Page 1394 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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events, and I congratulate him. I am glad that the Australian Labor Party continues to support the work that is done by the War Memorial, the RSL and other people supporting our veterans.
It is part of the broader Greens narrative and agenda—I will touch on this, and it is related to the broader concern that I have about their approach to the Australian War Memorial—that they want to defund defence. It is in their policy; you can go to their website. They want to defund the Australian Defence Force. They want to step away from the ANZUS alliance. Richard di Natale has said that it represents a security threat to Australia.
It may be a lovely vision, a lovely idea, that we do not have a defence force that is capable, that we do not have strategic partnerships that can support us in our time of need. But stepping away from ANZUS and stripping the Australian Defence Force will leave our Australian Defence Force ill-prepared for future conflicts. Whist I am sure we would all wish that we had seen the end of war, that is a naive way to structure any sort of defence policy. Let me give a contemporary quote from a contemporary movie starring Brad Pitt. He says, and this is one that Greens members might more clearly acknowledge:
Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.
I would say to Mr Rattenbury that he should go to the Australian War Memorial with his colleagues. I am sure that if they spoke to Dr Nelson and asked for a briefing, asked for a tour of the memorial, asked what is being proposed, they would not only see what he has already done and what his predecessors have done, what all the staff there have done at the Australian War Memorial; they would see the vision for the expansion.
The vision includes recognition of Indigenous Australians. Mr Rattenbury raised this issue, and it is an important one. I walked through the Reg Saunders courtyard this morning and saw that recognition of a fantastic Australian, the first Indigenous man commissioned as an Australian Army officer. He fought on the Kokoda track; he commanded Australians on the Kokoda track. He then commanded an infantry company in the 3rd Battalion in the battle of Kapyong in Korea. If you go to the War Memorial, you will learn about Captain Reg Saunders and you will learn about many others. If Mr Rattenbury has his way, the stories of Reg Saunders and others, stories that we want to be told for future generations, will not be told. They will be lost in time.
I would say to Mr Rattenbury: go there and reflect. Go to the wall of remembrance; look at the 102,000 names there, men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Look at the stories that are told; look at our history. Look at the way it is done, which in my view is respectful and dignified, but also brings their stories to life.
As Brendan Nelson would often say, it is not about war; it is about love. It is about the sacrifice and the love that Australians had for each other as they faced some of the most horrific things that you can experience. If we were to go in the direction of Mr Rattenbury, the stories of people like Reg Saunders and his contemporary
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