Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the statement by the National President of the RSL that has just been tabled.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This morning in this chamber we rose for a minute's silence for Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin, Private Robert Poate, Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathanael Galagher. They have brought to 38 the number of young men killed in action in Afghanistan. There have been approximately 240 men and women wounded in action in Afghanistan as well.

I rise today to refer to the letter by Rear Admiral Ken Doolan following the resolution of a motion put to this chamber on 16 August. I will quickly read Rear Admiral Ken Doolan's letter: 'Dear Mr President, I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 20 August 2012 in which you forwarded the text of a resolution of the Senate of 16th August 2012. The National Executive and members of the Returned and Services League of Australia are pleased to note this resolution and convey thanks to the Senate for this thoughtful commemorative gesture. The resolution of the Senate has been placed on our national website.'

This general business notice of motion No. 849 was moved by me and Senator Johnston. It states:

(a) commemorates the 50th anniversary, in 2012, of the arrival of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam in South Vietnam, beginning Australia's decade-long commitment to the Vietnam War;

(b) commemorates the 46th anniversary, on 18 August 2012, of the Battle of Long Tan, in which 18 Australian soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded in action;

(c) pays tribute to the 521 Australians killed in action in the Vietnam War and the thousands of veterans who returned home to the care of their families;

(d) acknowledges that many Vietnam War service personnel were very poorly treated by certain sections of the Australian community on their return, and that this treatment was unjust and, in many cases, affected their ability to resume life after wartime service; and

(e) welcomes the arrival in Australia of the Long Tan Cross, which will be displayed at the Australian War Memorial until April 2013.

The Australian War Memorial records confirm that some 3,000 men were wounded in action in Vietnam. While we are talking about Vietnam we must never, ever forget the sacrifice of those in Korea, Malaysia, Borneo and also the Indonesian conflict.

I want to speak particularly in relation to item (d) of that motion, which refers to the many Vietnam War service personnel who were very poorly treated by certain sections of the Australian community on their return. I have come to this place as someone who was approximately 18 months off my marble being turned over in that rolling machine, which would determine whether I was or was not to go to Vietnam. So a lot of the men who served in Vietnam are about my vintage. In my capacity as a member in the other place for nearly 12 years and in my capacity as the shadow minister for veterans affairs, I have had the opportunity to speak to these men on a very regular basis. I think it is fair to say that the treatment of those men on their return from Vietnam was a dark day in this country's history. This was a period of time when this nation abandoned a group of men and women who were doing no more nor less than serving their nation at the request of our nation.

We must never forget what we did and we must learn from the mistakes of the past. The great challenge for this nation is to recognise and remember what we did to a group of Australians who were returning from wartime service. We must reflect on those five young men we honoured in this place today and on their families; reflect on the 38 young men who have died in Afghanistan and their families; and acknowledge that we as a nation have a responsibility for those families and for those who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq in particular for a long, long period of time.

I was raised with the philosophy that with rights come even greater responsibilities. This nation demands the right to be protected, to be free, but with that comes the responsibility to support those who serve and who have served our nation. It comes back to the notion of us recognising and never forgetting the uniqueness of military service—that which underpins those men and women who serve this nation of ours. If we ever forget the uniqueness of military service then there is a very real risk that we will repeat the mistakes of the past.

I do not know how many honourable senators are aware, but in the last two decades nearly as many men and women have served this country overseas as served in the Vietnam War, and we have responsibilities to them. They will be long-term responsibilities. I want to put this in the context of what we are going to do in relation to providing the services and support that those returning men and women quite rightly deserve and demand and what the nature and extent of that is going to be.

I do not want to make this a political contribution, but I will say this: the slashing of BEST funding, which is advocacy services, runs the very real risk of removing from those young men and women who are returning from service in Afghanistan and denying them the right to actually understand what they can access and where they can access it. In my view, that is the sort of mistake that we made some 30-odd years ago with these young men returning from Vietnam. If we remove from them advocacy services and welfare services, then we are not doing what they quite rightly expect us as a nation to do; we have actually breached our part of the responsibility and rights contract that I talked about before: the contract between the nation that is served and those who serve the nation. It must remain an unbreakable bond that is not up for negotiation and cannot be whittled away. It must be a 100 per cent contract between the nation and those who serve the nation. Anyone who serves to diminish that quite rightly will stand completely condemned for having done so.

I want to talk briefly about the impact on those young men and women in Afghanistan who are doing multiple rotations and the requirement for this nation to care for them. Anyone who thinks that somebody who is returning from multiple rotations is not going to need the long-term support of this nation is, as I said before, delusional. You and I, Mr Acting Deputy President Cameron, and everyone in this chamber and everyone outside this chamber will have the responsibility to make sure that we acknowledge that these young men and women will need support.

I encourage all honourable senators to speak to some of those young men and women who have served his nation—and this is not just about young men, let me assure you: I have had the honour of sitting at two dinners beside young women who have served this country in the last two decades. They suffer the same outcomes that their male counterparts do. So this is not about men; this is about the men and women who have served this nation in Afghanistan and beforehand in those other conflicts over the last 20 years.

I believe the comments of the national president of the RSL deserve further consideration. I look at the names of those five young men that we honoured today and I say to their families: this chamber will never forget those sacrifices. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.