Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great privilege as the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs to visit our neighbours in the Pacific islands. Ours is a deep and enduring friendship, and part of my role is to reinforce the importance of this friendship to Australia. On my recent trip to the Solomon Islands, I discovered that that friendship extends much closer to home than I expected. During a tour of the headquarters of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, otherwise known as RAMSI, I had the pleasure of meeting a young woman from my home town of Geelong. Private Tegan Bubb is a 20-year-old Army reservist currently deployed with rotation 22, Operation Anode, part of the Australian Army’s Combined Task Force 635. The former Belmont High School student joined the Army in 2009 under the ADF Gap Year program and was posted to Townsville as a clerk administrative. She was then transferred to the Army Reserve and posted back in Geelong to the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment, at the start of 2010. Private Bubb deferred her studies at the Victorian Fitness Academy to take up her deployment with RAMSI and is one of only 10 women in the Australian Defence Force contribution to the Solomons.

I was also surprised to discover that Private Bubb is one of 17 Army reservists from Geelong currently serving with RAMSI in the Solomon Islands. Among the 16 others are the company commander, a clerk and 14 riflemen. They are of all ages, from 20 to 59, and from all occupations. Each has taken six months leave from their studies or their job as a public servant, as a municipal worker or within private industry. They are serving their community proudly, and I am pleased to say they will be welcomed home by family and friends when their deployment is complete before Christmas. Just under 80 per cent of the current rotation from the Australian Defence Force are Victorians. Most of these are reservists. Some have already served in the Solomons previously or in East Timor. Many were also involved in the search and recovery operation that was carried out in the tragic aftermath of Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires.

We rarely give a thought to the work of our reservists, but my visit to the Solomon Islands gave me an opportunity to meet with them and to see firsthand the work that they do. We should be grateful for their contribution and for their preparedness to put study and careers on hold to serve their country. As the member for Corio, I am doubly proud to see that the people of Geelong are so willingly there to do their bit.

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