Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

He's gone backwards since I saw a photo of him! Anyway, these are things that are so important. There are so many people in this room who have the heritage. If my son joins the services, they'll be the fourth generation, and I want to make sure that, if that happens, he has the structure around him—or my daughters—that gives him some form of support, because they offer enough when they offer their life for the protection of this nation. That is it. What we have to offer them when they come home is basically the sandpit so that they land softly and so that they can progress back to civilians in such a form that they're embraced, so that there is meaning, so that there is purpose, so that there is a sense of opportunity and so that there is a vision splendid that goes far beyond and for longer than the service they gave. That, for me, is what this is about.

In closing, I hope you can convey to all those in the RSL, your colleagues, that we're in there batting as hard as we can. I'm not a fool; I'm not saying we've got there. We're not stupid. We'll achieve the objective when we see the royal commission—that's when we're there. But, by gosh, it's a long, long way away from where we started. The thing you always have in your favour for people who are ex-service men and women is, if you're going to argue against them, you'd better have a bloody good argument.

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