CANBERRA - 24 August 21

Speaker, I rise to pay respects to Australian Army Warrant Officer Class one, Barry “Buck” Buckley OAM.

My mates speak of him highly as a great man, as a photographer, a soldier, as a father and a husband.

He started his career at Kapooka in 1962 and initially served in the infantry and the engineer corps.

He was a Vietnam veteran. He served in Cambodia. He was also a Somalia veteran.

And in the final years of his career, he spent some time up in the north with us in Kangaroo 95, but also over in Queensland and Shoalwater Bay and across with NORFORCE in the Kimberley.

He really got around. In fact, he saw the world serving our nation.

Gary Ramage is a photographer himself and a veteran of 30 years.

He's well known in this place and respected here in the gallery, taking photos of all of us pollies.

But he's done so much in his career, Gary, and he served with Buck in Somalia.

Gary said of Buck that “he knew a box of black and white 8x10 photographic paper would hold exactly four cans of VB”.

And when the team deployed that mobile darkroom over to Somalia, it was full of beer.

Sadly, it had to be disposed of on arrival in country.

Of all the jobs he had, Buck loved his Australian Army public relation corps the most, and he loved the photographers under his reign.

He always had their backs when they stuffed up, and would ensure that they learned from their mistakes – and I'm told there were many such mistakes.

He fought hard to have his corps recognised. He changed the badge and the lanyard.

But above all, he gave his soldiers self-worth.

And as the smallest corps in the Australian regular army, he built in that corps an incredible esprit de corps, which is a great credit to him and remembered by all those who worked with him.

Another mate of mine that served with Buck noted that Buck was quite fond of conservative politics.

And when, in 1996, he met the then defence personnel minister and previous speaker Bronwyn Bishop, he welcomed her by saying, “welcome back to government, ma’am”.

But there is honour about politics, of course, and he respected the opinions of others.

To many, he was a mate and a teacher, and he will be sadly missed.

Our condolences to Robyn, to Barry's family and his mates.

Rest in peace, Buck.

Vale, Warrant Officer Class One, Barry “Buck” Buckley.

In the in the time remaining, I just wanted to acknowledge the work of the veterans in Darwin.

Last night, they conducted a candlelight vigil for Afghanistan.

There’s an organization called the Council for Australian Veterans, or CAV, a new organization that is seeking to bring together all the ESOs, and it's a ground-up organization.

I thought it showed great leadership for the CAV to invite members of the community and veterans and their families, doesn't matter where they served, to come to our cenotaph in Darwin and hold a candlelight vigil for the people of Afghanistan to remember, to reflect, and to connect with and support each other.

They walked together to the cenotaph.

They were veterans and civilians from all walks of life.

And it's a great credit to Adam Giuliani, the president, and all the members, that they could extend that to our community in the Top End.

Thank you.

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ENDS