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Good morning, everybody.

Thank you, Aunty Shelley Vea Vea, for your wonderful and generous welcome to your country.

I acknowledge the Darumbal People as the traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on.

I acknowledge their elders, past and present.  

I would also like to acknowledge and welcome all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with us today. 

The Honourable Richard Marles, Acting Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Defence

Michael McCormack, Member for Riverina, representing the Leader of the Opposition – Michael, you have so proudly celebrated the award of this Victoria Cross for Australia to Private Richard Norden, who was born at Gundagai, in your electorate of Riverina. You were present with me at the announcement of the award on 11 November last year on Remembrance Day, and it is wonderful that you are here today as we close the circle with this investiture ceremony.  

The Hon Matt Canavan, Senator for Queensland and Michelle Landry, Member for Capricornia

Admiral David Johnston RAN, Chief of Defence Force, senior leaders and members of the Australian Defence Force  

Mayor Tony Williams and Councillors  

Mrs Robyn Freeman and Mr Lance Freeman, Shane and Scott Norden Freeman, and Ben Freeman. It is extraordinary to have you here. Your presence represents the importance of this to Australia. I am so pleased that last night we were able to the awards of the National Medal and the Police Service Medal.

Mr Keith Payne VC, the only living Victoria Cross for Australia recipient for Vietnam.

The very dear family and friends of Private Richard Norden, many of you have travelled great distances to be here today. Your presence represents the importance of this occasion, and the depth of our esteem for Richard Norden, and all that he achieved in life.

As a proud Australian, the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, and your Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General, it has been an honour to preside over this ceremony to invest the late Private Richard Norden with the Victoria Cross for Australia.

Here with you, even so distant in time and place from the actions for which Private Norden VC is remembered, I recognise the strength of our enduring connection to a man who, with his remarkable courage, continues to inspire us, and deserves our honour and respect.

I announced this rare award on 11 November 2024, at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, just moments after the conclusion of our National Remembrance Day ceremony.

During that solemn service, it was important to reflect on commemoration as a ritual of remembrance that has seen generations of Australians give thanks for the service and sacrifice of servicemen and women who have suffered or died for Australia in conflicts far from home.

I felt that again at dawn on Anzac Day at Gallipoli, and in the moment of reflection while reading the headstones of the young men buried there for more than a century but who are forever cherished at home …  

In the history of the Victoria Cross for Australia, and the reverence with which it is given and received, we find the same opportunity for commemoration and gratitude.

The 24 years of Richard Norden’s life were largely spent in a corner of New South Wales bounded by the Snowy Mountains to the south and the Murrumbidgee River to the north.

From his birth in Gundagai in 1948, to his untimely death, so young and so tragically, in the service of the ACT Police at that time in Canberra in 1972, the ties of friendship and family anchored him to that small part of the world, far from here – especially his parents Walter and Rita, brothers Rodger and Robert and sister Robyn, his wife, Robynn and sons Shane and Scott, and now the broader family.

Shane and Scott, it is so important that you are both here today with your families, to celebrate your father. I hope that today’s events, the many stories you will hear and the respect you will feel we all have for your father renews the strength of your own connection to him and this history which you carry as his sons. I know how important that is to both of you.

I also want to acknowledge Lance, last night one of Richard’s former colleagues presented you with the ‘Unsung Hero’ award, which is terribly important to remember that you are part of this family, and this is about the entire family as we commemorate Richard Norden VC.

Beyond his training, at Kapooka and Ingleburn, the months that Private Norden VC spent in Vietnam took him beyond all he had ever known.

Like so many of the young men who travelled from their own corners of our vast country to serve in that bitter conflict in a far-off part of the world, he made a soldier’s simple promise to defend what he knew and loved, his family, his mates, his home, his country.  

And, as we have heard, on 14 May 1968 -- in a moment of fire and fury, danger and confusion – Private Norden answered that call with a strength, determination, selflessness and valour that we, in this place of peace, find simply impossible to comprehend, and which we are compelled to remember and commemorate.

His heroic actions are central to this award – our nation’s highest for gallantry. The investing of this VC will always be remembered not just by those of us here, Richard’s loved ones and mates but by generations to come.

Many of you here today – family and old mates – give us reason to pay tribute and remember.  

As Lance and Robynn said to me recently ‘we need our heroes’.

The resolve of so many of you to honour the memory of Private Norden has given new generations of Australians the chance to know and understand the gallantry, unflinching courage and devotion to duty that has etched his name permanently in our nation’s story.

In the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial, sit the names of the 102 Australians who have received the Victoria Cross, including five from the Vietnam War, our highest award for acts of bravery in wartime.

Some have sent messages of remembrance for today’s ceremony, and Corporal Mark Donaldson VC, expressing the pride of all living VCs, has written,  

‘Private Norden's dedication to his mates and mission shone above all else. To have courage is one thing, to have it in the face of such overwhelming odds and enemy shows how much he had.’

We know, in the path that Private Norden chose following his discharge from the Australian Army, when he joined the Australian Capital Territory Police Force in February 1970, that a life of service was intrinsic to Richard Norden’s character.

In the few years that remained to him, he acted out the values of courage, compassion, kindness, respect and care that drove him in battle in Vietnam, and for which we honour him today.

And yesterday’s very moving presentation of the National Medal and AFP Service Medal ensures that his service post Vietnam has also been officially recognised.

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The music of 1RAR and the presence of the Regiment’s Colour Party are so welcome this morning.

They are a reminder to us of the Australian Defence Force’s ceremonial traditions and standards of service that have endured through so many decades.

These same traditions and standards shaped the service of Private Richard Norden VC, and continue to inspire the work of service and sacrifice that is part of our modern Australian Defence Force and the women and men who serve today.  

In paying tribute to Private Norden VC today, we also pay tribute to Australia’s current service men and women, veterans and those who have served across the generations, and their families, who travel the path of service alongside them.  

For today, in presenting this insignia to Robynn and the family, and inscribing Private Richard Norden VC’s name on the list of all who have earned the Victoria Cross for Australia, we commit ourselves again to strive to uphold the freedoms for which he fought.

We will not forget.

We will remember.