While debate has raged over the future of Victoria Barracks, the site has served as the spectacular wedding venue for a senior army officer marrying a state MP, who has spoken out against plans to sell the historic site.<\/p>\n
Coogee state Labor MP Marjorie O\u2019Neill has broken ranks to defend Victoria Barracks from being sold off since a Defence audit in February recommended divestment. After marrying Iraq veteran Warwick Young at the site over the weekend, her fight is now more personal than ever.<\/p>\n
The MP, who has never before spoken about her relationship with Colonel Young publicly, said the pair connected on both the superficial and the serious since the moment they met at a film screening the army officer and film director was speaking at.<\/p>\n
They share a dislike of sauvignon blanc, a taste for Negronis, and a shared Catholic faith alongside \u201creally deep commitments to our families and to public service\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of us understand that our public role and our obligations to public service come first,\u201d Dr O\u2019Neill told this masthead.<\/p>\n
For Warwick, their connection is just as straightforward: \u201cWe just get on\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden you realise \u2018so this is how it\u2019s meant to be\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re on the same wavelength, we laugh at the same stuff, we think similarly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Coogee MP tearfully said she wished her father, who died on the eve of her election in 2019, could have attended her wedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have loved it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pair are one of just a handful of couples to have wedded at the barracks, which was the site which inspired Col Young to enlist after visiting from just age four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to join the army from being there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The newlyweds have strong family histories of military service stretching back generations, including Col Young\u2019s great grandfather serving at Gallipoli.<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Neill said \u201cADF service has always been something that has sat very close to our family\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father has always made sure that you remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The MP has been a staunch supporter of the barracks, while her now-husband as an ADF member is unable to comment on the divestment \u2013 but can speak in general terms about the site.<\/p>\n
Col Young lived at the base while commanding Covid-19 operations, which he said included management of hotel quarantine, the vaccination of remote Indigenous communities, contact tracing, and state and national border checkpoints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s Headquarters Forces Command, which commands a third of the Australian Army,\u201d he said of the base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is the Battle Lab, there is the Second Health Brigade, there is the Military Legal Training Centre, which trains all the lawyers in the ADF. There\u2019s the Australian Army Band Sydney, there\u2019s the Australian Army Museum, so there\u2019s lots of wonderful things in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Neill said those who are in charge of the base \u201chave not actually been able to have a proper public discussion around the real operational usage of this site\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack Hawks have landed here this morning, this is an operational base,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a strategic advantage to having a big green open space owned and controlled by the ADF within a stone\u2019s throw of the Sydney CBD. Getting rid of that moving that capability to Randwick and Holsworthy (Barracks) weakens our defensive capability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are talking about critical incidents, every single minute matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Neill said the assessment to sell the barracks was done by Defence service delivery team Security and Estate Group, who are administrators and \u201cdon\u2019t understand operational work\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSEG doesn\u2019t even clean the toilets, they organise who cleans the toilets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While the MP said many Defence assets made sense to be divested from, Victoria Barracks were too important to counter-terrorism responses to be sold off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interim report to the Royal Commission into anti-Semitism very explicitly said we actually need to be bolstering our counter-terrorism responses not weakening them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are all these arguments (that) it should be opened up, absolutely I think that it should be opened up. I completely agree with that. But it can be done in a way where it\u2019s opened up to our communities and it can maintain being a defence asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Defence spokesperson said the \u201cindependent Defence Estate Audit found that many Defence sites\u2019 history and heritage was not accessible to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government has been clear about its commitment to preserve and enhance public access to historically significant sites and collections, including at Victoria Barracks Sydney,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While debate has raged over the future of Victoria Barracks, the site has served as the spectacular 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