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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that Vietnam Veterans Day:

(a) is held on 18 August every year;

(b) commemorates the service and sacrifice of the almost 60,000 Australians who served in the Vietnam War, including the 521 who were killed, and the 3,000 wounded; and

(c) was, until 1987, known as Long Tan Day, which commemorated the service of the 108 personnel of D Company 6RAR, who on 18 August 1966, with limited supplies and in torrential rain, successfully fought off 2,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops near the village of Long Tan;

(2) reiterates its sincere appreciation for the service of all veterans of the Vietnam War; and

(3) expresses its regret that many veterans of the Vietnam War did not receive appropriate recognition of their service upon their return to Australia.

Vietnam's veterans stay is held on 18 August every year, and commemorates the service and sacrifice of the almost 61,000 Australians who served in the Vietnam War, including the 521 killed and the 3,000 wounded. Vietnam Veterans Day was, until 1987, known as 'Long Tan Day', which originally commemorated the service of the 108 personnel of D Company, 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment—6RAR—who on 18 August 1966, with limited supplies and in torrential rain, successfully fought off 2,000 North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops in a rubber plantation off the village of Long Tan. Long Tan Day came about on 18 August 1969, three years after the Battle of Long Tan, when veterans of 6RAR gathered at the site to raise a cross to commemorate their fallen comrades.

Australia's engagement in the Vietnam War had troop numbers winding down from late 1970, and a complete withdrawal by December 1972. The Royal Australian Air Force returned to Vietnam in April 1975 to conduct humanitarian missions—specifically the evacuation of South Vietnamese civilian refugees and orphans, which concluded on 25 April 1975 with the evacuation of the Australian Embassy. By 1972, for all but a few the Vietnam War was over. But what many Vietnam veterans did not realise at the time and that occurred through painful experience over the proceeding decades, was that there were new battles waiting for them at home. Many of Australia's servicemen returned to Australia with little fanfare or recognition, let alone gratitude. What they experienced in the subsequent months and years ahead was a contemptuous and unwelcoming reception from the Australian public.

Many faced vilification upon their return to Australia—even from some politicians—tarred by stereotypical representations of the Vietnam War, particularly those popularised in American film. Some Australians laid blame for the Vietnam War, including Australia's decision to enter it, at the feet of returned servicemen. Veterans were accused of genocide, murder and rape, precisely the things that they had gone overseas to try to prevent. For those who had sustained injuries, physical and psychological, or who had lost friends in the war, these accusations took a serious toll on their morale and mental wellbeing. Unfortunately, to this day many have never fully recovered.

Over time, Long Tan Day was increasingly recognised and commemorated by all Vietnam veterans, and in 1987 Prime Minister Bob Hawke, following the welcome home parade for Vietnam veterans, announced that Long Tan Day would be known as Vietnam Veterans Day. On that day 25,000 Vietnam veterans marched in Sydney to a reception by several hundred thousand members of the public. The commission of a national memorial for the Vietnam War in 1992 was another important step forward in recognising the service of the 61,000 Australians who fought in Vietnam and the sacrifice of the 521 who never came home. It is to our eternal shame that it took us so long as a nation to recognise the service of those 61,000 Australians, including the 19,450 young men who were conscripted. And while we have come a long way since 1972, there is more to be done.

On 18 August every year, thousands of Vietnam veterans and their families attend commemorative services throughout the country. However, the experience of many veterans is that Vietnam Veterans Day is still little-known and seldom commemorated throughout the wider community. Some veterans, because Vietnam Veterans Day is not an officially-gazetted national day of commemoration, struggle to persuade their own RSL sub-branches to hold a ceremony.

I believe that the time to officially gazette Vietnam Veterans Day is long overdue. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Vietnam Veterans Day, and it would be wonderful to see the day gazetted in time for that anniversary. Officially, gazetting Vietnam Veterans Day will ensure that it is commemorated widely across Australia.

Gazetting Vietnam Veterans Day would cost the government nothing, but it would mean so much to our surviving Vietnam veterans and to the memory of those who are no longer with us. I take this opportunity to call on the Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs to take action to officially gazette Vietnam Veterans Day as a national day of commemoration. I commend the motion to the chamber.

See this speech in context