CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF THE EXTENSIONS AT THE
HEIDELBERG REPATRIATION GENERAL HOSPITAL
MELBOURNE 24 APRIL 1989
On the eve of Anzac Day 1989, Australians once again recall,
with sorrow and with pride, the sacrifices made by our
servicemen and women in defence of liberty and peace around
the world.
At Gallipoli and in France, at El Alamein and Tobruk, in
Greece and Crete, at Kokoda, in the Coral Sea, and at Long
Tan, and at hundreds of other battle fields throughout the
globe, Australian forces have distinguished themselves by
their valour and their tenacity.
War Graves around the world show the immensity of the
sacrifice Australians have made. Only this year, I had the
honour of laying a wreath at the Commonwealth War Cemetery
near the River Kwai in Thailand which honours the Allied
prisoners who gave their lives on the Burma Railroad. Later
this year it will be my privilege, in France, to visit
viillers Bretonneux, where men from the First AIF fought and
died in the great battles of 1918.
In ceremonies around the nation tomorrow, Australians will
pause to remember those who fought, and those who did not
return home from the fighting.
But Anzac Day is not just an occasion on which we should
look backwards to the exploits of war. It is also an
occasion for us to look to the present and to reaffirm our
determination, as a community, to repay the debt we owe our
veterans. Today with the opening of this new ward here at Heidelberg,
we are demonstrating anew our determination to repay that
debt as fully as we can.
-Throughout Australia, Repatriation Hospitals are being
upgraded with new buildings and new medical equipment, in
order that veterans continue to receive the very best of
health care, provided by dedicated staff, and backed up by
access to the best medical technology available.
Here at Heidelberg there have been dramatic changes, with
the expenditure of some $ 42 million over the last six years
on new and refurbished buildings and new equipment.
I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the medical,
nursing and administrative staff at Heidelberg for their
dedication and skill in supporting our veterans.
I am also pleased to announce that the Government has
allocated another $ 1 million for new radiology and
cardiology equipment at Heidelberg and its counterpart
hospitals at Concord in Sydney, Greenslopes in Brisbane, and
Daw Park in Adela-ide and new orthopaedic and urological
equipment at Hollywood in Perth.
Veterans deserve the best in health care.
Here at Heidelberg, and around the nation, they are
receiving the best in health care.
I want to make clear my Government's complete determination
to ensure that, as the health care needs of veterans change
over the years, they continue to get the best.
That is why we are moving to integrate Repatriation
hospitals into the State system.
Integration will ensure that veterans continue to have
access to the best medical staff and equipment, and it will
provide veterans with a greater choice, often including
placement in hospitals closer to their homes.
The Veterans' Affairs Minister, Ben Humphreys, and I, have
guaranteed on a number of occasions:
no repatriation general hospital will be transferred to
a State until a satisfactory agreement has been reached
on matters such as priority of access and quality of
health care for veterans and war widows, and unless the
interests of hospital staff have been adequately
safeguarded; and
no final decision will be taken if the RSL has
reasonable cause for dissatisfaction with the proposed
arrangements.
There is nothing equivocal about these guarantees and there
is no secret agenda.
This is not a step towards abolishing the Department of
Veterans' Affairs or eliminating the special and separate
status that veterans have in our community.
Indeed I want to tell you today that the Government is
absolutely committed to maintaining a separate Department of
Veterans' Affairs answerable to its own Minister.
Under this Government, the Department will continue to
exercise the Commonwealth's responsibility for veterans'
health care and it will continue to respond to the
particular needs of veterans, of war widows and of their
dependants, to ensure that those people receive, the
compensation to which they are entitled and which they
deserve.
Anybody who questions this Government's commitment to
meeting, through the Department, the needs of veterans, or
who casts doubt on that commitment, is only seeking to
mislead. The philosophy and objectives expressed in the Department of
Veterans' Affairs corporate plan are based on ensuring that
the delivery of services to veterans meets the needs of
those veterans.
The Department is committed to:
helping veterans to cope with their disabilities and to
improve their health and well being;
delivering in the best possible way benefits, health
care and other services that meet the changing needs of
beneficiaries; and
Sdeveloping and promoting policies within Government that
meet the needs of all veterans, war widows and their
families.
I have given you my promise that the Department of Veterans'
Affairs will retain its current role and status and that
promise will be kept.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While we contemplate the changing health needs of the ageing
veterans of the two World Wars, let us not forget the lesser
number of equally important veterans the 50,000 who served
ty Vietnam.
As a group, these veterans have endured special difficulties
since their return to Australia.
We have tried to meet these needs through means such as the
Vietnam Veterans' Counselling Service.
I have always made it clear that whatever one's views about
the controversy that surrounded the Vietnam War, no one can
ever doubt the commitment and the courage of the Australian
soldiers who were called upon to fight it.
I was very pleased to attend the Welcome Home Parade in
Sydney in October 1987, which, at last, gave fitting honours
to the men who fought there.
The Government has also agreed to the construction of a
memorial to the Vietnam Veterans to be built in Anzac Parade
in Canberra. We have allocated a site and we will be
providing a sum of $ 200,000 towards the cost of building the
memorial. I trust this will work as an incentive to others
in the community to support this valuable memorial.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Next year, we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of
the event that in many ways still defines the Australian
identity and consciousness the landing by the ANZACs at
Gallipoli. This will be an anniversary that Australians will want to
mark with dignity and special awareness of its significance..
It is not too early to begin now our planning of how we
should honour that occasion.
Recently the Defence Minister, Kim Beazley was asked by a
group of World War One veterans to assist them to make a
pilgrimage to Gallipoli for the 75th anniversary.
Mr Beazley passed on the request to me and we have agreed
that there could be no more fitting way for the nation to
honour the achievements of these veterans, and of recalling
the sacrifices of their comrades-in-arms, than to send a
party of veterans back to Anzac Cove on Anzac Day, 75 years
after the first landing.
So I am pleased to say today that the Government has decided
that we should make one of the RAAF's 707s available for
this purpose, together with all the necessary support.
In addition, I feel that it would be appropriate for me as
Prime Minister to attend this ceremony and might I add, I
would find it deeply moving in a personal sense to be there.
Accordingly, I am considering the possibility of doing so as
part of an official overseas visit next year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
OW. The Australian veterans community deserves our deepest
support.
The Government, on behalf of the community, is doing what it
believes is necessary to safeguard and advance the
well-being of our veterans.
Our concern must embrace, as it does, the oldest World War
one veteran and the youngest man serving today with the
United Nations peacekeeping force in Namibia a contingent
which will, for the first time, -receive full repatriation
coverage in view of the hazardous nature of their service.
The Department of Veterans' Affairs will continue to meet
the diverse and changing needs of those veterans in a way
which respects the debt we owe to them.
It is in this context with a message of our continuing
commitment to the veterans that I now have the pleasure of
declaring this ward block open.