Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

For both sides of this chamber to speak about our famous War Memorial is a great opportunity and one that is rarely afforded to us. TripAdvisor ranks the War Memorial as No. 17 in the top 20 tourist attractions in the world, narrowly edging out the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour and the wave pool in colleague's electorate in Western Sydney! This is a magnificent place to visit. I have been visiting World War II and World War I battle scenes and cemeteries for a long time but had not actually gone to the War Memorial as a child. A million Australians and foreign tourists pass through the War Memorial every year, and 200,000 students—but that is not every Australian student. It should be the goal of this place to make sure that every young Australian gets to see the Australian War Memorial.

While this bill is about ensuring that charges are never paid to walk in those hallowed doors or to park there, I do not for a moment think that, however bad we have thought the previous six years of Labor government were, they ever would have fallen to charging for the War Memorial. I acknowledge now that putting it in legislation is a smart move, but I do not for one moment doubt that both sides of this chamber respect the Australian War Memorial for the wonderful job it does, both in commemorating those 102,000 Australians who have given their lives for the democracy and freedoms that we enjoy and in telling the stories. Many of us as Australian families—and I would count mine among them—do not actually have veterans who served overseas, so those stories were not passed through to me directly. So it is so vital. I was a 10-year-old in the 1970s, when turning up to Anzac Day parades was not only optional but probably undesirable. That turned around, and Australia realised what we were missing out on and what we potentially could lose as we saw our veterans becoming older each year. Australia seized that opportunity, and we have successfully grasped it. We have now continued that connection to those who served in the two great wars and before.

What many people do not realise is that the War Memorial covers all of Australia's engagements, right back to 19th century colonial engagements in Africa. It goes all the way through to, obviously, Iraq and Afghanistan and, most importantly, also where Australia's service is increasingly becoming world renowned, and that is in peacekeeping missions. Australia deployed in over a dozen locations around the world in the last 10 years. Peacekeeping missions are just as important. Peace building and peacekeeping with our United Nations partners is increasingly the new order. We can stabilise parts of the world that otherwise would descend into war by prompt responses from an alliance of nations, often those that are most closely bound to it. We need to find local and regional solutions to these challenges. It is not up to the great powers and the advanced economies to be stepping into every internecine disagreement that we find in the far corners of continents often far from our own.

So Australia does a great job, but I would like to take this opportunity that I have to mention one great omission, and that is that since the end of World War II we have not recognised, in the form of a simple medal, those people who gave their lives for our country. It was cancelled straight after World War II. It was known as the Mothers' and Widows' Badge, and I concede that it was not the best conceived plan at a time when Australia really had financial problems postwar. Sending out a mothers medal by sending a letter in the mail saying, 'Please pick it up at the post office,' was simply not good enough. We can do far better than that. The leading democratic nations whom we would call partners and allies have an arrangement where the next of kin are recognised. The people who, on service papers, are identified as next of kin deserve, I think, no less than a palpable physical token of our absolute appreciation for someone who makes the ultimate sacrifice serving overseas. We should be doing what Canada, the US in the form of their Purple Heart, the UK, many European countries and even New Zealand do. I believe that that is—and if it is not it should be—coalition policy. The cost would be infinitesimal. It does not add to the complexity of the military medal system, because it is a medal to the next of kin; it does not qualify as a military medal.

When we take this concept one step further—and I made my references to peacekeeping—perhaps someone in Australia who gives their life in the service of our nation in a peacekeeping role deserves not the same medal but a similar medal, because that sacrifice, for those parents, is no less. If you give your life serving an Australian NGO, for instance, in Africa, in a highly unstable location where there could be either terrorist activity or intertribal disputes where our aid workers are caught up and ultimately also pay with their lives, then I think that we should recognise that in a formal way. The first question that one would be asked is: who should be eligible? That is quite simple. There is the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal, the HOSM, which clearly identifies areas of service that are supported by the Australian government. That lists right back for many decades, clearly identifying the periods and the organisations that are eligible. If an Australian serves in a way that is eligible for the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal, I think they should, if they make the ultimate sacrifice, be formally recognised. It is a great omission in our awards, and I think it is one that the current government could examine.

In conclusion, we are fixing another problem today. I know that those visiting the War Memorial for years and decades to come will go back to Hansard and read the debate that we are having today about guaranteeing free entry, because there is no more important story—not only the commemoration of the service but hearing the stories about people who were just like us. They were coming from families just like ours. As we travel around Australia, many of us who live in the cities often forget the extraordinary price in numbers that regional parts of Australia played. You can visit a town like Scone or Orange or other smaller regional cities in Queensland and see enormous numbers of names—mostly of young men but also women who served overseas and gave their lives. To those country towns that staffed and filled the rank and file of our military in those two wars, I think we who live in the city and now enjoy the dividends of their service should be eternally grateful.

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