Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor promised $3.7 million during the 2022 election campaign to match the coalition's commitment to establish an ongoing grant program to mark private graves of around 12,000 First World War veterans who died after the war and were left resting in unmarked graves in civilian cemeteries.

When they did the 1933 census after the conclusion of the war in 1919, 38,000 veterans had died. So many of these veterans died from their wounds, from the trauma and from being gassed. When we say 'lest we forget', we have an obligation to this nation to make sure we can remember them because they have the dignity of a headstone. Regardless of the side of the political fence you're on, we have to ensure that this dignity is maintained and that this funding is returned.

Here are the records of one of those people. It's quite substantial. When you look at these records, you see the miserable lives they lived: shot twice, malaria, being put into hospital, being taken out of hospital, wasn't killed, names not on brass. It's records like these, with that person lying in an unmarked grave, where we are responsible for going out and finding and giving them some dignity. Lest we forget.