Vietnam Veterans Day
HON ALISON XAMON (East Metropolitan) [8.56 pm]: I rise to acknowledge that today is Vietnam Veterans Day, an important day. It is the day we commemorate those who served and died in the Vietnam War. Almost 60 000 Australians served in the Vietnam War between 1962 and 1975, and of the Australian troops who served, 521 died and more than 3 000 were wounded.
On a personal note, my family has a sad connection with the Vietnam War. In 1969 my uncle Laurie—my father’s brother—was involuntarily drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, but he died while in training at Puckapunyal one month before I was born. He is not recorded as one of the 521 troops who died as a result of the war, but certainly my grandmother, who is still alive today, has never gotten over losing her son, and neither did my dad. As far as our family is concerned, he was very much a casualty of that war, even though he is not recorded as such.
Today is also the forty-fourth anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. For many years, 18 August was known as “Long Tan Day”. It is extremely difficult for me to imagine what the Australian troops at Long Tan went through. They faced forces far superior to their own in torrential rain, their ammunition was depleted, and many of their mates were being killed or wounded next to them. Their bravery really was astounding. Eighteen Australians were killed in action, and 25 were wounded in the Battle of Long Tan. Long Tan was one of the many battles that Australian troops fought in Vietnam, but today we remember all the battles that took place in the jungles of Vietnam and the impact that they had on those who served there, their families and loved ones, and on the country as a whole.
We should also use the opportunity of Vietnam Veterans Day to acknowledge the appalling treatment that many Vietnam veterans received after they returned to Australia. It is to our country’s great shame that we did not appropriately acknowledge the contribution of our armed forces in Vietnam, and that it took almost 20 years until the national welcome home parade was held in Sydney in 1987. Around 25 000 veterans marched at that parade, and it was an amazing demonstration of public sentiment, and one that motivated the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, to announce that 18 August would be known as Vietnam Veterans Day, a day that now has special significance for all veterans of the Vietnam War.
I think the acknowledgement of Vietnam Veterans Day also presents the opportunity for me to raise in this house an issue that has been on my mind for some time and that I have today written to the Premier about, and that is the current lack of a coordinated focus on veterans’ affairs in our state. Veterans’ affairs, quite appropriately, are coordinated at a federal level through the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs. However, in Western Australia there is currently no point of contact at state level for exservicemen and women or their dependants, as there is in other states. Although a number of non-government ex-service organisations are doing fantastic work for the veterans community in our state, there is no obvious state government focus on this issue. I believe that is something that we should change. This is something that my grandfather, one of the Rats of Tobruk, asked me to address when I took my seat in this place. My precious grandfather died six weeks ago.
Coincidentally, around that time—pretty much within 24 hours, actually—one of my constituents contacted me about this very same issue. He is a constituent who is in regular contact with me. He suggested that a good starting point might be to designate a state government minister as the minister for veterans’ affairs. As is the case in other states, the portfolio might find a comfortable fit with the Minister for Community Services or possibly, as is the case in South Australia, with the Attorney General. It would be a really important move, both symbolically and practically, if we created a Western Australian body to act as a contact point for veterans. The same constituent I referred to earlier, who is himself a Vietnam veteran, I should have added, was telling me recently that when he makes inquiries about veterans’ services and entitlements at state level, he inevitably gets directed to seniors or other aged-care services, and this, of course, is not appropriate. Veterans encompass a wide range of people—old and young, men and women and the dependants of those killed in the service of our country—so one could understand that it could be quite insulting for some of our veterans to be directed to agedcare services.
I understand that both the South Australian and Tasmanian governments have recognised the challenge facing veterans in those states. In addition to appointing a minister for veterans’ affairs, they have formed veterans’ advisory councils. The councils fulfil a number of different tasks, including facilitating cooperation between veterans’ organisations. They provide a forum for the veterans community to communicate directly with the state government through the minister. They provide a clear point of contact to provide state interests for and feedback into commonwealth-level planning. They monitor and provide advice about matters relating to the recognition and commemoration of the service of veterans. It was this last point that was of particular concern to my grandfather. In Western Australia a similar body could provide a valuable service in providing advice on issues relating to the ageing, health, welfare and disability of veterans and their dependants, including advice on identification and support of isolated veterans and dependants, as well as facilitating communication and information flow between the veterans community and the minister. The council could also help advise the veterans community about relevant programs and projects and funding opportunities.
I believe the establishment of such a body here in Western Australia would be a welcome development for the community. Today, on Vietnam Veterans Day, and also in the week in which we have marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, I ask members to contemplate the Western Australia’s veterans community and whether we could be doing more to help them, to respect their experiences and sacrifices and acknowledge the contribution that they have made to this country. I think it would be remarkably positive if this government were to give greater focus to veterans’ affairs, in a way that has never been done before. I believe that this issue could be addressed relatively easily and without great cost to the taxpayer. I think it would be really wonderful if we could get tripartite support to establish a Western Australian veterans advisory council and to designate a minister in the state government as the minister for veterans’ affairs, as exists in other states. I hope that the Premier, members of the government and members of the opposition will consider this proposal favourably and give it their support.