Page 5038 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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I would like also to put on the record my thanks for the great work that Jeremy Hanson is doing as the shadow minister for veterans’ affairs. He is, of course, a veteran of conflicts himself and he has served Australia in the Army for a number of years. He, of course, has a great insight into the role that veterans play and also the needs that they have post retirement in living in and around the ACT.
As many of you would know, prior to my being elected to this place I was actually the national research adviser at the national headquarters of the Returned and Services League of Australia. The RSL is an organisation I have tremendous respect for and one that I was truly honoured to work for for a period of time. As I have done in this place before, and as I inevitably will do again, I would like to put on the record my support for the national secretary of the RSL, Mr Derek Robson AM, and also the then national president of the RSL, Major-General Bill Crews AO. While I was at the RSL, I took a great deal of experience from them. I am very grateful for the opportunities that they gave me whilst I was there.
The motto of the RSL is “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. This is something that is as true today as it was back in 1916 when the RSL was formed. We do have to be vigilant that we are doing the right thing in conflicts but also in supporting those post conflict as well.
I believe that all Australia, including the federal government and each of the territory and state governments, do have a contract with service men and women that we should be fulfilling post retirement. When we talk about benefits and we talk about entitlements for our ex-service men and women, let us be very clear about the fact that they went into a contract with our country. It is our country’s responsibility to honour that contract and to give what is rightfully theirs through entitlements, through protection and through ongoing benefits in exchange for the wonderful contribution that they have made to our country.
They put their lives on the line and they put their family’s lives on the line as well to make Australia the country it is. To that end, we as the Australian Capital Territory Assembly but also parliaments across Australia need to make sure we have the right legislative environment in place and also the right culture in place to be able to deliver these services.
There are many organisations in the ACT which support the veteran community and different communities within the ACT. They are all in the kindred organisation committee of veteran affairs. I will read into Hansard the list of those organisations. They are the Australian Army training team in Vietnam, the ACT Returned and Services League, ACT Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Association, the ACT Totally and Permanently Incapacitated Wives Association, Defence Force Welfare Association, the Korea and South-East Asia Forces Association, Legacy, the National Servicemen and Combined Force Association, the Naval Association of Australia (ACT section), Partners and Veterans Association, the ACT Royal Australian Air Force Association, the Royal Navy Association, the Veterans Assistance and Advisory Office, the Vietnam Veterans Association, Vietnam Veterans Federation, the War Widows Guild and the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service Association ACT.
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