Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Edmund Burke once famously wrote, 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' However, Nancy Wake's life demonstrates that the famous quote should be rewritten and for all time remembered as: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing.'

Nancy Wake was born in Wellington in New Zealand in 1912. Nancy was the youngest of six children, and in 1914, when she was just two, her family moved to Sydney. At the age of 16, she left Sydney and travelled to New York, then later to London, where she trained as a journalist. In the 1930s she worked in Paris, where in 1937 she met a wealthy French industrialist, Henri Fiocca, whom she married on the eve of World War II.

Nancy could have escaped France and she could have gone to the relative safety of New York and seen the war out there, but instead she elected to stay and fight and to risk her life every day by taking on the Nazis, helping downed British pilots and Jewish families to escape. Through her efforts, by 1943 she was the Gestapo's most wanted person, with a five million franc price on her head. So she decided to relocate to Britain, where she joined the Special Operations Executive. On the night of 29 April 1944, she was parachuted back into France to join the resistance. A French resistance comrade said of Nancy Wake that, when fighting, she was like five men and she would kill the enemy with her bare hands. Immediately after the war, Nancy Wake learnt that the Gestapo had tortured her husband to death in 1943 for his refusing to disclose her whereabouts.

Upon her return to Australia, Nancy joined the New South Wales Liberal Party, and we are proud to call her one of our own. Never one to run from a fight, Nancy Wake was the Liberal candidate for the Sydney seat of Barton in 1949—running against Dr Evatt, the Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs in the Chifley government. She needed a 16 per cent swing. While Chifley lost government to Robert Menzies, Wake recorded a 13 per cent swing against Evatt, with Evatt retaining the seat with a two-party preferred vote of 53.2 per cent. In 1951 Wake ran again. This time, Evatt was Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Again the result was extremely close, however, Evatt retained the seat with a margin of fewer than 250 votes. As an example of the truism that the more things change, the more they stay the same, an article from page 2 of the Sydney Morning Herald on 25 April 1951, entitled 'Whispering Campaign: Liberal claim in Barton', reads:

Communists had associated with Dr. H. V. Evatt's campaign organisers to make the election fight for Barton electorate "a filthy campaign," Mr. H. R. Mallard alleged yesterday.

Mr. Mallard is campaign director for Mrs. Nancy Wake, Liberal Party candidate opposing Dr. Evatt, who holds the Barton seat.

Mr. Mallard said opposition supporters had started a whispering campaign "concocting all sorts of lying stories about Mrs. Wake.

"One is that she was chucked out of Legacy," he said. "The truth is she resigned from Legacy last year.

"Another is she dealt on the blackmarket in France while serving with the French Underground Movement.

"Mrs. Wake certainly dealt on the blackmarket there. She had to because she had only two ration books—her husband's and her own—with which to feed 50 Allied airmen she was sheltering from the Nazis."

In the 1966 election Wake was again preselected, for the seat of Kingsford Smith. Despite recording a swing of 6.9 per cent against the sitting Labor member, Daniel Curtin, she was again unsuccessful. Our parliament is the poorer for not having had Nancy Wake as a member. One can only imagine the contribution she would have made to our parliament and our society if she had had the opportunity to represent her area in the federal parliament.

Nancy Wake died on 7 August 2011, aged 98, at Kingston Hospital. We salute her bravery, her life, her selflessness and her service. She was a true hero in every sense of the word. We trust that the Nancy Wake story will continue to be told for generations, to serve as an inspiration to us all. May she rest in peace.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a curiosity of Australian history that such a genuinely towering figure as Nancy Wake is not as well known as she should be. This is a person whose history, story, contribution, energy and simple impact on history far outstrip that of anybody other than a very few number of Australians over the last century.

Nancy Wake was born in New Zealand, but came to Australia at the age of two. She fled at age 16 to New York and Europe. She became a correspondent in the Hearst empire. Most importantly, while in Europe she was motivated by the early signs she saw of what the Nazis were doing to the Jewish population. She could see creeping evil working its way across Germany and across Europe, and she vowed to stand against it. So during the Second World War, because of her marriage to a French industrialist, she became an agent of the Resistance. She fought heroically, as others have set out magnificently in both chambers of this parliament. She was an extraordinary leader, and the fact that a young Australian woman, living in France, could become the number one most wanted person on the Gestapo list says that this was an Australian who transcended all boundaries to be utterly vital and utterly effective for the French Resistance, which was critical in aiding Allied pilots who were shot down, critical for leading the French resistance movement, critical to defying of the German war movement and critical to providing a beachhead in the lead up to D-Day. This was about preparing the ground, preparing the way and being engaged in the fundamental activities that helped to break down and weaken the German front across France. This was freedom's front line in its absolute definition.

The life that she lived was a life well worth living. She lived it in her early days during the wartime years and then in the postwar years. For us, it is a great thing that she was a Liberal candidate in 1949 and 1951—coming close to defeating Evatt, who was the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in those two respective elections—and again in 1966. She achieved great swings on each of those three occasions as a candidate for the Liberal Party but fell just short. It was the parliament's loss that one of the really great but unsung figures of the last century in Australia never made it to this parliament. It was certainly the Liberal Party's loss, but it was the parliament's loss as well.

But we can reflect on a life well lived, in the best sense. It was a life of adventure. It was a life of opinion. It was a life that was willing to risk everything for the sake of something greater and it was a life of profound impact. We as a country are better for it. My one thought is that, strangely and curiously, we have not told her story properly. I hope that it is not just this short period of remembrance where her deeds are elevated again but that she becomes a part of the curriculum taught in Australian schools as an icon, an indicator and a role model of courage, integrity and simple chutzpah, as somebody who lived life as well as it could be lived. Vale Nancy Wake.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion of condolence of the Prime Minister for the late Nancy Wake and, in doing so, associate myself with and support all of the eloquent remarks that have been made both in the House and in this Main Committee chamber. As earlier speakers have pointed out, Nancy Wake led an incredible life, a long life and a life that mattered at a point in international history where the choices between freedom and the terrible alternative were startling for her.

Previous speakers, from the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister through, have outlined in great detail her feats. Her main feat was courage in a critical situation. In doing what she did through World War II, risking her own life and taking what was clearly an instinctive decision that in the face of evil she would do something, no matter what the cost, she saved countless lives—and not just the lives of those in her immediate vicinity where she was working during her time with the underground. Critically, she was there risking her life in preparation for D-Day, as the previous speaker said, and the invasion of Normandy, which was to be the turning point in the European war that would drive the Nazis back and ultimately end that awful war in Europe. Each day Nancy Wake's life was at risk. She would have gone about her work thinking, I suspect, that her life would come to an end at some point. As the member for Hughes pointed out, she should be praised for taking risks—but an additional point is that she would have known the odds were that she would be caught and would suffer an awful fate.

As you would expect, in recent days there has been a great deal written about Nancy Wake. There has been a wonderful book written about her, which I have not read, but I have read some of the commentary in the papers. We have some great historians in Australia who have written about the exploits of Nancy Wake, and we can reflect on the richness of her life and her contributions. One of those commentaries that stuck out for me was written by one of the gallery journalists, Paul Daley, who has written a few books on World War I. He wrote about an assignment he had when he was in London—he was told to track down Nancy Wake to interview her, and to do it within one day. He pointed out in the article that he had to find Nancy Wake somewhere in London to interview her—I think she was into her early 90s at the time—and it dawned on him that he had to do in a day what the Gestapo was never able to do over the course of the war. I recommend that the member for Higgins and others read that comment that Paul Daley wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald Sunday edition a couple of weeks ago. He found her in a hospital near the hotel where she lived. She had aged but she had lost none of her spirit and none of her forthrightness.

It is no surprise that on Nancy Wake's return to Australia she sought to involve herself in public affairs. The story of this parliament in the years immediately after the Second World War is of people of both political persuasions, having served in that war and having sacrificed so much, wanting to come back and very much be a part of this parliament. It is no surprise at all, having fought so hard for the principles she believed in, having seen the sacrifice that people like her had made and having seen first-hand the atrocities in Europe, that coming back to Australia she would want to make her contribution in a democracy and in the federal parliament of Australia. She never quite got there, as we have heard. As some of my colleagues have said, maybe parliament was not suited to her—imagine what she would have been like in the party room! I think she would have been fantastic in the party room. It would have been another chapter in her history but I think we can all agree that few people have led lives like hers, with so many chapters and having done so much.

It is right that we honour her in this parliament today but it is also right that we teach her story—which is an Australian story—and that it be taught not just in schools but right throughout the country in the years to come, ensuring that in the decades ahead everyone knows the story of Nancy Wake.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the winter recess Australia lost one of its greatest war heroes, Nancy Wake. Nancy died at the grand old age of 98 years, the world being a better place for her having been here. Many thousands of people lived due to her acts of courage, tenacity and sacrifice during the Second World War. Horrified by the acts of cruelty and injustice that she witnessed while a journalist in Europe, Nancy joined the French Resistance after Germany invaded France in 1940. A true inspiration, Nancy Wake embodied the Allied spirit, dedicated to freedom and democracy.

Nancy is of course one of the most decorated women of the Second World War. She received many awards, including: the George Medal; the 1939-45 Star; the France and Germany Star; the Defence Medal; the British War Medal 1939-45; the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur; the Croix de Guerre, with two Palms and a Star; the Medal of Freedom, with Bronze Palm; and the Medaille de la Resistance for her courageous endeavours. Australia, of course, finally recognised her achievements when they awarded her the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2004.

Nancy Wake was born in 1912 in Wellington, New Zealand, but moved to Sydney at the age of two, and we claim her as our own. The youngest of six children, at the age of 16 years Nancy left home to pursue a career as a nurse, before leaving Sydney shortly thereafter for Europe, where she became a journalist for the Hearst newspaper group. After witnessing some of the abhorrent acts carried out by the Nazis, Nancy Wake felt duty bound to join the war effort. As Nancy Wake herself recounted:

The stormtroopers had tied the Jewish people up to massive wheels. They were rolling the wheels along, and the stormtroopers were whipping the Jews. I stood there and thought, 'I don't know what I'll do about it, but if I can do anything one day, I'll do it.

She got that opportunity after Germany invaded France in 1940, shortly after she had married Henri Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist.

Wake started her resistance activities by becoming a courier for the French Resistance. She then joined the escape network managed by Captain Ian Garrow. So successful was she at defeating and evading the Germans that the Gestapo dubbed her the 'White Mouse' for her ability to elude capture. By 1943, she had become one of the Gestapo's most wanted persons in France.

After Nancy's network was compromised she made her way to Britain where she received special training before parachuting back into France to build the French guerrilla forces, which she did, to over 7,000 strong. Wake remained and fought with the Marquis group until the end of the war. In Peter FitzSimon's seminal biography of Nancy Wake it was reported that, even though they were outnumbered three to one, under Nancy's leadership the Nazis suffered causalities in the order of 14 to one. Nancy's friend Henri Tardivat said of her, and I think this best sums her up:

She is the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then she is like five men.

After the war, Wake continued working for British intelligence in Europe until 1957. She then moved back to Australia where she married former British fighter pilot John Forward. Nancy stood for politics three times, each time for the Liberal Party. Sadly for the Liberal Party and the parliament, she was not successful. Her two attempts in the federal seat of Barton against Dr Evatt in 1949 and 1951 came very close, with only 250 votes in it on her second attempt. In 1966 she stood for the seat of Kingsford-Smith and, sadly, again was defeated.

She moved back to Britain in 2001, four years after the death of her second husband, and remained there for the rest of her life. Wake never regretted any of her involvement in the war or what she had to do in that war. She saw it as a just cause. She said:

In my opinion, the only good German was a dead German, and the deader, the better. I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more.

You can understand her sentiments when you realise what she witnessed and what she went through. In fact, she is very famous for having killed a Nazi sentry with her bare hands at the Gestapo headquarters in Montucon during a raid on a munitions factory. She also undertook a very dangerous solo mission to get new codes after her old codes were destroyed that required her to cycle on a bike, by herself, over 800 kilometres through many German checkpoints.

I think that Peter Wertheim, head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, put it best when he said of Nancy:

She became resolved to fight Nazism after witnessing the shocking mistreatment of Jewish civilians by Nazi troops in Vienna.

In today's superficial world, obsessed with appearances and material concerns, Nancy Wake's example reminds us of the things that really matter in life. She demonstrated that one person standing up against monstrous evil can make a difference.

She was an amazing woman. Thank you, Nancy Wake, for making that difference for your country and for the world.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Other people will do a lot more justice when it comes to Nancy Wake's life, and I hope that we all read about her entirely. I like the fact that she left New Zealand at two years of age to come to Australia—if she had only moved to Queensland she could have been a real legend.

The thing that always strikes me when it comes to Nancy Wake's life is her bravery. To leave home at 16 and travel to Europe—who does that? No one does that. She inherited £200 and studied journalism in London and then became involved in the French Resistance. There are a couple of things I would like to say. First of all, she ran three times for parliament. Her war record will stand out for all time and she is truly one of the greatest people ever to draw breath. She ran for Parliament three times and in some ways you would think that for someone like Nancy Wake it is probably a good thing she did not get in. It takes a special person to put up with a lot of the stuff in here and people like Nancy Wake are very much at the cutting-edge. We all have our troubles at question time but can you imagine a speaker trying to put Nancy Wake in her place? It does not happen lightly. Someone like Nancy Wake has to be revered. Someone like Nancy Wake is not a person to sit there and listen. Someone like Nancy Wake is out there doing stuff, and out there leading.

I am old enough that when I was a kid I watched Vic Morrow in combat and played war games and read war comics. I know what it is like to play these games. You think to yourself what it would be like to be in a war. I am one of the lucky generation who were too young to go to Vietnam, and I have not been away to war. You think to yourself about bravery and what it takes to be brave. You think of what it must have been like in France in 1940 when the Germans came in. You think of what it must have been like to have your husband taken away from you, tortured and killed. You think of what it must have been like to be a mere slip of a girl—and she was a tiny girl—going around France working for the Resistance and showing true bravery in the face of overwhelming odds and at any time knowing that her life could be snuffed out.

I speak to my children about what it takes to be a grown-up. I speak to my nine-year-old son about what it is to be a man. I know it is paraphrasing to say 'Men do this, because you have to be straight-up when you're a ma,' but I talk to my daughters about what it is to be responsible. I talk to people at schools. So much more is expected of children now in year 12 than when we were in year 12. I often say to the kids when we are at a function that I would not have been there—I would have been out the back with a couple of mates having a cigarette. Kids today are so much more together than we ever were. I say to every child, to every girl, look for people like Nancy Wake to show you what is possible. There was this tiny little young girl, in 1940, running around France doing stuff that men were afraid to do, that everyone was afraid to do. She was a very special lady.

I told my son the Nancy Wake story and he said to use the Chuck Norris joke: that she was probably ready to die a few years earlier but death was too afraid to come to her; that she slept with the light on because darkness was afraid of Nancy Wake. Those sorts of things are what we should be saying about Nancy Wake. Her record will stand for itself. At last we recognised her, in 2004. To be honest, I had not been aware of her before 2004, so she was a well-kept secret. Vale, Nancy Wake. At last she gets her long-earned rest.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake was born on 30 August 1912 and died on 7 August 2011, just a few weeks short of her 99th birthday. Nancy Wake is revered as one of Australia's greatest war heroes, serving on the Special Operations Executive of the French Resistance during World War II. Her efforts earned her a listing on the Nazi's most wanted list and the nickname the 'White Mouse', which the Gestapo attributed in recognition of her elusiveness. Like so many great Australians, Nancy Wake was born in New Zealand. Following the success of her father's journalistic career, the family of eight moved to Sydney and established themselves in the northern suburbs of Sydney, not far from the electorate of Bennelong. Nancy developed respect for the military service from an early age, attending the very first Anzac Day service at Martin Place and returning every year after. This was a different time—a time when Australia was still very much ensconced in the yoke of mother England. Just prior to World War I, future Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher declared that Australia would fight on Britain's side to the last man and the last shilling. Nancy was conscious and respectful of this reality. In Peter FitzSimons's wonderful book Nancy Wake: A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine, Nancy states:

That was simply the way it was. I was brought up in a family where, although we were from New Zealand and living in Australia, we were of Great Britain and we were loyal to whoever was on the throne. It was never something we questioned.

Nancy had an adventurous spirit and was greatly influenced by Lucy Maud Montgomery's books, Anne of Green Gables and its sequel Anne of the Island, whose title character approached life with a level of enthusiasm uncommon for girls of that era. This spirit and imagination led to Nancy's strong desire to travel and explore the world. Nancy Wake trained as a nurse, then travelled to London to study journalism, becoming a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Paris where she first hand saw the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. In an ABC Radio interview in 1985, she said:

I saw the disagreeable things that he was doing to people, first of all to the Jews. I thought it was quite revolting.

In 1939, Nancy married a wealthy French industrialist and when war broke out they helped British airmen and Jewish families to escape the occupying German forces, in the process planning escape routes for thousands of Allied troops. Her activities and reputation grew and by 1943 the Nazis were directly targeting her capture, putting a 5 million franc bounty on her head. Her husband was captured, tortured and then executed for refusing to provide the Gestapo with any information about her activities or whereabouts. Nancy fled to Spain, carrying the guilt of her husband's death for the rest of her days. If it had not been for her, she mourned, he would have survived the war.

Over the next few years, Nancy Wake trained as a special operations executive spy, parachuted into regions of France to organise the resistance, and facilitated ammunition deliveries and the establishment of radio links—all essential services in a war campaign. She helped to recruit an additional 3,000 fighters, nearly doubling the size of her force. She physically led fighters on guerrilla missions against German troops and installations, reportedly killing some soldiers with her bare hands and winning the respect of forces on both sides.

Stories abound of her selflessness and heroism to support the war effort. This was recognised by the post-war French who awarded her the Croix de Guerre and the Resistance Medal and later made her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. The British awarded her the George Medal, the Americans gave her the Medal of Freedom, yet, in a quirk of history, she received no formal recognition from her home country.

After the war, Nancy became bored with her desk-bound London existence and returned to Australia, deciding to try her hand in the far less noble world of politics. Showing great judgment and foresight she joined the New South Wales Liberal Party and quickly became a hero within a young party. She served on the party's state executive and stood at the historic 1949 federal election that brought Robert Menzies to power, choosing to battle Labor legend Doc Evatt in his home seat of Barton. It is said that after winning preselection she sent Dr Evatt a telegram reading:

Nancy Wake, Liberal candidate, parachuted into Barton tonight.

The 13 per cent swing that she garnered fell just short but she chose to challenge him again in 1951, this time falling short by only a few hundred votes. Never one to give up, Nancy contested the seat of Kingsford-Smith at the 1966 federal election, earning a seven per cent swing for the Liberal Party but again falling just short. Whilst Nancy was bitterly disappointed at her three losses, it must be remembered that she was no ordinary woman of the Liberal Party and, whilst I never had the pleasure of meeting Nancy, I am sure that there are some conservative ladies within current day Liberal branches who would find her brashness and brutal honesty quite confronting. When asked about this for her biography, she responded:

What did I care about trying to be a lady? After what I had been through the thought that I would worry about whether or not I wore stockings or a hat was completely ludicrous. If any of them ever wanted to chip me about it, I told them off in the strongest possible language.

The irony of going through the history of this legendary character is that she would have hated all of this fuss being made about her. A close friend of mine knew Nancy well, and when I asked what she would have thought about this speech the answer was a gin-soaked response: 'They're all talking bull-dust. Just shut up and have a drink!' Nancy was renowned for her straight talking and her plain speaking, and this never changed. She was incredibly brave, fun, happy-go-lucky, feisty and never ambiguous. When I asked this friend, who is far more eloquent than I, what the best way was to sum up Nancy, he simply said, 'She was a bloody good lady.'

It has been said several times already that Nancy enjoyed little more than a drink or three, and later in life she chose to sell her war medals in order to fund her lifestyle, being quoted at the time: 'There was no point in keeping them. I'll probably go to hell and they'd melt anyway.' When successive Australian governments offered her some belated recognition, she responded: 'If they gave this to me now it wouldn't be for love. They can stick their medals where the monkey sticks his nuts.' But she did have great respect and admiration for John Howard, who made time for a private meeting with her during one trip in London. As a result, in 2004 she accepted the Howard government's offer of recognition and was finally made a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Nancy Wake's life is an inspiration to all Australians and those across Europe, who have written with reverence since her death. I am informed that it was her wish that her ashes be scattered in central France, where she attacked the local Gestapo headquarters in 1944. I hope that in death her wishes can be recognised by her government in a timely fashion, in a way that perhaps her wishes during her life were not. There will never be another Nancy Wake. May she rest in peace.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to add my voice to everything that has been said before on Nancy Wake. I will not detail that remarkable life, because I think it has been detailed already and probably will be done so after me in great deal and probably more eloquently. I really would just like to make three points about Nancy's life. The first is how inspirational she is to young Australians through the fact that aged 16, in the1930s, she was prepared, with £200, to set sail to go to America and then Europe and start her life. To have such courage at such a young age and to have such vision to want to see the world at that time is, I think, an inspiration to all young Australians. As a 19-year-old, I headed off for my European adventure to work on a family farm. I know how much that took, as a single male in the eighties, going to countries where the languages were foreign. So for a single female, aged 16, to head first to the United States and then for Europe, shows courage and foresight beyond her age. I hope my daughters and all young Australian females and males look at her absolute courage in saying at age 16 that she was going off to see the world.

The second point that I would like to make is: what a true heroine she was. That she was on the Gestapo's 'most wanted' list, with a price of five million francs on her head shows how remarkable her war courage was. At a time when the Gestapo and their tactics were known to all—and it would have been known to Nancy what would have happened to her if she was caught—to continue the fight against the Nazis in the way that she did shows that the word 'heroine' truly fits this remarkable Australian. The third point I would like to mention is about why she acted as she did. We have already heard the quote, but I would like to give it again because I think it clearly indicates the type of woman that she was. It was made when she was offered a decoration. She said:

The last time there was a suggestion of that I told the government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts. The thing is, if they gave me a medal now, it wouldn't be given with love, so I don't want anything from them.

That goes to the heart of why she did what she did. It was not because she sought fame; it was not because she sought recognition; she just had a strong belief that what she was doing was the right thing to do. Once again, especially for young Australians, she is an absolute inspiration in this regard. At this time when social media dominates the agenda of our youth, Nancy Wake stands as someone who can show us a way through this. It was not about seeking publicity or grandeur; for her it was all about believing in the cause and acting for that cause. As I have indicated, the bravery with which she acted was remarkable.

Also inspirational was the way she was prepared to put her hand up for the Liberal Party and take on Doc Evatt. She could potentially have found much easier options, but they were not for Nancy; she wanted to take on Doc. When she ran for the seat of Kingsford Smith, once again this was not an easy option but an incredibly difficult one. The swings that she achieved each time she stood are an indication of what the people thought of her. There is no doubt that at that time a woman running for political office would have had a fair few people voting against her just on the basis of her gender. The fact that she was able to achieve swings in those seats is remarkable in itself.

I conclude by saying: vale Nancy Wake—she was a true heroine.

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

I too would like to honour Nancy Wake. Nancy Wake was a truly exceptional Australian and one who deserves to be celebrated. Many of the things I will say have been said by other speakers tonight, but they bear repeating. This was a girl who was born in very humble circumstances in New Zealand in 1912. She came to Australia as a child of four and lived in Sydney in the tough days of the First World War. She was deserted by her father and had a fairly ordinary relationship with her mother. This led her to adopt a fairly independent lifestyle even when she was in her mid-teens. For a time she was a junior nurse at the hospital at Mudgee in New South Wales. Because of a bequest from an aunt, she was able to go to Europe. She fell in love with Europe and decided to become a journalist.

It was in her capacity as journalist that she found in the depths of her spirit an acute distaste for the Nazis. She was in Austria and she saw, following the Anschluss, how the Germans treated the Austrian Jews. She resolved that she would not be part of that but would do something about it. She became first a courier and later a member of the Resistance and still later again a spy. On her second encounter in Europe during the war she joined the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, and they were the best trained and the bravest of the brave.

Very few books have had as much impact on me as the story of her life, The White Mouse. As other speakers have said tonight, the name 'white mouse' was the title given her by the Gestapo because she was always one step ahead of them, she was always on the move and she took on many daring tasks but never once was corralled. It is funny how the Germans call the early troops in the First World War the Old Contemptibles and they called our troops in North Africa the Desert Rats and then they called her a white mouse. All those titles live in legend. In her case, indeed it should.

In the story of her life some remarkable events occurred. There were occasions of amazing courage and daring, flirting with people who could put a gun to her head and shoot her at any time, riding 700 kilometres across France until the tops of her legs were literally bleeding so that she could get some equipment to the Resistance. She became such a legend that the Germans closed in on her and she escaped via Spain to England. Sadly, her husband paid the price. He would not give her up to the Gestapo and he was summarily executed. She came back in 1943 ahead of the D-Day invasion to lead the Resistance and at one stage she led 7,000 men. It was truly remarkable activity. She was competent in the use of weapons and she was known to have killed one of the Germans with her bare hands. She was a formidable soldier. I think today we have a sort of ambivalence, Australians in particular and perhaps Anglo-Saxons in general, about letting our females fight on the front line. Quite frankly, I still believe that today, that they should not. Nevertheless, imagine what the resistance to people like her was at that stage. She was commanding 7,000 in France in the lead-up to D-Day.

Her remarkable feats during the Second World War led to her becoming the most decorated woman of the Second World War and certainly the most decorated Australian. She received the Legion of Honour, three Croix de Guerre, the George Medal and the American Medal of Freedom. That by any standards is a remarkable thing. The member for Bennelong rather graciously said that by quirk of fate she never received an Australian honour at that time. It was not a quirk of fate; it was plain bloody-mindedness and bureaucracy that denied the bravest Australian woman of the Second World War her just entitlement. Oh yes, they said, she fought in another army. She did not fight in the Australian forces. There were all sorts of excuses under the sun that were thrown up as to why she should not have an award. I have always found it extraordinary that the American President could grant the 3rd Battalion RAR after the Battle of Kapyong in Korea a presidential citation. The American President, in the immediate wake of the battle, granted our whole battalion his citation. Again, Lyndon B Johnson, after the Battle of Long Tan, granted D Company, 6RQR the same honour—the Presidential Citation—as did the Vietnamese government. Yet Nancy Wake, from her own country, did not receive a decoration until quite late in her life; following a visit from John Howard to see her, the Governor-General, Major General Jeffery, presented her with the Companion of the Order of Australia at Australia House in England in 2004. That was after slightly more than 60 years. Quite frankly, that was a disgrace.

While on this condolence motion I am not anxious to add a fractious note, I feel compelled to, in one sense. I have been an unapologetic promoter of those who served so bravely at the Battle of Long Tan. And still to this day a number of them have not been properly honoured. I had the pleasure of putting the Star of Gallantry on the chest of Colonel Harry Smith, who was the commander as Major Harry Smith at Long Tan, just last year in Maryborough outside the Long Tan museum display. It was extraordinary that he would have to wait for over 40 years to have the DSO that he was originally recommended for granted. It is a disgrace. It is a blight on our country and it continues. His two lieutenants, Sabben and Kendall, had their awards upgraded to medals of gallantry, which is roughly the equivalent of the Military Cross. But there is still the commander of the carrier group that went in at Long Tan.

As honourable members will know, 105 Australians and three New Zealanders faced 2½ thousand Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong in the rubber plantation at Long Tan. Eighteen of them died that day. It was one of the most incredible battles; they were outnumbered by over 20 to 1. And still, until this day, eight from D Company, two from A Company and one from the troop carriers—11 of them—have still not had their awards upgraded. Nine of them received only MIDs, mentioned in dispatches, which is almost an insult. These 11 unresolved awards burn in my psyche every Anzac Day, Long Tan Day, Kapyong Day and Remembrance Day when I think of that injustice.

It took us 60 years to recognise Nancy Wake—60 long years to recognise a hero who fought for the allied cause right at the front of the pack. Let us not make it another 60 years—it is 40 years now—for those 11 troops that still have not been properly acknowledged. Let us not treat them in the way we treated Nancy Wake. Nancy Wake, although New Zealand born, was certainly a great Australian, a courageous person, a person who loved life, a person who asked for her ashes to be distributed where she fought with her comrades in France, a truly remarkable woman. Rest in peace.

John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too wish to associate myself with the contributions made by honourable members on the passing of Nancy Wake AC, GM. She was, in the words of the member for Hinkler, my friend, a true legend and a hero. I understand it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank the Committee.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.