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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 703 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

Let us stop for a moment, Mr Speaker, and consider how this whole sorry mess began. The Canberra/Nara Sister City Committee proposes a peace park to celebrate the arrival of the mayor of Nara. The national president of the RSL, Major General Digger James, rings the Chief Minister and asks for the word "peace" to be removed from the title because Japan has yet to offer an outright apology for its role in World War II. Unhappy with the Chief Minister's response, General James rings the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then rings the Chief Minister and tells her to change the name of the park and then tells the general what he told Mrs Carnell. The general then recounts the whole tale to the Canberra Times.

Mr Speaker, something odd strikes me. The RSL's complaints could have been made in private; the telephone call to John Howard and John Howard's call to Mrs Carnell could have stayed behind closed doors; but, for some reason, the RSL decided to call in the Canberra Times. Why? Surely, if the issue was simply a matter of trying to do the right thing by Australia's ex-service men and women, there was nothing to be gained for them by public grandstanding. If the Chief Minister was of a mind to change the name of the park, she would have had more room to move if it was handled in private; but by bringing it out in public the Chief Minister and the Nara committee were forced to be either humiliated by backing down or ridiculed for going their own way. By making the issue public, a dignified retreat and a quiet resolution of the issue were denied to all parties.

Which public relations genius masterminded this pathetic episode? Was it the person who had been on a $1,000 a month retainer with the RSL since 1993, a position she resigned from only last week? Could it have been Jacqui Rees who has now popped up in yet another incarnation? If it was, what inspired her to do so? Did she honestly believe that raising this issue would honour the memory of our ex-service men and women? Did she think it would benefit the people of Canberra or Australia? Did she really believe it would have the slightest chance of extracting a properly worded apology from Japan? Or did she raise the issue and make it public in order to humiliate the Chief Minister because the Carnell Government had tried to remove her from the Interim Kingston Foreshore Development Authority? Mr Speaker, I cannot answer these questions. No-one but Ms Rees can. I trust she is at ease with her conscience, because, if this campaign was, even in part, motivated by a personal vendetta, then her actions would be beneath contempt. If it was, then she would be using the memory of our fallen for petty political point-scoring.

On the issue of peace and forgiveness, Mr Speaker: I am well aware of the sacrifices made by Australian soldiers in the world wars, especially World War II, as members of both my family and my wife's family died in the conflict. I am proud of them and the history of this country in standing up and being counted when it mattered. But I always thought they were fighting for peace; I thought that was the whole point. It is true that Japan has never properly apologised for the war. This is regrettable and does that country no credit. However, the reality of the situation is that we have been at peace with Japan since 1945.

Think of the wisdom of those who engineered the peace with Japan in the years immediately after World War II. Rather than exacting retribution, the Western powers moved to assist in rebuilding that country. Those leaders, in their wisdom, chose not to repeat the mistakes made after World War I, when the harsh treaty with Germany helped

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