Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the last veterans' mission to Korea, to acknowledge the brave men and nurses who served in the Korean War. Often considered the forgotten war, the Korean War began five years after the Second World War and lasted three years in the defence of South Korea.

The Korean War was a major conflict, with far-reaching implications for Australia and the world. It was the first war between major parties during the Cold War period and the first fought by the United Nations. Twenty-one countries committed personnel from South Korea, Britain, New Zealand and the United States. Australia became the second nation—behind the United States—to commit personnel from all three armed services. Over three years some 17,000 Australians served with 1,216 Australians injured and a further 29 were taken as prisoners of war. Ultimately, 340 Australians were killed and an additional 43 would go missing in action. Tragically, there were an additional 16 individuals killed in the post-armistice period. In total, as a result of the Korean War, 399 Australians would make the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

Perhaps one of the most well-known battles of the Korean War is the Battle of Kapyong, which occurred in April 1951, which became one of the most significant and important battles for Australian troops in Korea. The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment—more commonly known as Old Faithful—distinguished themselves in Korea through their bravery and fierce determination, and the Battle of Kapyong is one of the finest examples of this.

On the night of 22 April 1951 Chinese forces launched a major offensive against the United Nations forces defending Seoul. The next morning the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade, which included 3RAR, was ordered to the valley of the Kapyong River, about 60 kilometres northeast of Seoul, where South Korean forces were being driven back. Over the course of the night and day the Australians and a Canadian battalion, supported by a New Zealand artillery regiment, stalled the Chinese advance before eventually withdrawing after dark.

The men of 3RAR suffered significant casualties with 32 men killed, 59 wounded and three taken prisoner. The Australians had helped hold up the Chinese 60th Division and inflicted heavy casualties, which totalled more than 500 killed. For their contribution to this action, 3RAR was awarded a US presidential citation. In addition, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Ferguson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his skilful leadership.

This is just the efforts of one battalion in a commitment of 17,000 Australians in this war. They are 17,000 people who left their families and friends behind to put their lives on the line, some never to return. But while the war was overshadowed, the contribution of the brave Australians who served in Korea is not forgotten. They placed their lives on the line and we owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

Last year, the Minster for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, and the shadow assistant minister for cyber security and defence personnel, Ms Gai Brodtmann, travelled to Korea on a 65th anniversary commemorative mission organised by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Eight Korean War veterans accompanied the minister and the shadow assistant minister on this important trip. The Magnificent Eight, as they are known, represented each of the three Australian services who fought in the Korean War. Gordon 'Taffy' Hughes was a naval aviator flying operations from the deck of HMAS Sydney. Spencer `Ray' Seaver was a pilot in No. 77 Squadron, and Graham Connor and Les Hall served in the 1RAR. They were joined by John 'Jack' Lang, Les Powell, John Murphy and Peter Scott from 3RAR.

Both the minister and shadow assistant minister spoke in the parliament recently of the honour of accompanying these men on their return to a country that they only knew as a theatre of war. They spoke of the reception the men received and of how moving the experience was for them. I had the privilege of talking to a number of those men on the floor of the parliament, and for some of them it was the first time they had been back to visit Korea since that very difficult time. In her speech, the shadow assistant minister recalled a story told to her by Graham Connor about being recognised by an elderly man near a market. Graham recalled, 'He came over and said to me, "Are you a Korean War veteran?" and I said, "Yes," and he threw his arms around me and burst out crying and said, "Thank you, thank you."' This was a very touching story told by the shadow assistant minister. It reflects the gratitude expressed by the Korean people. What a remarkable experience and fitting tribute to the brave men who served in the Korean War.

Listening to the stories told by the minister and shadow assistant minister in the chamber last week, I can tell you that it is not an experience they will forget soon. The Korean War played a significant role in the formation of Australia's identity, as the traditional ties to Britain and the Empire were fading and the growing bonds with the United States were reshaping how we considered our place in the world. The significance of this service and sacrifice by all Australians who served in this war cannot be underestimated. On behalf of this chamber, we thank you for your contribution, we thank you for your sacrifice, we acknowledge those who fought and we acknowledge those who never returned. Lest we forget!

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for veterans' affairs for setting the scene and the historical background for these comments. The Korean War has been described as a forgotten war. I would like to address my remarks to a forgotten aspect of the forgotten war, which it was my great privilege to work to resolve and remediate during the period of trying to establish the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal when Labor was last in government. We dealt with a lot of outstanding issues over a long historical period for various veterans and groups.

One of those groups was the veterans who had served during the so-called Korean War armistice period. When we think back on the conflict, it is poorly understood in the historical context. This was one of the very first of the hot phases of the so-called Cold War period. Aggressive international communism was on the march, and we would be confronting that again in Vietnam. The extra dimension that was at play in the Korean War was, of course, the potential for that conflict to escalate into a nuclear confrontation. There were discussions during that war about getting nuclear weapons used during that conflict, and General Macarthur was quite forward leaning in attempting to do that, so there was a real risk of an escalated nuclear conflict. We have to look at the service of our veterans in the context of having averted that catastrophe and having staunched the tide of international communism as it flowed through the Korean peninsula. There has been a lot of focus on that hot phase of the war, through to 1953, as if it were all that was involved in the conflict. But the period of the armistice, beginning in July 1953 and going through to 19 April 1956, was a very difficult one for our forces serving there, and it went completely unrecognised. We lost up to 18 soldiers during that period of time.

Some of the veterans have laboured long and hard to try to redress that lack of recognition, in particular Shoalhaven resident Bob Morris, who became the president of the Korean War Veterans Recognition Committee. He described the Korean War as 'one of the dirtiest, bloodiest and coldest conflicts of the 20th century'. We have to understand the extremes they had to survive while dealing with the threats they were facing during that static phase of the Korean War period.

Bob Morris was one of those dynamic, wonderful Australians who really put body and soul into achieving recognition at the same time as many of these veterans were passing on. He wanted to make sure that there were enough of them and their families who understood that that mission had been accomplished, that recognition would be achieved. When Bob first came to see me he estimated that there were about only 3,000 of these veterans left.

A Korean post-armistice service review was established in 2005 to investigate and recommend appropriate recognition. The panel comprised Rear Admiral Ian Crawford AO, AM; Gary Nehl AM; Ms Colleen Thurgar AM; and Brigadier Gordon Jones AM. They went through the whole process of analysing the campaign and the period and came up with a couple of recommendations with regard to general service medal recognition and returned from active service recognition.

Of course there was some degree of antipathy and opposition to doing this. The matter tended to atrophy for a while, but Bob Morris, Rod Coupland, their wives and supporters never gave up on the cause. It was my privilege to work closely with them. In spite of some of the advice that I received, I was determined that they would get their recognition. I was delighted in October 2008 that we did manage to get approval to issue a Returned from Active Service Badge. It was my call to make that decision, even though we did not get the review of the conditions of service at the time that we were looking for. I did have the ability to make that determination and I did. We also sought royal assent to create a new medal recognising those who had served during that period. That assent was given and those proud veterans did receive that award.

It was wonderful to see the sheer gratitude and difference that that made to those very proud veterans and their families. Afterwards we were trying to get the message across that all the Korean War memorials really needed their inscription changed to 1950-56 rather than to 1953. We should be enormously grateful for what those proud veterans endured, what they put up with, and what they achieved in fending off what could have become a much more dire situation for not only our country but the world. I pay tribute today to Bob Morris and the team who achieved that outcome.

Also talking on the Korean War gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to one particular great soldier who passed away on 13 January this year—Thomas Lloyd Muggleton MBE. Tom Muggleton was a legend in the Australian Army. He had an amazing career. He was one of those soldiers who were the definition of all the values of soldering that we would hope to emulate. He had an amazing career. At the age of 19, as part of the 2nd AIF, he fought at the end of the Second World War in Wewak-Aitape campaigns with the 2nd/5th Infantry Battalion. He then carved out a career in the Army, serving right through the postwar period into the early 1950s, when the Korean War broke out. He was in the Japanese occupation forces when he met his future wife, Thelma, who was Australian Army nurse. What a wonderful woman Thelma was as well.

Tommy Muggleton went back to Korea and fought the Battle of Broken Bridge on the Taeryong River. He was also involved very intimately in the Kapyong Battle—and we heard details of that referred to—as part of 3RAR as a company sergeant major. He did become quite legendary for his efforts during that battle. He brought a lot of the learnings from those experiences to future recruits and future soldiers. He was also at Maryang San in October 1951. This man endured a great deal through the dying phases of World War Two through the major confrontations and battles of the Korean War.

Tom went on to fulfil many postings and duties in his illustrious Army career. He was the RSM of the Royal Military College Duntroon. And he also went on to serve in 5RAR in Vietnam to finish his period of active service. Later, he was also the OC of Headquarter Company at Duntroon as a major on promotion, and at the same time his son was a cadet at RMC, Paul Muggleton—I will come back to him. But when Tom left the Army, he actually worked in the House of Representatives tabling office here in this very building before ultimately retiring to the Gold Coast.

What a great couple they were, Tommy and Thelma, and their children were very special too and imbibed all the values of this great pair. In particular, my closest friend, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Muggleton, was the son of Tommy and, unfortunately, he passed away in December 2013 from bowel cancer and it was a great tragedy to the family. Thelma passed away in 2015. But Tommy Muggleton will never be forgotten. The Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove was at his funeral and delivered an eulogy and said, 'On behalf of all Australians, I have to say, Australia has lost one of its finest.' And no truer words were spoken. Tommy and Thelma left behind some surviving children, daughters MaryRose, Denise and Alison. They also have obviously done their parents proud and I know their parents were very proud of them.

Today, my thoughts turn to not only those wonderful veterans who finally got recognition after so many years of neglect but also a truly great soldier who built the Army, shaped the Army that I ended up joining, and that we salute and pay tribute to today; and also a very fine man whom I will never forget, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Muggleton, who was also in his own right a fine man and a fine soldier.

Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in response to the statement by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs delivered to the House on Wednesday, 22 March 2017. As the minister referred to in his statement, the Korean War is often referred to as the forgotten war. I had cause to reflect upon the speech delivered by the minister. The minister very carefully explained the significance of the Korean War and outlined Australian action in the Korean theatre. It was, nevertheless, very difficult to imagine the times when the Cold War was in its infancy and when, due to an accident of history, the United Nations took up arms in a conflict—a conflict with proxies for the superpowers and a nascent superpower, a conflict which might have escalated to nuclear conflict at any time.

In my legal practice many years ago, I undertook a quite substantial practice in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal addressing DVA claims, which were then appeals from the Veterans Review Board. That was in the 1990s. I was still dealing with World War II veterans, Korean War veterans and of course veterans from the Vietnam War. It always seemed to me that the veterans of World War II easily fell into a particular class, that is with respect to the type of claim and the type of person I was advocating for. Similarly, there are a lot of claims arising out of Vietnam which had similar characteristics.

Korean veterans not only fell between the two in a chronological sense, but also with respect to their profile. There was something about the Korean veterans which spoke of a different experience, something which bound them even more tightly together than the World War II veterans, many of whom had fought in completely different theatres in Europe, North Africa, New Guinea or as prisoners of war, which carried with it another level of complexity. There also seemed to be a historical aspect of the Korean War bracketing the end of the 1940s and the early part of the 1950s. The popular culture that we see that infected Australia, from, in particular, the United States, had not entered into public consciousness until the mid to late 1950s. Even Menzies had yet to consolidate and impose his authority on the Australian electorate at this time. There were big issues yet to be resolved between labour and capital, big issues which were elevated by the tensions of the Cold War.

As the minister notes in his statement, it is more than 60 years since the last of the conflict had ceased. Nevertheless, we are constantly reminded that the conflict has not been formally resolved in that no treaty has been negotiated to put an end to the formal conflict. I wonder, therefore, whether the experience of our troops was similar to that of Vietnam veterans, who had a delayed welcome home because of the public's view as to the merits of the Vietnam War. Whilst it is useful to consider what a totally different world we now live in, from the perspective of more than 60 years after the conclusion of hostilities, we must never forget, when we send our defence forces into harm's way, what it is to serve in the Australian Defence Force. There have been conflicts and peacekeeping missions since Vietnam and, in all cases, the Australian Defence Force has served with distinction. None of these missions and none of these conflicts are entered into lightly. I can readily imagine that the decision of a government to send our armed forces into danger must require careful consideration and, most importantly, accurate information.

My involvement with the veterans community arose primarily through the representation of veterans and their families in determining their entitlement to pension and/or compensation. Not withstanding that the veterans entitlements legislation is beneficial legislation, there are often lengthy delays in assessing and determining a veteran's entitlement to a pension or a benefit. There are very few remaining Second World War veterans, slightly more Korean War veterans and larger populations of veterans of subsequent emergencies and warlike operations. It pains me, and it should pain all of us, that particular veterans are denied entitlements because they have failed to demonstrate that their service—and, in particular, their operational service—or any of the other service preconditions for eligibility have been satisfied.

It is time for the government to accept the claims of veterans, irrespective of whether they meet the narrow requirements set up by the bureaucratic system. It is without doubt that the men and women of our Defence Force have devoted their very lives to the service of this country. On discharge of that duty, they should find a grateful Australian government that is prepared to assist with their rehabilitation, if that is required. It is a bitter pill to swallow that, whilst the Australian Defence Force has had to lay to rest 41 defence personnel on active service between 2000 and 2014, the veteran community has experienced 292 deaths by suicide. It is time that we—all of us—work together with our veterans to benefit our veterans.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:23