Very Important - Professor Adrian Pagan

Sea of Orange

Early Days

For most of us “Sea of Orange” burst into our consciousness in the lead up to Anzac Day 2006 when an East Timor Veteran, Paul Dignon, dared to suggest that veterans use Anzac Day to protest their shameful treatment by successive governments. Anzac Day commemorates the original Anzacs who were sent to their deaths, in large numbers, by incompetent superiors.

It took some courage to do that.

One of the most successful awareness campaigns on Anzac Day 2006 was at Crows Nest, a shire on the northern boundary of Toowoomba. Not content to let matters die with Anzac Day, Tracey Zerk, Marilyn Masters, Sue Smith, Margo Steeley, Debbie Williamson-Gleitch and Kathleen Henry set about organising the “Awareness Forum” at Highfields on 24th July, 2006.

What an effort the girls put in. Their determination and enthusiasm knew no bounds.

Tracey had an impressive array of people attend the forum:

· Mr Keith Payne VC, OAM hosted the Forum

Tracey Lee Zerk

· Mr Geoff Patch, Mayor of Crows Nest, opened the Forum

· The Hon. Bruce Billson MP Minister For Veterans' Affairs, Minister assisting the Minister for Defence attended

Mr. Mark Sullivan President of the Repatriation Commission attended with Bruce Billson

· The Hon. Alan Griffin - Member for Bruce, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs; Shadow Special Minister of State attended

Speakers:

Where hyperlinks exist a copy of that person's speech is available by clicking on the hyperlink. Whether you save it or just read it your computer downloads the file, so you may prefer to save the file (to your desktop will do - you can delete it later if you wish).

If you were a speaker and your speech is not shown:

If you send a copy to Marilyn it will be included.