Misuse of Insecticides at Nui Dat Reports

These reports are alarming and worthy of wider dissemination.
To view the reports, simply click on the link and the report will open in a new window.

Insecticide Deceit by John Mordike

About the author; John Mordike is a Vietnam Veteran, having served in Vietnam as the Officer Commanding, 12 Field Regiment Light Aid Detachment from 24 February 1971 to 02 November 1971. He graduated from the Royal Military College in 1966. As a professional historian, he has a BA and LittB from the University of New England and a PhD from the University of New South Wales. He is also the author of 'An Army for a Nation : A history of Australian military developments 1880-1914' and '"We should do this thing quietly" : Japan and the great deception in Australian defence policy 1911-1914'.

Vietnam Veterans' Leukaemia Study

This Report covers University research that analysed the medical records of 2,783 of the 3,400 New Zealand military personnel who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971. The findings are alarming for Australian Vietnam Veterans also.

It is important that these reports are brought to the notice of the Committee people in your local Vietnam Veteran's Association; your local RSL and other local ESO's so that they can organise a concerted campaign to all your local Federal Members, with the insistence that these reports are tabled and acknowledged by the Federal Government in Parliament. This is your chance to make a noise. This is your chance to have the previous wrongs to Vietnam Veterans rectified and corrected.

The Reports on the use of herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals by the Australian Army in South Vietnam and on the use of herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals by the Royal Australian Air Force in South Vietnam were tabled in Parliament on Thursday, 09 December 1982.

We have also provided you with links to Hansard - Thursday, 9 December 1982, Pages: 3273 and Page 3278, which cover the Minister's Report Tabling Speech and the Opposition's Reply Speech

Minister for Defence - Mr Ian Sinclair's "Report Tabling Speech"

And that of his Opposition counterpart,

Mr Clyde Holding's Reply Speech

During his reply speech, Mr Holding made the following comment:
'This report is a summary. I suppose that, given the great volume of files available, someone had to produce a summary. I think it is important to note that in reaching a set of conclusions one is very much in the hands of the person who prepares that summary. Neither the Government nor the Department of Veterans' Affairs has denied that the revision has been carried out by Mr Bruce Manning of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, as alleged by the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia last month. What is important about this is that those people who basically are the object of this study-the Vietnam veterans-have, in my view, to be satisfied that in the preparation of this material they have been treated objectively. It is perfectly clear that the Association does not believe that Mr Manning was the appropriate person to prepare this summary. In a Press release of 25 November 1982 the Association, having alleged that it was his responsibility to produce this summary, said of Mr Manning:

"Mr Manning and his boss Mr E. D. Letts have consistently attempted to disprove our claims and downgrade our evidence, under Parliamentary privilege before the Senate Committee. They have openly demonstrated their hostility to our claims".'

It is important that these reports are brought to the notice of people like your local Federal member with the insistence that these reports are tabled and acknowledged by the Federal Government in Parliament. This is your chance to make a noise.