Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 10 August this year I had the absolute honour and pleasure of attending the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School Debutante Ball. This was a great opportunity at the Pitruzzello Estate in Sunbury to meet 18 of the most beautiful young adults as they came out and made their debuts. It was a fantastic night, the surroundings were sensational and I really appreciated the support from the school council president, Jeanine Furey, and principal, Joanne Nolan. The 18 wonderful young adults at the debutante ball were: Amelia Law, Chris Todarello, Ashleigh Ferguson, Daniel Sievers, Caitlin Martin, Meyrick Bowater, Jessica Scott, Ashley Wallin, Lucy Gaschk, Ethan Johnston, Samantha Todarello, Ben Forde, Sharney Tringrove, Jesse Hector, William Martin, Nicholas Allen, Daniel Wright and Jezreel Flakemore. You have never seen 18 more beautiful people in all your life. What magnificent young adults they are and a credit to their families.

I also went to the Vietnam Veterans Day commemorations in Seymour on Sunday 12 August, where I was extremely pleased to join with Vietnam veterans and the community to commemorate Vietnam Veterans Day and the 50 years since our first involvement in Vietnam. It was 50 years ago on a hot, humid Friday afternoon in early August 1962 that the main body of the Australian Amy Training Team Vietnam walked down the steps of an aircraft on a hot, sticky tarmac at Tan Son Nhut Airport, Saigon. Led by Colonel Ted Serong, a very experienced leader in jungle warfare, 'The Team', as they became more simply known, was Australia's first commitment to the escalating conflict between North and South Vietnam.

Those 30 men were the vanguard of Australia's decade-long involvement in the Vietnam War. More than 62,000 Australians followed and served in our name with distinction and honour. Vietnam Veterans Day is remembered on the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, which occurred on 18 August 1966, when B and D companies of 6RAR fought what has become Australia's most well-known engagement against overwhelming opposition, and prevailed. The first Australians undertook the arduous tasks of patrolling, duty at firebases, flying Caribou transport, serving on the destroyer gun line and keeping the Vung Tau Ferry steaming into South Vietnam and back. All of this was crucial to ensuring that troops were prepared and supported when engagements and battles inevitably came.

The Seymour district has a long link with so many of our veterans, both Nashos and regulars, who served and fought together through the time they spent training before their passing out parade at Puckapunyal.

That is why it is fitting that Seymour is developing a Vietnam veterans commemorative wall which will serve as a tribute to the 62,100 Australians who went to Vietnam and who served in our name. This includes the 521 Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice and the 2,398 who were wounded. The names of all those Australians will be on a DigiGlass wall and will be the central feature of the wall. There is nowhere else in Australia where the names of everyone who went to Vietnam will be listed in such a way that the public can come and honour them. We need to do that. This is an act of public acknowledgment and in some respects reconciliation.

It is no secret that the Vietnam War and Australia's involvement in it caused division at home, in Australian society, especially in the latter years. It is one of the poorer episodes of our nation's history that young men who did nothing but go to where they were sent to fight a war—a war the government committed them to—were somehow held responsible for the political decision to enter that war. But what is now universally accepted, as it should be, is that the service of those who went there should be publicly recognised and lauded. Australians served with professionalism, skill and compassion in Vietnam—a fact acknowledged by their former foes today.

I visited many of the locations in Vietnam where Australians soldiers lived, worked, fought and died. I was guided on my visit by a gentleman named 'Breaker' Cusack, an ex-6RAR man, who conveyed to me all the information with great respect to both sides who fought in that battle. Just being able to walk in the footsteps of those who went before me—albeit in far friendlier times, years after the war—was a haunting, emotional and overwhelming experience. It was my personal chance to pause, to reflect and to pay my respects to the brave Australian generation before my own who went to Vietnam in Australia's name.

We need to ensure that these men and women are never forgotten. A book that I first read many years ago told the story of a Vietnam veteran. It was titled 'Well done those men'. It detailed the lives of those who went to Vietnam and the after-effects of that on their lives. I and my community say to the 5,500 Vietnam vets who live in McEwen, 'Well done those men, and thank you for everything you have done.'