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

I appreciate the opportunity to make a small contribution on the Defence Legislation Amendment (2017 Measures No. 1) Bill 2017 and talk about Reservists and why these protections are very welcome. Reservists do an incredible job. Their life is already difficult enough, balancing the demands of their service to our country through their Reserve service with their everyday life and job. I've been proud to not only be a Reservist but also to work as a full-time member of the Army in a Reserve unit and to see the way those incredible people balance those competitions for their time. They're mums, they're dads, they're involved in local sporting teams, so they have this double life that they manage incredibly well. But it's not easy, and that's why I strongly support these increased protections, as I know both sides of politics do—because the reservists of our country make sure our full-time capability is always there for the challenges that we need to meet, and time after time we are drawing on reservists as a defence force to make sure that we can meet Australia's national interests and national security needs, whether it be in war, as we have seen, or humanitarian relief.

I just wanted to acknowledge the service of Greg Sher, who joined the Army as a reservist and was deployed to East Timor back in 2002, but then went on to do the commando selection course and served in Afghanistan. He was tragically killed in a rocket attack in 2009. He is an example of many reservists, commandos and special forces, infantry and other corps who have taken up the baton. They do the same training as our full-time members, so it is important that they have the same protections. Indeed, they have special protections that are specific to their type of service, where they often, as I say, need to have a balance in their lives, managing their time between their families and their workloads. I guess that's why I wanted to make a small contribution. I've seen the demands on them, and these protections are so important.

For humanitarian assistance, reservists are always there. When I was with NORFORCE, we had the 10-year anniversary of the intervention in the Northern Territory. Those magnificent people in NORFORCE and the other reservists from around the country who came to assist with that particular operation did such outstanding work, when, let's face it, it wasn't an enormously popular operation in some Aboriginal communities. In particular, the Indigenous reserve soldiers in NORFORCE, with their 'green skin' on, in a non-political way performed a marvellous job of brokering between the communities and the intervention people, who were obviously just trying to do the best that they could. But the marvellous way in which those reservists did that was because they could walk in those two worlds.

Someone mentioned the Olympics. The Sydney Olympics would not have happened if the reservists hadn't taken up the call and joined Operation Gold, because we simply needed their numbers and their expertise, and often reservists have skills that come together to make our ADF so much more capable. Thanks very much for the opportunity to say a couple of words, and well done to the reservists out there.

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