Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appropriate today, Remembrance Day, that I should recount my past fortnight of pleasant and inspiring engagements with the veteran communities of Hinkler. On 27 October I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Legacy House in Hervey Bay along with the veterans’ affairs minister, Alan Griffin. This project is testament to the dedication of the Hervey Bay Legacy President Ian Bryant and his team as well as Rubicon, the principal donor to the restoration of the building which will serve Hervey Bay, Maryborough and the Burnett.

Last Monday I attended the official opening of the Baycrest RSL Remembrance Garden in Hervey Bay, which was held in conjunction with that retirement facility’s Remembrance Day service. Later in the week I attended a breakfast and AGM of Hervey Bay’s very dedicated TPI Association where President Keith Walker presented me with my patron’s badge, which I accepted with great pride and humility. I later presented two Defence Medals to David Thornley and Anthony Nichol at the Hervey Bay RSL Club, a wonderful organisation which does a stellar job for its members and the community. I have also had the honour of catching up with William Sheehan, whose uncle, Able Seaman Teddy Sheehan, was an extraordinarily brave man who kept firing his guns on Japanese fighters whilst his torpedoed ship, HMAS Armidale, slipped beneath the waves—an act of exceptional defiance and bravery.

The following day I had the honour of joining Squadron Leader Bruce Graham from Amberley to present Australian Defence Medals to recipients in Bundaberg—Ronald Brumley, Arthur Waters, and a posthumous medal to Judith O’Connor, who received it on behalf of her late husband, James Douglas O’Connor. Mr O’Connor’s medal was pinned to his son James, who, along with his two siblings, is a Legacy ward. Seeing young James wearing his father’s medal with pride was the living embodiment of the Legacy movement and a tribute to people like Rudy Valzan, who is the Legatee of the Bundaberg Legacy organisation. To round out the week, on Saturday I had the honour of attending the opening of extensions to Bundaberg’s RSL club, the Coral Sea Function Centre.

As we remember the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day we might reflect on the care of our elderly and our damaged veterans, as well as the role of Legacy. As we look into the eyes of little James O’Connor well might we say: lest we forget.