QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr KEOGH (Burt—Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel) (14:47): I thank the member for his question. Sean's death, like those of the other 46 on the Roll of Honour at the War Memorial whose lives were lost, was due to his service in Afghanistan. All 103 names on the Roll of Honour are tragic deaths, and we mourn them all.

In organising the commemorations that were held on Sunday to mark the 25th anniversary of Australia's engagement in the war in Afghanistan, communication was done through the War Memorial to reach out to all next of kin and to invite them to participate in those commemorations. As part of that, what transpired was that some of those contact details were clearly out of date.

There were two attempts at trying to contact Mr and Mrs McCarthy because of that. They didn't receive that communication. I learnt of that on the weekend and was very upset to find out that there were parents, family members, that did not receive that invitation, because we wanted to make sure as many family members who lost loved ones through that tragedy, through that conflict, could be there.

I have spoken to David and Mary to pass on my apologies that there was clearly a deficiency in contact details and that they weren't reached out to. I've made sure we now have their contact details. I've also asked that an audit be performed by the War Memorial to make sure that it has up to date next-of-kin details where it can acquire those, and to make sure we do that so that we don't have anything like this happen again with future commemorative services because it's not acceptable.

Everyone wants to make sure that we give all families the opportunity to participate in commemorations such as this.