Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Stirling for bringing this private member's motion to the House. Since its founding in 1916, the Returned and Services League has been the bedrock of ensuring support for our veterans, service men and women. Through its extensive networks of volunteers and community-minded citizens the RSL has upheld its motto—and made sure that successive generations understand and value it—that: 'The price of liberty is eternal vigilance'. Calwell has a long history of service, from the Great War of World War I to World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and Afghanistan today. As a community, we are proud of the bravery and honour of those who served then and those who serve today, and we work to ensure that their sacrifices are not forgotten and that they as veterans, and their families, are cared for and tended to, as is appropriate and as is needed.

As a multicultural community, we have a special relationship with our veterans. Many of my constituents came to Australia as a result of the consequences of those theatres of war. In Calwell, we are served by the Sunbury and Glenroy RSLs, and the Craigieburn War Memorial supports the RSL badge sales on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day. Our local historical connection to the Great War begins with the presence of the Maygar Barracks in Broadmeadows. In 1913, at the onset of World War I, the Department of Defence purchased the Maygar Barracks, which is situated on Camp Road, Broadmeadows, and it served as a training ground for the Australian Light Horse brigades. According to the late Elayne Whatman—a fantastic RSL volunteer who also served for years as the Broadmeadows Historical Society secretary and lovingly collected and catalogued local veterans' stories—the Maygar Barracks was a huge camp of white tents that served as accommodation for Australian soldiers as they amassed there before departing for Gallipoli. The barracks are named after Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Cecil Maygar, a captain in the Light Horse division campaigns of 1914 to 1917. Lieutenant Colonel Maygar was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the second Boer War but died from wounds sustained during the Battle of Beersheba on 1 November 1917. I had the honour of visiting Be’er Sheva in 2015 with a group of parliamentary colleagues, and we conducted our own Anzac Day ceremony there. It was a very memorable and moving moment for us all. In an interesting twist of fate, the Maygar Barracks would in the early seventies go on to be, for a short period, a migrant hostel for the many new migrants who had begun coming to Australia from Turkey, who later moved out and settled in the suburbs of Broadmeadows.

The RSL through its sub-branch structure has found it appropriate to include in its activities war veterans and members from our multicultural communities who have migrated to Australia and today are proud Australians. In doing so, the RSL has played a significant role in enabling the cohesive and successful integration of Australia's multicultural communities. These sub-branches include the Hellenic RSL Sub Branch. With 42 years of being a part of RSL Australia, it has provided great work for and support to the Australia-wide veteran community. I want to pay tribute to Major Terry Kanellos and president Steve Kyritsis OAM for their work. The Turkish RSL Sub Branch was founded in 1996 and has served as a very important part of developing the bonds of friendship between the Australian and Turkish peoples. It was in 1990 when my constituent and friend Ramazan Altintas, as the president of the Melbourne Turkish Education and Social Welfare Centre, applied on behalf of the organisation for it to become a member of the RSL. This was initially refused because of the centre's Turkish background. But, undaunted, Ramazan continued to invite war veterans, community members and politicians to the Turkish community's Anzac Day functions. In 1995, Gallipoli veterans Jack Buntine and Roy Longmore attended the Turkish community's ANZAC dinner and they sat down, as they said, to break Turkish bread with new friends.

In 1996 Ramazan visited the then Victorian RSL President, the late Mr Bruce Ruxton, to discuss his thoughts on the relationship between Turks and Australians. Ramazan, a quietly spoken but determined man, put to the charismatic and forceful WW2 veteran a simple proposition: 'We are not enemies—Australian and Turkish armies fought side by side during the Korean war.' On 14 November 1996 the Turkish sub-branch of the RSL was established. The Turkish community is one of the largest groups in Calwell and, at the time, the Herald Sun newspaper published: 'Once they tried to kill one another. But these days, former Turkish soldiers and Anzacs just want to grow old together.' I want to congratulate everyone, including Ramazan, for the wonderful work that they do in RSL activities.

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