Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

Those of us on this side of the House are just stunned by the speech from the member for Bass, who is essentially saying, 'We think that Teddy Sheean deserves some recognition but maybe not the Victoria Cross.' Let's be very clear about this: Teddy Sheean and his family have fought for this recognition for a long time, supported by the majority of Tasmanians. This led to the Defence Honours And Awards Appeals Tribunal unanimously recommending that a Victoria Cross be awarded to Teddy, following a merits based review and hearings held in Tasmania last year. That is what has happened. And it has been the Prime Minister and the people on that side who have made a political decision not to recommend the awarding of a Victoria Cross to Teddy Sheean. That's what's happened here. They are the ones that made this political. It is outrageous of them to come in here and accuse us, when we are standing up for a Tasmanian and his family who have been fighting for a very long time for his actions to be recognised, and recognised in a way that has happened in the past.

Let's be very clear about this. Tasmanians joined the defence forces in numbers disproportionate to our population—way above. We have a long history of disproportionate service to our nation through the defence forces. For a very small island state, we also have a disproportionate number of Victoria Cross awardees. I have quite a few in my own electorate. Tasmania has 14 Victoria Cross recipients at the moment. We should have 15, let's be clear about that. Teddy Sheean would be the 15th if the Prime Minister hadn't made a decision not to recommend the awarding of this Victoria Cross. That is the bottom line, and those on the other side need to accept that that is the bottom line.

Instead, the Prime Minister has concocted this new process, one that nobody's ever heard of before and that's never been done before. Why has he done it? That is the question. Has he done it because he can't admit he made a mistake and he wants to overturn the decision? Or has he made it because he's hoping the issue will go away and nobody will notice if, a few weeks down the track, the VC is not awarded? What is the point of this, seriously? The Prime Minister could make a decision today to overturn his previous decision and recommend the awarding of a Victoria Cross for Teddy Sheean. The Prime Minister could do that today, in line with the unanimous decision of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. He could do that today, but instead we've got this process. And nobody can really tell us why the Prime Minister won't just come in, admit he was wrong and change his position. That is what he should do, that is what he could do, and, indeed, that's what those of us on this side of the House and the majority of Tasmanians want him to do. We want him to come into this place and say, 'Look, I'm sorry. It should be recommended; we're going to fix it.' And then the decision is up to the British monarch once that recommendation is made. If the Queen wants to make a different decision, that is up to her, but the Australian Prime Minister has the unanimous decision of the process that has already occurred to recommend the awarding of this Victoria Cross, and the only thing stopping it is the Prime Minister proceeding with that recommendation. That is the only thing stopping this award.

Now, yes, those of us on this side of the House and particularly the member for Lyons and our senator from the north-west coast, Anne Urquhart, have been fighting very hard for Teddy Sheean for quite some time. And, yes, Anthony Albanese, as Leader the Labor Party, has written an opinion piece because he understands that a unanimous decision was made to recommend this award. Those people on that side of the House seem to pretend that that never happened. It did happen, and your government and your Prime Minister have the power in their hands to fix this today. Instead we're having this new process and we may or may not hear about the decision sometime in late July. That's not good enough, and this House should say that's not good enough. It's not good enough for the proud history of Tasmanians who have served in the Defence Force. It's not good enough for Teddy Sheean and his family, who have been fighting for this recognition. And it's not good enough to uphold the integrity of the Victoria Cross and the processes that have passed before. That is what should happen. (Time expired)

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