Thursday, 28 August 2025

Legacy Week

Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (17:25): (1297) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Veterans. The action I seek is for the minister to join me in a visit to the Fawkner RSL. Next week is the Legacy Week appeal, and I thank the minister for inviting the wonderful Legacy team into Parliament this week. Over 100 years ago Legacy made a promise to support families of veterans who had lost their lives or health in service to our country. Today Legacy continues that promise, supporting 30,000 partners and children of veterans across Australia. My husband Joe is one of the many who have benefitted from Legacy’s support. His father Max served on four ships during the Second World War, including on the HMS Shropshire, where the father of the member for East Gippsland also served. Max narrowly survived the sinking of the HMAS Canberra and lost a brother at El Alamein, and another was taken prisoner of war. Like so many veterans and our emergency services heroes, Max carried the impact of these experiences for the rest of his life. I encourage everyone to support the Legacy appeal, whether by buying a badge or one of the adorable Legacy bears representing our army, navy, air force or medical corps.

In light of this week’s tragedies, I also encourage everyone to support the families of our fallen through the Victoria Police Legacy and Blue Ribbon foundations. I take this opportunity to pay my respects to Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart. My thoughts are with their families, colleagues and the officer injured alongside them. So many brave men and women put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe, and they pay a high price in doing so.

Our RSLs and Legacies play a vital role in supporting our veterans and their families and bringing communities together. I thank Ken White and the team at Glenroy RSL for their ongoing work, including their recent commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, hosted with the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia at the north-west Melbourne sub-branch. The Victoria Remembers grant program is currently open until 15 September, and I have encouraged local RSLs to apply, including the Turkish RSL sub-branch led by dedicated president Ramazan Altintas. Fawkner RSL has already benefited from Victorian government support, receiving $37,000 for solar panels and $13,500 for kitchen and storeroom upgrades. I warmly welcome the minister to visit and meet with the dedicated president Michael Brennan, who volunteers countless hours to support our local veterans and service members.