Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Wednesday 10 June 2009

FRANK MACDONALD MEMORIAL PRIZE

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Madam President, I support the motion and I do not think there would be anybody within the Parliament who would not support this motion. I think even Mr Booth, on reflection, would regret the comments that he made in relation to it. I would be very surprised if he did not, had he thought about it. It hurt me, Madam President, for those comments to be made about a colleague and being a returned serviceman myself, it makes me reflect more on that and the damage that it does for such an important event as this.

The member for Huon raised the issue of Anzac Day and the importance of it, the significance of it and it is truly growing. I think the numbers are greater now attending the Anzac Day Parade but I want to reflect on the Anzac Day of 2008 -

Mr Parkinson - Before you do that - through you, Madam President - it is notable that neither Booth nor any member of the Greens so far has expressed the sort of regret that you are talking about.

Mr DEAN - No, they haven't. I have not seen that and I would hope that they may well read the transcripts of this motion and that they may take that on board and may decide that they ought to do that. I want to reflect on the 2008 Anzac Day parade of which I was a part, on the Kokoda Track; the feeling that came out of that parade and the emotions of all of the people there was just enormous. I conducted a part of that ceremony and I have never been so emotional in all of my life, there amongst all of these people and the native people in the area. It was an incredible day.

I want to mention that the last serving member of the First World War died, I think, last week or the week before, on the mainland, aged 110 years.

Mr Hall - I do not think he went overseas - through you, Madam President - because he was just in Australia and -

Mr DEAN - Okay. He was obviously connected there but not an overseas-serving person.

Mr Parkinson - He was enlisted.

Mr DEAN - Yes. The last living person here of the First World War was Frank MacDonald. Interestingly, his brother was a gentleman by the name of Mac MacDonald and he would be known to some of the members in the Gallery today and to some of the members in this Chamber. Mac MacDonald served in the Second World War, brother of Frank MacDonald. Mac served with my father-in-law in the Second World War. So I had a connection to Frank MacDonald and we would visit him on a fairly regular basis at Ulverstone; an absolute true gentleman as was his brother, Mac, in the highest degree; absolutely wonderful people.

It is important that future generations understand why we are the great country that we are and one of the reasons is because of the sacrifices, because of the service of our personnel through the First World War and through the other wars that we have been involved in. That is the reason we are the great country that we are. That is the reason we are the free country that we are. It is very important that our younger generation understand all that and that they are familiar with our history and they know why we are what we are. That is a very important and significant part of it.

I have just read a book titled Gallipoli to Malaya. I do not know who else here has read it; I cannot think of the author's name at this stage. It is a book written about a serving member from Victoria by the name of Bennett. He was a captain, I think, in Gallipoli and then when he went and served in the Second World War in Malaya, he reached a rank, I think, of major. When you read that book you become very emotional and you would be a very hardened person not to become emotional reading the book. It was only recently that I read it. I became very teary eyed and my wife would wonder what the heck was going on. I said to her, well, you read this book a little later on and you will understand why. There were Australian diggers sacrificing their lives; there is no doubt about that. If you look at the strategies that were being deployed in Gallipoli and some of the other areas, they knew what was going to happen. Many of them were fighting on; badly wounded, but still fighting on for this country; for us. That is what it really comes down to. It is quite an interesting book and it really gives you a good understanding of what they went through, what happened and the enormous sacrifices that they made.

The significance of the Frank MacDonald prize is now borne out in the large numbers of young people and the schools that have an interest in Anzac Day. I do not know whether it is just me thinking this way, but the numbers have seemed to be growing year in and year out. They are not decreasing. If you go back 15 or 20 years a lot of people were saying that Anzac Day, in the future will simply decrease in numbers and will not be the event that it was back in the 1970s and 1980s but that is wrong. It is such a significant event and it is because of things like the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize, events like that that really ensure that that spirit lives on, which is absolutely vital. I was trying to think of the words of Gallipoli and how you would sum it up in the history of Australia. It is a hugely significant event in our history and that is why we cannot let it pass by and that is why we must continue to do it in this type of way. It is very, very important.

In conclusion, I once again thank the member for bringing this matter forward for discussion. It is something that must continue on, in my view, and I give absolute and total support to it. Having said that, as a returned serviceman, as a Borneo/Malay veteran, I would certainly want to visit Gallipoli in the future and I will do that. I have a feeling I just want to do that as I want to return to the area I served in in Borneo to do the death march. I will do that, hopefully, in the next couple of years whilst I am fit and able to do it.

I commend the member for bringing this motion forward.

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