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

I rise to speak about the lack of official recognition of those deployed to Somalia on Operation Solace in 1993. This was a peace enforcement deployment based around the 1st Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, 'The Big Blue 1'; the 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment; and other supporting units who were part of a United States led peace enforcement operation to alleviate a massive humanitarian crisis that was resulting from the anarchy, the famine and the civil war in Somalia at that time. 1RAR battle group earned both national and international praise at the time for their work, which ensured the safe delivery of life-saving essential supplies to a starving population.

Somalia veterans in my electorate and around the nation believe that this task force mission has long been misunderstood. When the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal did an inquiry into this, it was missing advocacy from people such as the current Governor-General, because he was in a senior position at that time. But there are now precedents for the awards of both unit citations for gallantry and meritorious unit citations from Vietnam, Cambodia and Rwanda that make it really clear that it's well past time for some recognition for those that deployed to Somalia back in 1993.

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