Mr ROBERT (Fadden) (14:07): I join the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Defence in acknowledging the courage and daring of Corporal Daniel Keighran VC. I was first informed of Corporal Keighran's VC two weeks ago whilst standing beside Minister Snowdon in the desert of North Africa. That both the government minister and opposition shadow minister for defence personnel were informed together speaks volumes of how this award of national significance is regarded. That we were both standing on the battlefield of El Alamein in North Africa at the time, where the 9th Division had played such a pivotal role and where two Australians, Sergeant William Kibby and Percy Gratwick, were both awarded VCs, was especially poignant. Corporal Keighran, like those VCs from El Alamein and elsewhere, was not born a hero. They were ordinary Australian soldiers who, faced with the most daunting of circumstances, rose to extraordinary heights. They epitomise the finest traits of our national character: of mateship, endurance, sacrifice and courage—traits that our soldiers, sailors and air men and women display today wherever they serve, at home or overseas. In chatting with the section mates of Corporal Keighran and his commanding officer during 6RAR's tour in Afghanistan, they speak in soft tones of the Battle of Derapet, not only for the loss of Corporal MacKinney but also in heaping universal praise upon Corporal Keighran's actions on that day. He is the first infantryman from a line battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, in this case the 6th Battalion, to be awarded the coveted Victoria Cross whilst fighting with the battalion in combat operations. He displayed the Royal Australian Regiment motto aptly: 'Duty first.'