John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight in federal parliament I pay tribute to the work of the Sandakan Community Education Committee and its chairman, Burwood Councillor David Weiley, for the great job he and the committee have done to promote Sandakan Memorial Day. The Sandakan Community Education Committee seeks to increase public awareness and to educate the wider community, particularly school children, of the horror of Sandakan.

Each year a memorial service is held in Burwood Park on the first Sunday in August. When Paul Keating was Prime Minister, he dedicated the Sandakan Memorial in Burwood Park in 1993. I am not sure members of this House are aware that Mr Keating lost his uncle in the infamous Sandakan death marches. At the 2003 memorial service in Burwood Park, Paul Keating returned for the 10-year anniversary. At that service, I recall him describing Sandakan as the ‘saddest story in Australia’s war history’.

We all know that only six of 2,428 Australian and Allied prisoners of war of the Japanese survived the starvation, disease and brutality at the Sandakan camp and the infamous death marches to Ranau in Borneo in 1945. On Sunday, 6 August this year the very distinguished Australian Mr Rusty Priest AM delivered a very moving address at the Sandakan Memorial, reminding all who were gathered there of the horror of Sandakan.

Tonight, I also pay tribute to the collective efforts of Burwood council, local RSL clubs and sub-branches, other local councils and schools for the magnificent support given to the Sandakan Community Education Committee. I know the families of those who lost their loved ones at Sandakan appreciate the work of the committee, and trust that the horror of Sandakan is never forgotten and never repeated. Well done to David Weiley and the Sandakan Community Education Committee.

Question agreed to.