Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the national importance of observing Remembrance Day this Friday, 11 November 2022;

(2) honours and remembers all those who have died and served for Australia as members of our defence force in all wars and armed conflicts;

(3) remembers that the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marks the formal cessation of hostilities in World War I in 1918;

(4) recognises the importance of the Marking World War One Graves program as a part of our national commitment to 'Lest We Forget';

(5) further notes the Government cut funding for the program by more than half of the $3.7 million from the former Government's 2022-23 budget to $1.5 million in the October 2022-23 budget; and

(6) calls on the Government to immediately reinstate full funding of $3.7 million.

I would like to start by saying that I had two grandfathers who fought in the First World War—both on the Western Front. One started at Gallipoli on the first day and left on the last, then he went to the Western Front, and in the Second World War, he went right up against the Japanese to Guadalcanal. I'm very fortunate. Both of them were buried. One's buried at Adelong, and I go to visit his grave from time to time. The other one's buried in Hampden in New Zealand, which obviously I don't get to, and I have only been there once.

There are many people who've served our nation. In fact, more than 331,800 people were deployed during the First World War, and well in excess of 400,000 people enlisted. Once they came back, 30,000 of them—60,000 were killed over there—died of injuries that were pertinent to their war service, especially things such as gassing which was a complete infliction. Many of the 240,000 who have been laid to rest privately have unmarked graves. They've served our nation, and they deserve to be respected for that.

Prior to the election, we said that the program that we had—and were putting $3.7 million towards—would continue to be funded, but the current government has only put about half that, or $1.5 million, towards it. When we say 'Lest we forget' we can't remember them if they don't have a grave, and we've found well in excess of 1,000 graves. In fact, I was involved with one of them before I had the shadow portfolio. It was actually an Indigenous gentleman who was buried in the wrong grave. We had to identify and give the proper headstone to a person who had served our nation in the First World War. We need to make sure that this funding is restored. It's all very well to have money for the Environmental Defenders Office and environmental warriors, but it's not money for respecting the people who actually did fight for our nation. In the identification of graves, there are so many families, because for each person who's served—my father served, I served—there are more and more of their children, their progeny, who look back and say, 'I want to find my great-grandfather's grave; I want to find my great-grand-uncle's grave.' People have a real sense of pride.

I remember back in the early eighties, I thought Anzac Day was going to finish, but now no-one would suggest that. It's because there are so many more great-grandchildren, great-grand-nephews, who say, 'I want to identify with this and I respect the service that was given by my family—that my family is a family of honour. My family is one that has served. My family is one in which people before me, of my bloodline, offered their lives for the protection of this nation.' And the bare minimum we can do for those who fell on hard times, who disappeared to corners of our country, who were afflicted in mind, and basically disappeared off the social register—and for them to lie in pauper's graves, for them to lie basically unmarked is a bad reflection on us as a nation. It shows that we don't actually respect what they did, and we have done the worst thing—forgotten them, because that is the ultimate thing. The reason they say 'Lest we forget' is that, if we do forget, then their service was for nothing; their service wasn't respected.

So we should reinstall this funding. We should be making it a part of every member of this House to say, 'Well, let's find out where these people are buried,' and we can do that. We have done that. We found 1,189 graves. That's 1,189 families who can now say, 'I know where my great-grandfather is buried. He served in the First World War.' 'I know where my great-grand-uncle is buried. He served in the First World War. He was a person of honour. We're a family of honour and we have not forgotten him because we've found his grave and we can respect that monument.'

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