Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for his Remembrance Day motion. Remembrance Day services are very moving events. From listening to some of the contributions today, we are reminded of all that we remember on Remembrance Day. Services are held around the country to mark the time when the guns on the Western Front fell silent after all the slaughter and the carnage. We use Remembrance Day to honour and remember the fallen and those left behind. Like you, Deputy Speaker Hastie, I am a proud former defence member. I am also the son of Vietnam veteran who lost some mates and the grandson of a World War II veteran who lost some mates. In recent times I have spent a lot of time with veterans and their families.

Recently in the Top End a great event was put on by the Defence Community Organisation to welcome new families to Darwin. We also commemorated the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin. So, in the short space of a couple of weeks, there have been a lot of opportunities for defence families and veterans to get together and talk. What has really struck me is that we have a serious problem in our country when it comes to how our veterans are going.

Do not get me wrong: the majority of our veterans are soldiering on. They are either still in the Army, Navy or Air Force or they have got out of the military and are just trying to get on with life. Many are going into different workplaces and doing incredibly well because of the skills, attitudes and knowledge they have picked up during their service. I recommend soldiers, sailors and airmen to any prospective employer. There is no doubt that a percentage of those in the veterans' community are having some troubles. In my seat of Solomon and in Palmerston, I am struck at how few mental health services there are for these veterans. A lot of families and even some veterans who have been personally affected have come up to me basically asking for help.

The reality is that you have to fly interstate from Darwin if you want to get some focused psychiatric care. Often that is away from your family, which is difficult for people. I think we can do better. A lot of people in our community who were in the emergency services or who are veterans are suffering from post-traumatic stress or anxiety or depression. In the Top End we probably need a program that is veteran-specific, that has focused psychiatric rehabilitation at its core, with health professionals that understand PTSD. I think that is something we can work towards. I want to acknowledge the families, because obviously they often bear the brunt, not only those families who have lost someone but those families who have had someone come back to them who is not the same as they were before.

I spoke today to a widow who is a member of the ACT War Widows' Guild, and they have commissioned a glass work that will go to the new Canberra Services Club. I thought it would be fitting to read out the inscription on that stained-glass window:

We all belong to each other. We all need each other. It is in serving each other and in sacrificing for our common good that we are finding our true life.

They are beautiful words. On Remembrance Day we honour the dead and we remember the living. Lest we forget.

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