Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next Friday will mark the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, which was one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. This has since become Australia's Vietnam veterans' remembrance day. It is the day on which we acknowledge the sacrifice of all those who served in Vietnam and reflect on the bravery, endurance and teamwork that Australians showed during that long war. I encourage every Australian to pause on Vietnam Veterans Day and reflect with gratitude on all those who lost their life in battle, on those who returned sick and injured, scarred both on the outside and the inside, and on those who have lost their life since they returned. There are many families who still bear the physical and emotional scars of the service of their loved ones.

I will use my time to talk about the Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk in Seymour. It is no longer part of our wonderful electorate of McEwen, but having been the elected member at the time of construction and opening, I believe it is still one of our proudest achievements, where we worked together to build such an iconic place. I had the privilege of working with a group of very driven local Vietnam veterans who held a vision of what they wanted, taking an empty median strip in the middle of Seymour and converting it into something fantastic for the community. I want to make sure that I thank Bill Melbourne, John Phoenix, Hank Kremers, Ross Stewart and the late Ross Gregson for their hard work and advocacy—five blokes sitting in a lounge room saying 'We want to build this.' The government of the time said it wasn't going to happen, not in Seymour. But they were determined. They showed the grit and courage that they showed in the Vietnam War to get this done. A lot of hard work was done. Jason Clare, who was the Minister for Defence Materiel at the time, helped to secure a Huey helicopter to put there.

This has become so much more than a commemorative walk. It has become an iconic place for people to come and see the name of their loved one on a wall. There are 20,000 holes for poppies in the bricks there, and every photo on the wall is not something from the War Memorial. A message went out to Vietnam veterans saying: 'Give us your photos. We want to have real photos of real people.' And that's what happened. Anyone who gets the opportunity to go there and look at it will see an amazing, spiritual place to go to that was done by five blokes who were not going to give up on it. Vietnam veterans often say, 'We fight as hard for the living as we fight hard for those who died.' These guys are the epitome of that spirit in the way they fought to get this done and create this magnificent place.

I want to have a bit of a crack at the banks over the closures in regional and rural Victoria. Our local communities are often the first to face cutbacks in services such as the closure of branches that allow for in-person banking in our communities. The corporate greed of the big four banks is disgusting, and it's putting those in the regional areas of Australia in an impossible position. Despite the corporate entities recording unprecedented profits, like the $8 billion the Commonwealth Bank recorded in 2021, they have closed branches across regional Australia, including in Woodend. We have also seen the closure of the National Australia Bank branch in Kilmore. The NAB recorded a 17 per cent surge in its cash profit, or over $4 billion in the past six months, but they can't find the time or the ability to keep things open to help members in our community. Closures are leading to more and more people in our community having to go out of their way and travel to the closest urban centre for in-person banking.

But wait! That's not all. Now we're seeing a move to cashless banks. People who want to get cash out of the bank will walk in and say, 'I want to get money out,' but they can't. This is absolutely ridiculous, particularly when you're taking local branches away from communities. It certainly doesn't help if you've got to drive 30 kays each way just to get to a bank in this time when people are facing a cost-of-living crisis. We have five branches that have closed or are closing. When people reach out to the banks to express their concern they're treated with contempt. It's disgraceful and it's disgusting, and we deserve a hell of a lot better. The constituents of our communities and all those across regional Australia have become victims of this climate of corporate greed.

I call on the major banks to actually serve their customers. Stand up and stick around. You're supposed to be there for the community. You're quite happy to take. How about giving something back? Give older people, people with disabilities or people in areas where there's no public transport the ability to go to a local bank and do their banking. It's wrong and unfair.

In closing, I want to give a kiss to Lacey Torneze, my little granddaughter. It's her third birthday today. Sorry, Pa's not there, but I'm thinking so much of you.

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