Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this motion. On Sunday, 16 August I attended at the Torrens Parade Ground in Adelaide, as I have for several years now, a commemorative service for the Australians who served in Vietnam and, in particular, in remembrance of the 521 Australians who died as a result of serving our country there. Last week the Prime Minister advised that the remains of Pilot Officer Robert Carver and Flying Officer Michael Herbert, who had been missing in Vietnam since the war, had finally been found and were being returned to Australia. I extend my condolences and respects to the families, friends and colleagues of Pilot Officer Robert Carver and Flying Officer Michael Herbert. For their families, their return will bring a sense of closure. It will also bring them some peace of mind by having better knowledge of the fate of these two servicemen and finally bringing to an end 39 years of uncertainty. The return of the two servicemen is also significant to Australia as a nation because it marks the end of unfinished business relating to the Vietnam War.

I did not personally know Pilot Officer Robert Carver, who I understand came from Queensland, or Flying Officer Michael Herbert, who was from my home state of South Australia and lived at Glenelg. However, over the years I have listened to and spoken with many associates and friends who did serve in Vietnam. I have heard their stories, I have seen their photos and I have read their accounts of the Vietnam War. Every war is horrific, and Vietnam was no exception. But for Australians who served in Vietnam it was different from other wars because of the deep divisions throughout the country on Australia’s involvement in that war. Understandably, many of those Australians who served felt their service was never properly recognised. That has added to the tragedy and to the memories and psychological scars that many who served there still carry. I am encouraged, however, that as each year passes greater recognition is being given to the Australians who served in Vietnam. Hundreds of Vietnam veterans and their family members attended Sunday’s march and wreath-laying ceremony in Adelaide and then stayed on for a day of family entertainment. It was particularly meaningful to be joined at the memorial service by ex-South Vietnamese defence force members who proudly wore their own uniforms and medals.

In addition to attending the services on Sunday the 16th, I was represented yesterday, 18 August, by James Piekert from my office at the annual Long Tan Day service at Montague Farm in my electorate. Being in Canberra I was unable to attend the Montague Farm ceremony, but it is of special significance to me. Montague Farm is an estate name for a relatively new community of some 1,300 homes, in the suburb of Pooraka within the city of Salisbury, that was developed by the South Australian Housing Trust around 20 years ago. The estate has become an important monument to Vietnam War veterans for three reasons. Firstly, a formal monument has been constructed in Henderson Square in recognition of the Vietnam War veterans. Secondly, each year a Long Tan Day and wreath-laying ceremony is held at the memorial site, and I understand it has become one of the largest Long Tan Day ceremonies in Australia. Thirdly, on the initiative of Fred Pritchard, a Vietnam veteran himself and the project manager for the South Australian Housing Trust at the time, all roads within Montague Farm have been named after South Australian soldiers who lost their lives in Vietnam. There is Noack Street, in recognition of the first national serviceman to lose his life in Vietnam, Private Errol Noack, who died on 24 May 1966, only 16 days after he said goodbye to his family. Henderson Street and Henderson Square, where the memorial is located, are named in memory of Warrant Officer Malcolm Henderson, who died on 16 December 1967. Badcoe Street is named after Major Peter Badcoe VC, who lost his life on 7 April 1967 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. I could go on with every other street name but clearly time is limited today.

To emphasise the initiative and significance begun by Fred Pritchard, Salisbury City Council designed and installed special street signs which note the rank and date of the death of the soldier after whom the street is named. These signs and the names on them will become permanent memorials to many of the South Australian soldiers who lost their lives in Vietnam.

I should mention that the northern branch of the Vietnam Veterans Association this year walked from Port Augusta to Adelaide, raising funds for Legacy, the Vietnam Veterans Scholarship Foundation and the Repatriation General Hospital in Adelaide. I understand that they raised around $25,000 as a result of their long walk. This is the third occasion since 2005 that they have made the walk. The first walk was also from Port Augusta to Adelaide and, on the second occasion, they walked from Renmark to Adelaide. This year they were joined on the walk by the only surviving Vietnam Victoria Cross recipient, Keith Payne VC, who again came down from Queensland to support his mates. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australian defence personnel who served in the Vietnam War. They were Keith Payne, whom I have just mentioned, and Major Peter Badcoe, whom I mentioned earlier. There is also Kevin Wheatley, who was killed in action on 13 November 1965, and Warrant Officer Ray Simpson, who was awarded a VC for his actions on 6 and 11 May 1969.

Along the way from Port Augusta to Adelaide, Keith Payne and Ian Leraye, a long-time friend of mine from Salisbury, stopped at schools in Port Augusta, Stirling, Quorn, Wilmington, Booleroo Centre, Gladstone, Port Pirie, Clare and Kapunda, where they addressed schoolchildren about the Vietnam War. It is so important that children of today are aware of what earlier generations went through in going to war. What better way for these children to learn about this than through hearing the stories in person from those who were there?

Wherever the men and women of our defence forces are serving in the world, they are fighting for and on behalf of Australia. As such, it is vital that the Australian government do everything in its power to ensure that those who lose their lives serving overseas are either brought home or have their memory appropriately preserved in foreign graves. Whether it was at Gallipoli, Fromelles, in northern France, or Vietnam, Australians who have died serving their country abroad must have their memory recognised and honoured.

Over the years, Australia as a nation has taken many significant steps to ensure that veterans of the Vietnam War receive the respect and acknowledgment that they did not initially receive on their return to Australia. The 1987 Welcome Home March, when 25,000 veterans of the Vietnam War came from all over Australia to march through Sydney, gave many veterans the public support and demonstration of gratitude that veterans from earlier wars had received on their immediate return home. The 1996 pilgrimage to Vietnam of 30 Australian veterans, representing all elements who served in Vietnam, visited Saigon, Nui Dat, Vung Tau and Long Tan in a symbolic gesture of ‘laying the ghosts’.

Many Australian service personnel have since returned to Vietnam of their own volition and engaged in community work there, such as the construction of a new school in Long Tan. There have also been significant occasions such as the 2002 rededication of the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial and the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan commemoration in 2006, where Vietnam veterans have been appropriately recognised and honoured. I believe that the discovery and return to Australia of the remains of Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver will be another significant occasion in the history of Australia and its commemoration of the Vietnam War. The last remains of Australian servicemen missing in Vietnam are being returned home.

I too commend the work of the Air Force investigation team; the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, whose innovative modelling techniques were used in locating the crash site; and the Army History Unit, whose exhaustive research and expertise supported the investigations. I also acknowledge the assistance provided by the local villagers, Vietnamese authorities and former North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers and commanders. I hope that the discovery of their remains brings some closure and peace to the families of Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, as well as to their mates in the broader Vietnam veterans community.

I close with the prayer that was given by Pastor David Marr at the service that I attended on Sunday morning, because I believe that it sums up our view about those men and women who served this country:

Father, as we look to the past we give thanks for all those who fought for peace and were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the safety of their loved ones and friends.

We remember with gratitude those who gave their lives for the cause of peace, dying that we might live in a just and free world.

We pray for those who suffer still living with the tortured memories of loved ones and mates lost, suffering physical and mental pain from a past that still holds its terrors. Not all wounds are visible.

We pray that we will learn the lessons of the past so that the future will be a time of peace, a future where reconciliation will be found in words and not acts of hatred; and a future where there will be recognition that we are brothers and sisters tied together by our humanity.

Let us in our own lives, by our words and by our actions, live lives in peace and in love towards our neighbours and may the nations of the world be inspired to work together for the common good of all humanity.

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