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

Can I thank the honourable member for reading out that diatribe and say to the author, who I think I know, that we have rebutted these arguments in the public domain previously and I do not intend to traverse them here tonight. I have never heard such rubbish in the time that I have been in this parliament.

Let me say to you very genuinely that we are committed to commemorate properly the Centenary of Anzac. We have a process in place. Very shortly I hope to be able to announce, along with the Prime Minister, the person who will head our advisory board and I think that will be an important statement in itself. You would have heard earlier that I have already had discussions with our counterparts in Turkey, in France—or at least with the office in France—in the UK and in New Zealand about the Centenary of Anzac and those things are ongoing. We have had a report from the commission which the government will respond to in due course.

I do not even want to attempt to respond to the garbage about the Australian War Memorial because, again, this has all been rebutted in the public domain. I have to say the flights of fancy which have reached new heights from—not you—the shadow spokesman on veterans' affairs just dismay me.

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