Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Bangka Island Massacre. Earlier today I visited the Australian Service Nurses National Memorial on Anzac Parade. Eighty years ago this week, the SS Vyner Brooke, a 1,670-ton cargo vessel, fled Singapore a day before the city fell to the Japanese. The Vyner Brooke had 181 passengers, including 65 Australian nurses. Off Bangka Island in the Bangka Strait, the Vyner Brooke was attacked by Japanese aircraft and was sunk. Over the course of the next two days, some 150 people eventually made it ashore to Radji Beach. They were sunburnt, they were dehydrated and they were exhausted. The survivors surrendered to the Japanese, expecting fair treatment as they were mostly noncombatants. It was not to be.

On this day 80 years ago, a terrible war crime took place. The men and women were separated. The men were shot and bayoneted, and the women, including 22 Australian nurses, were made to wade into the sea and then machine-gunned from behind. The sole survivor, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, later said about the brave women who walked into that sea:

They all knew what was going to happen to them but no one panicked. They just marched ahead with their chins up.

We now know of this atrocity because Sister Bullwinkel, though hit by a bullet, played dead and she survived. She hid along with another survivor, a wounded British soldier, Private Patrick Kingsley. After 12 days, Sister Bullwinkel and Private Kingsley surrendered again, choosing the risk of execution over the certainty of starvation. Private Kingsley died from his wounds shortly thereafter. Sister Bullwinkel became a prisoner of war for 3½ years, and it was during this time that Sister Bullwinkel did something absolutely extraordinarily brave: she kept and hid the bloodstained uniform that had been pierced by a bullet. Had the uniform been found and its significance understood, certainly it would have meant death for her. The uniform she had worn on that day, with its bullet hole, now stays on display at the Australian War Memorial. It is a national treasure held in trust for all generations. It was that very piece of evidence that was presented to the war crimes tribunal.

In the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial, there are 15 stained-glass windows depicting defence force personnel. The windows stand watch over the shrine of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One of those windows represents a nurse, and on it there is one word: 'Devotion'. Today on this anniversary we remember all who were killed: the service personnel, the civilians and especially the nurses, who call to mind the thousands of Australian nurses who have served Australia in conflicts. We remember their devotion to their patients, to their country and to their duty, and I have no doubt their great example of sacrifice, duty, service, love, care and compassion is exactly what has motivated the thousands upon thousands of nurses who have served the Australian community so faithfully and in such a dedicated way over the course of this pandemic. There could be no greater tribute to Sister Bullwinkel than the service that has been shown by our nurses over these past two years of the pandemic. But to all of those who were killed on that dreadful day and all of those who have served: lest we forget.

See this speech in context