Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As one of the co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans, along with the member for Menzies who spoke so eloquently earlier, I too rise to echo the words of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition during question time yesterday, joined together in their condemnation of the defacement and desecration that has occurred at the Australian War Memorial.

It seldom matters what was graffitied on memorials that exist to honour the brave Australians who steeled themselves and selflessly volunteered to take up arms in the service of our country to protect their friends, their families, our way of life. Many of those brave Australians sacrificed their lives for the hope of safeguarding the future we now occupy. It is the legacy that they have left for us and it is right that we honour them, all 103,000 of them.

It seldom matters because there are no words that someone can graffiti onto a monument we have built to honour Australians who have served in our defence forces, those who have died for our country. That can never be deemed acceptable. To speak of how those monuments were defaced rather than condemn the act itself only provides more incentive for these cowardly acts to continue, acts that all sides of our parliament should always condemn, acts that should always be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

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