Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an honour to speak in this debate today and to acknowledge the 45th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. The date of 18 August should burn in all our psyches for lots of reasons. Looking back over Australia's military history, there have been great battles like Gallipoli in the First World War, and in the Second World War we talk about the Battle of Britain, El Alamein, Tobruk, the Kokoda Track and Milne Bay. When you get closer to home there is the Battle of Kapyong in Korea and there is Long Tan.

As the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Dr Kelly, just said, the Vietnam War left a lot of scars. Today is not the day to apportion blame to individual groups or political parties but, rather, to recognise that there was unacceptable conduct in our nation by some of our own people, who treated the Vietnam veterans abysmally when they returned from that conflict. Some of the veterans have told me that shortly after they got home they were advised by the military to get into civvies and not go out in their uniform—these fellows were not quite discharged, but they were back in Australia—for fear they would be abused and spat on. That really is a dreadful indictment on all of us. I put myself in that category. It was against that backdrop that those who fought in Vietnam, particularly those who fought in some of the seminal battles, like Firebase Coral and Long Tan, were never properly recognised. In fact, in the case of Harry Smith, Dave Sabben and Geoff Kendall—whom the parliamentary secretary just spoke about—their honours, recommended at the Battle of Long Tan, were actually downgraded. What a disgrace; what an utter disgrace.

The 45th anniversary was an opportunity to put that right. We have not been really good at acknowledging some of our heroes, and it is good that we now have a tribunal looking into the cases of people—even of people from the Second World War, like Teddy Sheean. Just imagine that young man going down and firing his machine gun as the waves came up around him! He would not leave his post. It is the stuff of legend. We recently celebrated the death of the White Mouse and her contribution to the war effort. She was the most decorated woman of the Second World War. She was one of ours, but it took us 60 years to acknowledge her effort. The 45th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan was a time to put some of the ghosts to rest, to put some of our bad attitudes away and to recognise the Battle of Long Tan for what it was.

I had the honour of being paired with Minister Warren Snowdon and going to Brisbane to see the parade. And what a moving ceremony that was: the whole 6RQR on parade at Enoggera Barracks; the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Morrison; the Governor-General; and, most particularly, of those who served at Long Tan there were over 80 soldiers, and widows. When you allow for the 108 who were there and the headquarters people, there were probably 120 in all—Harry Smith says probably about 120—and 80 of them could be there on that day to see the unit honoured. What a phenomenal day it was. The drill was impeccable, the music was perfect and the overlay was these 80 veterans. They have this ceremony where the troops march in open order through the ranks of the serving troops, and seeing them marching through the ranks brought the crowd to its feet with applause.

The other thing that struck us was that the Governor-General placed a wreath on the cross. We have different memorials for different activities in our history. If you go around Australia you will find that most of the memorials to the Battle of Tobruk are in the shape of the memorial that was built in the cemetery at Tobruk. If you go to Vietnam War memorials, you find that quite a lot of them are in the shape of the Long Tan cross, which is a roughly hewn cross with a circular panel, not quite a Celtic cross—I think all the honourable members would know what I am talking about. One of those crosses is at Enoggera Barracks, where the wreath was laid.

I mentioned Harry Smith, who was to be awarded the DSO, which was downgraded to a Military Cross and then upgraded again to the Star of Gallantry, which is the equivalent of the DSO. But the awards for Dave Sabin and Geoff Kendall were downgraded from military crosses to military medals and then upgraded again to the Medal for Gallantry. Dave Sabin had never received his and it was presented to him by the Governor-General, and the Unit Citation for Gallantry, which should have been awarded 44 or 45 years ago, was presented to the other lieutenant, Geoff Kendall. They both served beside Harry Smith in the battle.

Harry attended the Long Tan celebrations in Townsville. As a result of a recent medical treatment, he was not able to fly to Brisbane, and that was a sad thing because if it was anyone's day it was Harry Smith's. As you watched that magnificent parade, you could not help reflecting on what he did on that day. As the parliamentary secretary and others have mentioned, the Battle of Long Tan occurred by chance. A D Company, 6RQR patrol had gone out and, at around midday or early-afternoon, they encountered 2½ thousand Vietcong and North Vietnamese regulars—quite a formidable force. As we subsequently know, their real target was the base at Nui Dat, where there was to be a concert that day with Little Pattie and Johnny O'Keefe. It would have been a light and frothy day, so just imagine 2½ thousand troops descending on that. What a bloodbath that would have been. By chance, while out on patrol, the Australians ended up in battle with this group. They were a well-equipped group, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has just said. They had artillery as well. It was on the edge of the rubber plantation and it was in pouring rain. The battle raged for three hours—105 Australians and three New Zealanders took on 2,500 North Vietnamese regulars and irregulars. Shocking sorts of odds. You read the battle—and we do not have time to go into every aspect of it—but for example at one stage one of the platoons was surrounded and two other platoons went out to relieve them to fight their way into their position and to get them out back to the Australian line.

Then there was Morrie Stanley the New Zealand artillery officer who was lying beside Harry Smith, right at the front, in three inches of muddy water calling down the artillery that was coming from three units—Australian, American and New Zealander. That barrage was exploding in the rubber plantation and was causing devastating injuries to the North Vietnamese attackers. As I said, the battle went on for three hours. At one stage they nearly ran out of ammunition and equally bravely the RAAF flew in with an improvised drop of ammunition wrapped in blankets in the thick of the battle. That too was enormously courageous.

They persisted and they won the battle. They saved most of their unit. Tragically they lost 18 with 24 wounded but one only shudders to think what might have happened if that group had got anywhere near Nui Dat on that day. So they also saved the pride of Australia in that battle and as Parliamentary Secretary Kelly just told us it weakened for all time the role of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese regulars in that province. So that was what we celebrated—45 years since that event.

I stay very close to my Vietnam veterans because I think they have had a rougher time than most. There were even some RSL clubs that would not accept them as members, thankfully not a lot, but some would not and that was a great sense of unhappiness to them. They did not lose their sense of camaraderie and having served for Australia and in many towns they formed their owned branches, some as South Vietnam Veterans' Association and others as South East Asian Group. In my area both main groups, the one in Bundaberg, has its own headquarters and as the local member I took some pride in helping them with former ministers and being able to get funds to purchase accommodation—it was an old church that they have turned into a very nice club. In Hervey Bay the old historic railway station is also now the headquarters of the Vietnam Veterans' Association Hervey Bay Sub-Branch.

You often wonder just how much healing had really gone on but I think it was two or three years ago I went to the Long Tan Day at Hervey Bay and Harry Smith had some of his unit with him; I think there were eight of them. They went up as a group to lay their wreaths and as they laid their wreaths and stepped back the entire crowd—which was considerable I might add—burst into loud and sustained applause. I have never seen that at a wreath laying. Wreath laying is generally a very sombre thing; a reflective thing. But, on that occasion, the members of the public who were there could not contain themselves because they knew the story of how badly these men had been treated as veterans but also, in particular, how badly D company 6RAR had been treated in the acknowledgement of what was the seminal battle of the Vietnam War. I return to an earlier theme, when I said we are not very good at recognising our heroes. Two of the 11 have received some awards, but there are still nine who have received only MIDs, mentioned in dispatches, which hardly reflects what went on that day. They were all recommended by Harry on that day for truly exceptional courage, and I will not rest until those 11 are upgraded.

I bring that up not to put a political or dark overlay on the celebration of Long Tan Day but rather to say that there is still some unresolved business. We as a nation need to step back and take one last look, as we put this behind us, to make sure that we have honoured truly exceptional courage and, in the case of Harry Smith, Dave Sabben, Geoff Kendall and Morrie Stanley, truly exceptional leadership, and that we do not forget the ones who really stuck their necks out for this country, those last 11. Long Tan Day is a marvellous day, a day that is now well established in the Australian lexicon. I hope that it will lead to complete fulfilment in the coming years, once we have acknowledged the last 11 veterans.

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