Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to commemorate and to add to the many remarks that have been made over the weekend just past to honour Vietnam Veterans' Day. It was 1962 when the first Australian servicemen arrived in Saigon, comprising 30 members of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. These men were strategists, tasked with providing non-combat military advisory support to the South Vietnamese army—a careful and strategic beginning to Australia's involvement in what was then an emerging conflict. Over a decade later, 60,000 Australians, many young and experiencing their first venture abroad, would serve in the Vietnam War. Three thousand would return home wounded; 523 would make the ultimate sacrifice in service of their nation and in defiance of an authoritarian regime. All are considered heroes.

Today, the Vietnam conflict remains Australia's largest force contribution to a foreign conflict since the end of the Second World War in 1945. Like so many other children of Vietnam veterans, I am greatly encouraged and heartened by the images and experiences that were shared just last Sunday on 18 August. It remains a very deep wound for the families of Vietnam veterans that for too many and for too long our Vietnam veterans were denied the welcome home they deserved decades ago.

For many Vietnam veterans, the honour afforded to them has been a long and tortured wait, but, just this week, 51 years since Australia's withdrawal, I was honoured to organise and host a visit to this parliament by the leadership of the Vietnamese community of Australia. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear the tales of the life they've created for themselves and the care and concern they have for the next generation of community leaders. (Time expired)