Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We as Australians are fortunate that we have never been required to fight a war on home soil. A combination of our relatively short history of European settlement, our peaceful independence and our remote geography mean that Australia has never served as a major theatre of war.

But there was a time when we came extremely close. In 1942, invading forces reached what is now West Papua, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Northern Australian ports such as Darwin and Townsville were bombed. Japanese submarines staged a daring raid as far south as Sydney Harbour. Those were dark days in Australian history. Australia faced the threat of invasion from a Japanese military emboldened by victories across the Pacific.

It was only through the valour, bravery and, in some cases, the sacrifice of Australian service men and women that Australia and our allies were able to hold off and eventually defeat the Japanese and end the war in the Pacific. It is those men and women who we commemorate on 15 August every year on Victory in the Pacific or VP Day. This year takes on special meaning as the 70th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender on 14 August 1945.

The world has changed so much in the ensuing decades. Japan has transformed itself into a highly developed, peaceful and democratic nation, so much so that younger generations of Australians may find it difficult to comprehend that their grandparents and great-grandparents were required to fight a war for survival against a militaristic and expansionist Japan. But in early 1942, the world was a vastly different place. In late 1941 Japan had dramatically escalated the war in the Pacific through their invasion and occupation of Malaya and Singapore, and through their attack on US naval forces at Pearl Harbour. They had also begun to move on the Dutch East Indies—now Indonesia—and on New Guinea.

The remaining Australian naval vessels not already committed to the war effort in Europe were tasked with slowing the Japanese fleet as they moved ever southwards towards Australia. Among them was the Australian light cruiser, the HMAS Perth. Having already served as part of the Mediterranean fleet in the early years of the war, by early 1942 the HMAS Perth had returned to South-East Asia and was one of the few remaining allied ships in the region at the time. HMAS Perth, along with American, British and Dutch warships, made a valiant attempt to slow the Japanese advance. The Allies engaged the Japanese fleet in the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, sustaining heavy losses.

In an attempt to reach to the port of Tjilatjap the following    evening through the Sunda Strait, the Allies once again

encountered Japanese naval forces. In fact, they had inadvertently chanced across the main Japanese invasion convoy, lying in anchor at Bantam Bay. The remaining Allied fleet, including the HMAS Perth, fought a desperate battle in the late evening darkness. At around midnight, the Perth was struck by a shell below the waterline. As it attempted to seek safety, it was torpedoed and sank 20 minutes later in the early hours of 1 March 1942. Of the 680 men on board the Perth, 357 lives were lost. Among the casualties was my uncle, Lloyd Righetti, a young Able Seaman. He was one of four brothers, including my father, who served in the armed forces during the Second World War. He left behind a widow and a daughter. His younger brother Sid served on both the HMAS Shropshire and the HMAS Quiberon, and thankfully survived the war.

Among the losses from the HMAS Perth, my uncle's story is just one of many. This single tragedy was second only to the loss of the HMAS Sydney in terms of Australian lives lost in naval battles during the Second World War. For the survivors there was little respite. Three hundred and twenty men were captured and became prisoners of war. Eventually, they were sent with other Australian prisoners to labour in brutal conditions on the Burma-Thailand railway. In such harsh conditions, one-third of those captured did not live to see the end of the war. Among those who survived was a young John Carrick, later to become Senator Carrick and then Sir John Carrick. He was a senator in this place and previously state secretary of the Liberal Party in New South Wales, and my former employer.

Thankfully, those lives were not lost in vain. It may have been difficult to foresee back in 1942, but the war in the Pacific was beginning to turn in favour of the allies. In time, the Japanese forces proved incapable of providing the resources needed to occupy such an extensive territory. Later in 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea proved to be a decisive turning point. So too did the battles of Kokoda Track, where 625 Australians lost their lives and more 1,000 were wounded in unimaginable, difficult conditions. For the first time in this part of the world, the might of the Japanese fleet was repelled. This gave hope that the allies could ultimately prevail, and by 1945 we ultimately did.

Victory in the Pacific was not achieved through military might alone. Sustaining the war effort required the commitment of the entire nation and many cities and towns played a role. While supporting the war effort by other means, suburban Brisbane also played host to a top-secret facility that was unknown to residents at the time and did not become public until years later. During the war, Witton Barracks, located in suburban Indooroopilly in my electorate of Ryan, was the site of an interrogation facility for high-value Japanese prisoners of war. A joint US-Australian intelligence agency was set up in the requisitioned Witton Barracks facility. There, Japanese prisoners of war were questioned and captured documents were examined to gain information about Japanese military movements. Crucially, Japanese army code books were captured and translated. Much of the information discovered at Witton Barracks remains a mystery, as almost all of the documentation was removed by the American forces at the conclusion of the war. Remarkably, however, the interrogation buildings are still standing as a reminder of Brisbane's contribution to the war effort all those years ago.

The Witton Barracks site is no longer used by the Australian Defence Force, but it remains in defence hands. Steps are underway to ensure that the unique wartime heritage of the site is preserved. Brisbane City Council has submitted a proposal to purchase the site and maintain the heritage buildings, while reserving a corridor for a future bridge over the Brisbane River to deal with continuing population growth. This is a proposal that I wholeheartedly support and I have been working with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence to ensure that the Department of Defence understands and appreciates its merits.

If the Anzacs at Gallipoli created the legendary Australian fighting spirit, then the war in the Pacific only served to further enhance it. On VP Day, we commemorate all those who served and who died defending Australia as well as all those who contributed to the war effort back in Australia. Let their sacrifice not be in vain. In these more peaceful times, we unite with old allies and foes alike to remember that war exacts a terrible human toll on all sides, and that we should never again contemplate a return to large-scale conflict in the Pacific. Lest we forget.

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