Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians are justifiably proud of all of our service men and women. We recognise the dangers they face and we admire their commitment, courage under fire, professionalism, skill and capability. We all grieve when we lose one of them. We honour them for their remarkably brave and ongoing efforts in the quest for a better, safer and more peaceful world. In recent months Australians have seen and endured the heartache of what serving our country can bring to those brave men and women. We have had eight Australian soldiers die in Afghanistan in 2012, taking the total to 39 deaths since Operation Slipper began in 2001. However, many, indeed any, brave action comes with the element of risk. On 1 November 2012, Royal Australian Regiment Corporal Daniel Keighran, 29 years of age, received the nation's highest military honour for his actions in repeatedly drawing enemy fire during a 2010 battle in which one of his comrades, one of his mates, one of his friends was killed.

Corporal Daniel Keighran is the third soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia and the first member of the Royal Australian Regiment, the first outside of the Special Air Service. According to the citation, the 6RAR soldier exposed himself with complete disregard for his own safety, breaking cover repeatedly to identify enemy locations when his patrol was engaged by numerically superior forces.Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney of 6RAR was shot and, sadly, killed during the battle.

Queensland born Keighran joined the Army in 2000. Prior to Afghanistan, he served in East Timor and Iraq. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in 2005 whilst within Mortar Platoon of the support company 6RAR. He was promoted to Corporal with the same unit in 2009. In 2011, he transferred to the active reserve. A real hero, Corporal Keighran chose not to speak of what happened in respect of his fallen comrade, only telling his wifeKathrynabout the circumstances of the battle 13 days before his award was given. Corporal Keighranput that great Anzac spirit of mateship first—a superb example of the fact that the tradition well and truly endures in a new generation, a generation showing itself to be every bit as brave and every bit as selfless as the long line of khaki who preceded it.

The Victoria Cross for Australia was inaugurated in 1991. It is the highest Australian award in the Australian system of awards and honours. It was first awarded in January 2009 to Trooper Mark Gregor Donaldson, 40 years after the award to the last Australian recipient of the Imperial Victoria Cross, Warrant Officer Keith Payne in Vietnam in 1969. I had the pleasure of meeting Warrant Officer Payne VC at the unveiling of Wagga Wagga's Korean war monument on 20 February. The first Australian to receive a Victoria Cross was Captain Neville Howse, during the Boer War in 1900.

The people of the Riverina, a region which has a proud military history, know all about the importance of the awarding of a VC. All three arms of the military operate out of Wagga Wagga and the many monuments erected in cities and towns across the region bear remembrance and respect from grateful communities for those who served, and especially those who fell in past conflicts. Among the Riverina's VC recipients is unmistakably Tumut's greatest hero, Private Edward John Francis Ryan, known sentimentally as Jack. His medal is proudly on display where it belongs, in the Australian War Memorial's Hall of Valour, alongside those awarded to other diggers, who by their selfless actions earned an honoured place in history. Jack Ryan earned his VC during an assault on the fabled Hindenburg Line as the 55th Australian Infantry Battalion attacked near Villacourt, France, on 30 September 1918. He had enlisted on 1 December 1915 at Wagga Wagga, and marched out that same day with 87 others, known as Kangaroos, passing through Harefield, Junee, Illabo and on to Sydney, arriving on 7 January.

That famous march is the subject of considerable discussion now by the Wagga Wagga Anzac Centenary Committee, organised by Petrina Quinn, as to how best to commemorate its impending centenary. The committee has talked about enhancing the inner sanctum of the memorial arch in the aptly named Victory Memorial Gardens as well as a partial re-enactment of that famous march. A replica banner of the original Kangaroos recruitment colours, which was carried all the way on that 1915 march, has been made with the help of the Wagga RSL club and is presently housed at the local RSL sub-branch. It was proudly paraded for the first time at this year's Wagga Wagga Anzac Day march along Baylis Street. Dr Quinn had the honour of meeting Daniel Keighran VC at this month's Remembrance Day commemoration in Martin Place, Sydney, describing him as a 'most modest and unassuming individual'.

Other VC recipients with Riverina links include John William Alexander Jackson, from Gunbar. He was just 19 years of age when he was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1916 for courage under heavy fire while rescuing his comrades near Armentieres in France.

Private Jackson was the youngest Australian to be awarded a Victoria Cross and his was the first VC to be won by an Australian on the Western Front. Other VC recipients with links to the Riverina include Walter Ernest Brown at Villers-Bretonneux, in France, in 1918.

A VC was also won by John Hurst Edmondson from Wagga Wagga, who was awarded his VC posthumously after he died rescuing his officer who was under attack in Tobruk, in Libya, in 1941. There was also Reg Roy Rattey, from Barmedman, whose actions in South Bougainville in 1945 earned him, rightly, the highest honour for valour.

Daniel Keighran joins those celebrated heroes and, although his service is now as a reservist while he works in a Kalgoorlie mine, his military exploits stand as the epitome of heroism. Well done, Corporal Keighran VC. You are indeed a fine example to all who wear the military uniform and to all who enter the Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga, hoping for a soldier's career. A grateful, proud nation salutes you.

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