Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion moved by the Prime Minister to commemorate Vietnam Veterans Day and the 45th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. Whilst it is the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, 18 August is also the day when Vietnam veterans gather with their friends and family, with great support from around the nation, to remember their service and the sacrifices of so many of their mates in the Vietnam War. I had 5½ years as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and it was a great privilege to serve in that portfolio. I also got to know so well, from a generation similar to mine, those who had served in Vietnam—many of them of course having been conscripts.

Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War was the longest in duration of any war in Australia's history. From the time of the arrival in Vietnam of the first members of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam in 1962, almost 60,000 Australians, including ground troops and Air Force and Navy personnel, served in Vietnam. Sadly, 521 died as a result of the war and over 3,000 were wounded. Many of those 3,000 had to carry those wounds and injuries for the rest of their life.

On 18 August 1966, 108 men of D Company, 6RAR, fought off as many as 2,500 Viet Cong soldiers at a rubber plantation in Long Tan in Phuoc Tuy Province of South Vietnam. Vastly outnumbered, the Australians endured driving monsoonal rains, which decimated radio communications, to fend off an enemy more than 10 times the size of the Australian company. Tragically, 18 Australians were killed in action in the battle and 24 were wounded. More than 245 of the enemy were found dead on the battleground when fighting ceased.

In 1996, I had the privilege of leading the first official pilgrimage of Vietnam veterans back to Vietnam, marking the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. There were many veterans who found it difficult to travel as part of an official delegation, but who, on the way home were able to tell me that each day of the pilgrimage had been another day of healing. To return to the battlefield for so many of them, to return to parts of Vietnam which harboured so many terrible memories—memories which had troubled many of them since the war—was part of a healing process. They crossed a bridge which many of them had felt might never be crossed. I was privileged to lead them back to Vietnam.

Only 10 days ago I was in Brisbane, at the Brisbane Exhibition strangely enough, and a lady came up to me and said, 'You are Bruce Scott, aren't you?' and I said, 'Yes.' She said: 'I am the wife of so-and-so'—I will not mention his name—'who was representing the Navy in the group you took back to commemorate the Battle of Long Tan, the 30th anniversary official pilgrimage. It has made a great deal of difference to our relationship.' To get, 15 years later, that mention from the wife of a veteran is a measure, from my point of view, of how those pilgrimages are so valuable in helping veterans to heal and so valuable for us as a nation in acknowledging the great sacrifices that were made not only in the Vietnam War but in other theatres of war.

I want to acknowledge the families of all our veterans—the wives, the girlfriends, the sisters, the brothers, the mothers, the fathers—who took care of our veterans when so many other Australians turned their backs on them. As a nation we must always err on the side of generosity when it comes to our military. After all, they serve as a result of a resolution of the parliament. They serve with the support of the parliament. They serve and do as the government asks of them. It is up to us as members on both sides of the parliament to make sure we always err on the side of generosity when it comes to compensation and looking after those who serve and, sadly, those who are left behind. I will never stop fighting to make sure that we as a nation, whenever money is available, extend entitlements to all those who have served, to their families and to those who have been left behind.

I know time is short, but in conclusion I want to say that in the year 2015 we will be celebrating—although I would like to call it commemorating—in many ways 100 years since we landed at Gallipoli, when our nation, a nation of less than five million people, lost its innocence. In the year 2015, 100 years on, we must look across all wars and conflicts that Australia has been involved in, not just at Gallipoli. I know a former CDF is going to chair a committee. He will bring great knowledge to that committee and he will do an excellent job of leadership. But it is important that we look not just at Gallipoli in that year. It is important to look at Vietnam and our involvement in the Second World War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq—the list goes on. And of course so many of our peacekeeping forces have been in theatres that so often do not have a profile—for example, the Sinai and the Sudan. We must make sure that across the board, wherever our Australian men and women in the Australian Defence Force serve as a result of a resolution of the parliament at the wish of the government, we commemorate and remember all of those who have served throughout more than 100 years of service to our nation.

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