3rd Cavalry Regiment (Vietnam) Association
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:44): I raise the concerns today of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment (Vietnam) Association Inc. and particularly Michael Thompson, who has worked tirelessly to add a new cenotaph to the armoured Australian Light Horse memorial at Tongala. For the second year running Tongala has been unsuccessful in their funding application to add a new cenotaph to the memorial there. Last year their application was unsuccessful because VicTrack had not signed the lease for the land on which some of the memorial is situated. They then submitted the same application again this year with the additional information that VicTrack had signed the lease, but they were unsuccessful again, this time because the grants program team at the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing said they should have applied under the Victoria Remembers grant program rather than the Restoring Community War Memorials and Avenues of Honour grant program.
What concerns Michael and that group is that nothing was said last year about the fact that they should have applied for a different grant program. If they had been told that, they would have changed the application to that new grant program. Another year has been lost, and the cost of those works are increasing at a fast rate. I urge the Minister for Veterans to ensure that clear advice is actually given to unsuccessful grant applicants so that they can increase their chances of success next year.