Senator LIGHTFOOT (3:12 PM) —I rise to take note of the question initiated by Senator Bishop and to which he has just spoken. I do not have the answers to the questions Senator Bishop has posed, but I do know that the Prime Minister and the staff of other senior ministers are examining the report to which Senator Bishop has alluded. Some answers have been released with respect to that. I am pleased to say that, on some definitive study of that report, while there are some negatives—and we know that already—the findings are, on balance, positive. I give an example: the mortality and cancer rate for the Gulf War veterans is below that of the general community. In addition, no unique patterns of symptoms that could represent a so-called Gulf War syndrome could be identified in the study so far undertaken of the report. On the other hand, some of the negatives with respect to that are that the report does conclude that Gulf War veterans have a higher incidence of psychiatric disease than a comparison group of military personnel who did not attend the war in the Gulf.

The people who deserve some congratulations with respect to these studies are a team at Monash University led by Professor Malcolm Sim, who determined that result. As well as that university and professor, the Australian Gulf War veteran community also participated in that study. I think, given the importance of the report, the government should continue to give it further careful consideration. My advice is that when this consideration is complete the study will be released. I do not think that I need to remind colleagues in the chamber today that the government—and I think this goes for the other side too—care for our Gulf War veterans and for all veterans. For example, Gulf War veterans—and this goes for all veterans, but the Gulf War veterans are the subject of this motion to take note—are eligible for full benefits from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and in respect of health care and disability and service pensions as well.

I finish by drawing a parallel with the Vietnam veterans who came home in the mid-seventies and who fought in a terrible war. It was a terrible war, a different war, a sustained war, and many of our young people—501 young men—did not come home in the same condition that they left. The disgraceful treatment of those veterans in the mid-seventies was quite appalling. I know: I have a lot to do with the RSL. I am a member of the RSL myself. I trust and I pray that that never ever happens again in our history. When our young men and women come home from the skirmishes that we are currently undertaking—like the war that has commenced in Iraq—and when they come home in the future from other duties that they have been sent to on behalf of the people of Australia, I hope that we treat them differently from those who came home from Vietnam and are still suffering. In my personal view, there is nothing that could be described as `too much' or something that is overadequate with respect to our veterans, and that of course goes to our Vietnam veterans who are middle aged and older today. I trust that, when our veterans come home from this war in the Middle East, they will be given a hero's welcome—as rightly they should—unlike those Vietnam veterans of the mid-seventies were.