The Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP
Member for New England
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
MEDIA RELEASE
12,000 WORLD WAR 1 DIGGERS REST ANNONYMOUSLY IN UNMARKED GRAVES ACROSS AUSTRALIA: LABOR CUTS FUNDING TO FIND THEM
The burial site of thousands of unknown World War I diggers, who made it home to Australia, will remain unknown after the Labor Government was caught slashing millions of dollars from a program to locate their unmarked graves.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP, has called on the Prime Minister to personally intervene and urgently re-instate the slashed funding which Labor had promised to honour ahead of the 2022 Federal Election.
Mr Joyce said during the last two years of the previous Coalition Government, community groups had been funded to locate and place a plaque on 1,189 unmarked graves of World War I veterans. This has dropped to just 42 graves during Labor’s two years in office.
Mr Joyce said the Labor Government had promised to match the Coalition’s $3.7 million in funding for the program. However, in response to a recent question in Parliament, Labor admitted it would now spend just $800,000 over four years, less than a quarter of the pledge.
“These men didn’t break their promise to our country. So surely the government can honour their promise to them”, Mr Joyce said.
(Media Note: Labor’s election pledge of $3.7 million in funding can be accessed here: https://www.shayneneumann.com.au/archive/labor-commits-to-headstone-project-funding/ )
Mr Joyce said there was an estimated 12,000 unmarked graves in Australia of World War I veterans, many who returned home broken, maimed and destitute resulting in them being laid to rest in unmarked graves.
“They lie anonymous in graveyards across the nation”, he said.
“We say ‘Lest We Forget’. But beyond ‘Lest We Forget’ is We Didn’t Even Know”.
“And when it comes to unmarked war graves, not only have we forgotten, but we didn’t even know who was there. This needs to be rectified”, Mr Joyce said.
He said the Labor Party had made a promise before the last election to honour the former Coalition Government’s commitment to apply a plaque to their unmarked graves.
“They said they would continue a program that gives a name to a patch of grass or dirt under which lies the body of a person who served our nation.
“The Government said there would be $3.7million to find these patches of grass and patches of dirt, that currently have no notation as to the person who lies below and give them at least a portion of the respect they are due.
“In light of other circumstances where this Labor Government appears to have no problems finding millions of dollars in less than 24 hours for one person, I think we can find the remaining $2 million to help name the graves of the over 12,000 ex-servicemen who lie anonymous in graveyards across our nation”.