Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the valuable commitment that our veteran associations and sub-branches give to a large number of returned soldiers and their families in my electorate of Forde. I want to particularly mention a few today. One is the Australian Peacekeepers and Peacemakers Veterans Association, the APPVA. Next Monday, 14 September, is Australian Peacekeepers Day. This date commemorates the world’s first ever peacekeepers deployed in the field, in Batavia, Java, under the auspices of the UN Good Offices Commission, UNGOC, to the former Dutch East Indies, which is now Indonesia. I have previously spoken about a constituent in my electorate, Bob Wiley, who is committed to ensuring that we remember the service, courage and sacrifice of those who have died since peacekeeping operations began in 1947. I applaud Bob Wiley for his continued efforts to ensure that our local community understands the importance of a memorial for those brave Australian peacekeepers.

The only current peacekeeping memorial in this country sits in my electorate of Forde on the Carl Heck Boulevard. When I talk about memorials of national significance, I continue to be frustrated that we do not necessarily capture well, understand and commemorate our military history and our veterans. With the assistance of dedicated members of the Australian Peacekeepers and Peacemakers Veterans Association and now with the outcome of a national memorial to our peacekeepers through the Australian Peacekeeping Memorial Project, the APMP, the community will continue to remember and pay tribute to our many Australian personnel. I will speak at length on another occasion about the planned peacekeepers memorial in Canberra.

Further, there is the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam Association, otherwise known as the AATTV. The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam was the first unit of the Australian Army to arrive in Vietnam in 1962 and the last to leave in 1972. This unit consisted entirely of volunteers who advised, trained and commanded local forces in the Vietnam War. The AATTV will continue to be remembered as the most highly decorated unit for its size in Australian history. The AATTV memorial at the Australian Army Land Warfare Centre, Canungra—and I have sung the praises of Canungra in the past in this parliament—is referred to as the home of the Australian advisor.

On the 2nd of August this year I had the pleasure of being part of the 47th anniversary of that particular group. My company on that day included the former Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, who is the patron, our Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Alan Griffin, Major General John Hartley, who is the Australian president, and John Gibson who is the association president in Queensland. It was a real pleasure and an honour to be part of that. That was on the day when it had just been announced that the last remaining airmen of those who had lost their lives in Vietnam had been found. It was poignant and emotional to hear the veterans say that we had finally brought our last boys home. It was really good to know that, as a community and as a group, they are remembering the services that all our veterans have rendered for this country.