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

I want to thank the member for Canning (1) for his service and (2) for giving honourable members the opportunity to note the valuable contribution of cadets. Australian Defence Force cadets, I think, have played and continue to play a marvellous role in developing young people with all those attributes you just heard of from the member of Canning. I wasn't a cadet myself but my advice is that, if you do want to a career in the Australian Defence Force, be a cadet. I noticed, when I joined the Army and went to the Australian Defence Force Academy, it was the young men and women, my colleagues, who had been cadets before who just blitzed everything. They knew how to strip down an SLR and they knew how to shoot and had an idea about navigation and all those things, so it was a great advantage to them. They often spoke about their experiences in cadets and there was no doubt it prepared them well for the challenges of service life, so I would encourage young people to look at cadets.

Being in a defence town, as I am, my electorate of Darwin and Palmerston has Army, Navy and Airforce cadets. ADF cadets provide the opportunity for a great deal of personal development in a sort of quasi-military environment that does extend the cadets beyond their self-imposed limits. It helps them develop an understanding of the balance between personal freedoms and choice and the responsibilities that they bring; promotes self-reliance, self-esteem and self-discipline; and develops and recognises a broad range of skills, including leadership and teamwork.

In my electorate of Solomon, young Territorians are lucky to have the option of participating in the Army, Navy or Air Force cadets, as I've mentioned. We have a Navy cadet unit at Berrima. The Australian Navy cadets have a training ship, which is like the base. The unit was fortunate to recently receive a brand new power boat from the Department of Defence, so they are very stoked about that. This will allow the cadets there to get their boating qualifications. In fact, prior to the delivery of that boat, the training ship, Darwin, hadn't conducted water activities for three years. The boat is going to be named Phoenix, after the symbolic bird, adopted by HMAS Darwin that was recently been decommissioned. The unit's second boat, which has been repaired, will also feature in the naming ceremony and will be named Arrow, after HMAS Arrow, which sunk at Stokes Hill Wharf during Cyclone Tracy, back in 1974.

We have two Air Force cadet squadrons, No. 801 Squadron in Winnellie and No. 802 Squadron in Driver in Palmerston, which both form part of 8 Wing squadron. Over the weekend at the Darwin Show, I donated two show tickets to the 801 Squadron Australian Air Force cadets, who recently completed their first semester with the cadet program. I hope cadet Beaton and cadet Schiller enjoyed their time at the Darwin Show—I certainly did; it was a great weekend.

Last but not least we have the two Army cadet units, the 70 ACU Larrakeyah, and the 71 Army Cadet Unit Palmerston. Both units recently conducted a joint recruit course and bivouac for 34 recruits at Robertson Barracks, where they were taught various skills about living in the bush, wearing their field gear, personal camouflage and team-building activities. It is a great credit to all of the staff. On any given day, army cadet units in my electorate can have 120 cadets, so it's a great credit to the parents, volunteers and personnel, who take their time to make the ADF cadet programs in Darwin so successful. Cadets are great, and I commend young people to get involved.

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