Page 1186 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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taken into account in planning policies and in service delivery.
One matter of some concern to veterans is the question of concessions. The Government has begun a review of concessions for all ACT government services, to provide more equitable relief where necessary. The highest priorities for review are transport and energy concessions, both of which are of significance to our veterans. We are currently negotiating with the New South Wales Government about reciprocal transport concessions for veterans. Our aim is for ACT veterans to have access to similar transport concessions as do those resident in New South Wales. I am hoping that these negotiations will be completed in the next few weeks and that this time we will have some success, where we have not had success in the past.
Mr Speaker, I would like to conclude by reiterating this Government's firm commitment to our veterans. I am sure that the community echoes this commitment. These commitments are well-deserved, and it is most appropriate, I believe, that we review our attitudes on this day, the eve of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Gallipoli and the Anzacs. I present the following paper:
Anzac Day 1990 - Ministerial statement, 24 April 1990.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition), by leave: Mr Speaker, on behalf of the Labor team in the Assembly I would like to indicate, first of all, our support for the steps that the Government has taken in recognition of Anzac Day, in terms of bus transport, action in train on the provision of aged persons accommodation, and the review of the concessions.
I would also like to say that I really believe that the significance of Anzac Day goes well beyond the provision of services for veterans or for aged people. It is a day that has universal recognition, universal acceptance, not only in Australia but in other countries as well. I think that that acceptance, that recognition, indicates that Anzac Day has different meanings for different people. In fact, there would probably not be an Australian alive who is not able to derive some feeling of recognition, of significance, from Anzac Day.
Anzac Day does, of course, recognise those who have died in war and in all of the wars that Australia has been involved in. It is a mark of remembrance for those people. For many, of course, the question of Anzac Day and the events at Gallipoli marked forever our separation from Britain and the end of our status as a colony. I think that it was very significant that after Gallipoli people very rarely spoke of Britain as "home". They were Australians. That was significant from that point of view.
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