same conflict for which Trooper Donaldson was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia. Lance Corporal S, who has protected identity status and so cannot be named, has been awarded the Medal for Gallantry, the second highest award we can make in the military. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and congratulate Lance Corporal S for his outstanding courage and his extraordinary efforts. During this incident, Lance Corporal S ‘selflessly exposed himself to enemy fire to protect a severely wounded Australian soldier’, ultimately saving the life of his comrade. This is yet another example of the self-sacrifice, courage and exemplary professionalism which is displayed often by Australian serving personnel but most particularly on this day of struggle, when Australian soldiers were wounded, by Trooper Donaldson and Lance Corporal S—and on a daily basis by their fellow service men and women who remain deployed on operations.

You meet some tremendous people in your life, Deputy Speaker Schultz, as I am sure that you have in the course of your work. But I am constantly amazed by the extremely high standards that are set by the Australian military. That is not to say that there are not some rogues and that they do not enjoy a drink on occasions. But the underlying features of their work are their commitment to and love for one another. They show great teamwork and have great respect for their comrades.

I was delighted that the comrades of Trooper Donaldson and Lance Corporal S were at the investiture ceremony at Government House. I know that they enjoyed the celebration of the occasion. I am also aware that Trooper Donaldson VC talked at the time and subsequently about the commitment that he has to his mates and the commitment that they share for one another. He remarked that he did nothing outstanding but that they all would have done it. The fact is, though, that he did something really outstanding and is deserving of this great award.

At the investiture it struck me just how important this award is, and what great status it has—not only in the general community but within the Australian Defence Force—when, after Trooper Donaldson had been awarded his Victoria Cross by the Governor-General, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston walked up to Trooper Donaldson and saluted him. It is a tradition that senior people salute Victoria Cross recipients, regardless of their rank, in recognition of the courage and professionalism that they have exhibited during the course of their service and which has been recognised through the awarding of this great medal.

It has been a great privilege for me to be able to participate in this debate—although it is not so much a debate as an opportunity to express our feelings about this award and about Trooper Donaldson and the lance corporal whose name we cannot know. We congratulate them on behalf of a grateful nation.

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