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

Firstly, I'd like to recognise the service of those who are in the room here today and recognise the great career that they are undertaking. I'd also like to recognise the service in my family of both grandfathers and my father. I served in the reserves, and the only thing below me was a potato. But I always recognise the seven grand-uncles of mine who were English and who were all killed.

The first action of the government under Prime Minister Albanese was to dump the veterans' affairs minister from cabinet, which I think is a disgrace. It means that what is incredibly important is not heard. We have 210,000 veterans and 100,000 dependants, and we need the minister to be at the cabinet table.

In regard to Veterans' Affairs, the coalition committed to 14 new veterans hubs. In this election policy, the Labor Party promised to roll out only 10, but when we drill through it we find out there are only eight—six fewer than the coalition promised and two fewer than the Labor party themselves promised. They try to claim South-East Queensland and Tasmania as new veterans hubs, but Senate estimates proved that was false. Those two hubs were already committed to and funded by the coalition government. Senator Cadell enunciated this during Senate estimates when he said: 'So those weren't new; they're just continuations.' Ms Pope said: 'That's right.'

The budget failed to honour commitments for veterans hubs at Mackay, the New South Wales mid-north coast, the Sunshine Coast, Seymour, Wagga Wagga, Wide Bay and the Mornington Peninsula. If I pick out one, Wagga Wagga, where we have every section of the military represented in training, it seems absurd that we don't have a veterans hub there. In April I was with the member for Cowper, announcing a $5 million veterans hub. I met with Louise Freebairn, president of the veteran wellbeing centre, along with her husband, Robert, and Richard Kellaway. That promise was never fulfilled.

In regard to World War I graves, the budget continues to shine a light on Labor's worrying trend of diluting the importance of the memory of World War I servicemen. The politicisation of the War Memorial was revealed in Senate estimates. The Solicitor-General gave advice in 2013, based upon which the War Memorial said it was not the place to tell the story of European settlement. Senator Canavan sought confirmation of whether that advice had been updated. It had not. Senator Canavan stated:

That article states:

… the Memorial has found no substantial evidence that home-grown military units, whether state colonial forces or post-Federation Australian military units, ever fought against the Indigenous population of this country.

Is that statement still the position of the Australian War Memorial?

The reply from Mr Anderson was:

That's correct, Senator, with regard to military units, correct.

But we've also had a cut in the funding and what we are now doing is politicising the Australian War Memorial, and that is a disgrace.

We've also had a cut in the funding for unmarked graves. This has been cut from the $3.7 million we were promised down to $1.5 million. I have one example of this. It is of Private Sidney George Wortley, an Aboriginal person from my district. The locals found his grave. He died at the age of 64 at Maney's Creek, Walcha. Not only did they have him in the wrong grave; they had the wrong name. He was down there as Sidney Watling. These are the sorts of things that are important. We know that at the Rookwood Necropolis there are 1,756 graves that are unofficial or unmarked. At the Cornelian Bay cemetery—I know, Mr Deputy Speaker Wilkie, that you yourself were at the ceremony, with the member for Lyons—there are 316 people who served this nation and deserve the dignity of a proper burial. How can we possibly say, 'Lest we forget!' when they don't even have a headstone? We can't even identify them. This is more important than the environmental warriors program or the environmental defenders program, which seems to have no problem getting funding under this government. Let's deal with the real warriors—the people who actually put their lives on the line for this nation.

We continue to work with the royal commission. We'll be making sure that we give our best endeavours to fulfil its promises. We are working, in many instances in a bipartisan way, to make sure that these things are fulfilled. We acknowledge the $1,000 increase in the TPI; we recommended the same ourselves. We also welcome the work that was done to eliminate the backlogs. But the reason we had backlogs under our government is that we actually made it more accessible for people to apply and, because we had more volume, we needed more resources.

In closing, as the shadow minister for veterans' affairs, I always like to acknowledge those who have served our nation. Lest we forget!

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