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At the going down of the sun we will forget them

By Tess Lawrence - posted Monday, 7 May 2012


From somewhere in another sepia time zone bleeding into this 97th Anzac Day, a lone magpie warbles in the dark, nature's own melancholic bugler of the Last Post, calling out to the huddled throng gathering to form a human wreath around Daylesford's Cenotaph.

A relunctant dawn has yet to awaken the weary batallions of ghosts of wars past and present, whose spirits we invoke to salve our conscience and decorate our history.

A chiffon veil of misty rain, like the gentle tears of angels, anoints us. We are of all ages and disposition; some even direct descendants of the names etched onto the monument and cut deep into the hearts that surround it.

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In some homes, lights are on. The sick, elderly and frail will stay home and murmur their own prayers or curses; older Diggers among them. Some unable to march; some refuse to march. There will be neglected widows cast onto the pyres of bureaucratic indifference along with the orphans of war.

Candles will already have been lit and faded photographs of young men frozen in time by the camera lens before they were frozen in death by a bullet, will ritually be brought down from the mantlepiece in Nan's loungeroom and dead lips lovingly fingered and kissed.

All around Australia, in regional villages not disimilar to Daylesford, millions of us emerge to remember and mourn our dead, forming human Avenues of Honour at dawn services and parades.

But some of us also came to mourn the living, our 57,000 Veterans or so, who for decades, have shamefully been left for dead by the Gillard and previous Australian governments.

We weep for the dead. But the dead would surely weep for their brothers and sisters in arms, who survived these wars only to be treated as third class citizens in their own country.

Some are in the seventh age of man. They have been subjected to systematic elder abuse by this nation. Not only have they been robbed of their youth, but they have been robbed of comfort and peace of mind in their middle age and dotage.

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Their loyalty and service was rewarded with a comparative humiliating pittance of a pension and an inadequate superannuation scheme and death benefit that leaves many of them and their widows living and dying under the breadline and under the radar of the general public.

But hey, it's Anzac Day, when our Government props up a myth of how we really treat our Diggers. It seems we honour the dead and despise the living. Forget about the ungrateful dead. And forget about the ungrateful living. It's enough to have the honour of wearing the uniform, right ?

Embedded in the hypocrisy, political expediency and Government manipulation of this sacred day is the foul stench of treachery of the very people we purport to celebrate.

Julia Gillard's Gallipoli speech made no mention of the Second World War, Korea, Vietnam, Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan et al. Too embarassing; couldn't let the descendants of Colonel Mustafa Ataturk

who clearly thought better of our Diggers than Gillard does, know how wretchedly Australia treats Veterans and serving personnel.

Our politicians can afford to mouth empty words and disgorge empty platitudes upon our dead, in this country and on foreign shores.

The dead do not vote. Gillard and our other fat-walleted politicians deify the dead with impunity.

They stand erect and proud alongside battlegrounds, graves and coffins draped with the Australian flag, exhorting heroic deeds and payment of the 'ultimate' sacrifice, basking in the going down of the sun, like the political vultures they are, feeding off the well-picked carcass of our military history.

They shamelessly dress the corpses of those killed in action in Afghanistan in hypocrisy and hyperpole, anointing them with perfumes of patriotism, assuring family members and the Australian public, loved ones did not die in vain in this vanity war. More lies.

Our Prime Minister and politicians have the audacity to treat these funeral services as little more than a poll bolstering photo opportunity; laboring under the delusion that some of the grandeur and solemn pathos of the moment might rub off on them.

Many of our Veterans are tired of such grotesque political exhibitionism and their hostility is palpable.

They have grown older as we who are left grow older. It is up to those of us who can to fight on their behalf - with them and for them.

In the ghostly light, Daylesford students deliver an incisive homage to our war dead that far eclipses the contrived spin of politicians. Schoolgirls sing Advance Australia Fair and the lone magpie would not fault their sweet voices warming the cold air, nor wish to.

Later in the service, they sing 'God Save the Queen'

Few dare sing other verses of this imperialist battlecry since it puts the boot into the Scots, the French, the Presbyterians and of course, those Catholics; the British Throne's disdain for the latter even enshrined in its Constitution's holy conjugal, marital and progeny orders.

None of the above precluded our Prime Ministers from despatching Australians to war, or Catholic Diggers from dying for the British Monarch: nor any of the other millions of loyal subjects in the Commonwealth diaspora from laying down their lives or sustaining wounds.

It is outrageous colonial and political servility that even today, Australian Defence Forces swear an oath/affirmation to The Queen, and to her heirs and descendants - and not to Australia and its people.

Australia doesn't even get a mention - apart from the swearer identifying if he/she is from the Australian Navy, Army, or Air Force.

President of the Dayleford RSL, Keith Pyers speaks to us with the ease of a brotherly neighbour. The rain has blotted his notes, but not his heart.

He speaks frankly of war's horror, and the sacrifice paid in more than blood and reminds us of the women, the 'true sisters' who also fell.

Bugler Jack Walker's poignant Last Post inevitably is accompanied by our sniffles and tears.

But if we cannot weep together at such times, when can we ? And if we can't be angry at the waste of humanity, at such times, then our subservience to conflict over resolution will prohibit us further complaint.

For more than 30 years Jack has been the Bugle Boy for Company 'D' and paid homage to those in uniform who never returned to this dear village.

Some went and never came back. His own Aunt lost two sons within seven months, he later tells us.

Some went and returned but never really came back to us because they were forever damned and damaged, lacerated in body and mind; the walking wounded.

Couldn't speak about it. Wouldn't speak about it. Told they shouldn't speak about it and to get on with their lives even though they were dying inside. Sometimes through anger. Sometimes through pain. More often through both.

After the service, Keith invites everyone across the road to the Daylesford RSL for the traditional Gunfire Breakfast.

Inside the RSL it is warm and cosy and the aroma of lashings of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, tea and coffee in styrene cups, lifts the mood and conversation as we look around to see if all the darling regulars are there. Not all are. I hear someone say, it's to be expected. They can't go on forever. Their legs give in. And the cold's too much for them. And it's too emotional as they get older.

I sit down at a table with local real estate agent John Evans and Jack and Keith.

Before too long we're talking about the torrid circumstances in which some returned servicemen and women live; their dismal superannuation payouts and miserly death benefits, and of how they were brutally betrayed by the Government, Greens and Independents last June when the promised passing of the Fair Indexation Bill was voted down.

For decades there has been this misconception that our defence personnel enjoy brilliant pensions and superannuation schemes, second only to politicians.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They have been ripped off. By experts. The Australian government.

It was political treachery writ large in the handwriting of deceptive Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her lying frontline troops.

Senator Kate Lundy, even unto the 11th hour deceived the Diggers into believing she would be voting for the Bill. She did not. The Bill was defeated by one vote. Hers.

I wrote about this betrayal in Independent Australia shortly afterwards. The article has now prompted more than 2000 comments from Diggers and supporters, from rank and file alike.

The truth is, our returned service personnel have been despicably treated by successive governments, which is why the Opposition hasn't slapped this issue on the Parliamentary table.

The Vietnam War is not over for our Veterans. Now they are at war with their government. Some have died in the past year, fighting this injustice. Mates joke that the Government is behaving like James Hardie Industries in avoiding its responsibilities and duty of care and hoping that the Diggers will die out before Justice does.

All this against the backdrop of outrageous increases in parliamentary pensions, continual political scandals involving the abuse of public funds and rorting of the system, the scandals and continuing mismanagement within the Defence Force, the $4 billion slashing of the Defence budget and the opulent funds available for everyone else it seems, except the Diggers. Just the other week Australia gave $7billion to the Euro International Monetary Fund.

The 100th anniversary of ANZAC will be celebrated between 2014-18.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.

Diggers have been treated as if they are whingeing malingerers, feigning PTSD and psychological disorders, including the physical and mental after effects of Agent Orange and other deadly chemical weapons, undeserving of a fistful of dollars extra in their pension; constantly having to prove that injuries to body, mind and soul are legit.

The Gillard government would have them turning up their slouch hats and begging on street corners to buy a loaf of bread.

I know from discussions and meetings that these human beings are hurting . If you take time to read some of the comments, you will read their poignant stories in their words, not mine.

They also efficiently demolish the febrile arguments of the government's contrived accounting. This is not just about the money.

The Fair Go campaign by the Diggers (and this term embraces matelots, navy and air force) took Canberra by surprise.

It has sustained energetic momentum, bombarding politicians and ministers with emails and letters and exposed their ridiculous and lazy pro forma responses.

Diggers have now galvanised themselves into a formidable electoral bloc. Given family members, friends and supporters they could muster enough political firepower to cause havoc in marginal seats.

They have forensically analysed all seats and electorates - and know how many Veteran pension recipients are in each and what percentage of votes it will take to dislodge incumbents from their soiled trenches.

These military trained citizen activists are the real deal. They have an impressive discipline and a loyal fraternity that their adversaries lack.

Initially, mainstream media and online media for that matter, seemed to have a blackout on the plight of the Diggers, but their persistence earned them a major breakthrough when Josie Taylor, presenter of ABC 7.30 Victoria covered the story, interviewing Diggers and family members.

There were cheers all round when Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who had arrogantly refused to meet with the Diggers was cornered whilst on a visit to Victoria.

Veterans and their families have proved their case. The Federal Budget should acknowledge this.

What more do they have to do Julia? Give blood? Some have already done that.

Give them a Fair Go.

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A longer version of this article was first published on Independent Australia.



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About the Author

Tess Lawrence is a journalist advocate and specialist in ethical media services and crisis management and contributing editor at large for Independent Australia.

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