Dennis, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Michael

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:33): Today, I inform the house of the death of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Dennis MBE (Retired). South Australia lost one of its finest and most respected with the passing of Mike 'The Fox' Dennis after a long and courageous battle with cancer on 3 May 2014. It was an honour to be present at his funeral service, attended by so many family and friends at the Heysen Chapel on 9 May, and I am indebted to Mike's son, Simon, and Bill Denny, Director of Veterans SA, for the following information, which I have combined to give a fuller picture in Mike's memory.

Mike had a long and distinguished career as an infantry soldier and officer over 28 years. He enlisted as a private in the regular Army in 1967 after two years in the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (CMF) and, after initial and corps training, was posted to 9Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. He was quickly promoted to Section Commander but suffered an injury during training which prevented him deploying with the battalion to Vietnam in 1968. However, he applied, and was accepted, to attend the Officer Cadet School at Portsea in 1968.

On graduating in 1969 into the infantry, he was posted to the 1^st Battalion, Pacific Islands Regiment, where he served as a platoon commander until 1972, when he was posted to 2 Battalion, RAR, as Pioneer Platoon Commander. He was promoted to captain and, in 1973-74, he was posted as adjutant of the Monash University Regiment and the Adelaide University Regiment, as training officer serving in South-East Asia. From 1975 to 1978, he served in South Australia in Headquarters 4^th Military District and then as a company second-in-command with 3 Battalion, RAR. From Adelaide, he was sent to the Land Warfare Centre, Canungra, as an instructor on battle wing—a very much sought-after posting.

In 1982, Mike returned to Papua New Guinea as the major operations officer of the 1^st Battalion of the Pacific Islands Regiment. During this posting, he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire by the Papua New Guinea government in recognition of his outstanding service, primarily for the planning and conduct of border operations on the PNG-Indonesian border.

This was followed by a posting as officer commanding 3 Brigade Headquarters ADF. Mike undertook extensive special forces training and was a Navy diving instructor, demolition instructor, foreign weapons instructor, small craft instructor, unconventional warfare instructor, a linguist and an expert marksman.

A major change of direction occurred when in 1986, after a brief posting to Townsville, he was appointed a senior desk officer at the Defence Intelligence Organisation, Canberra. Then followed a series of intelligence/diplomatic appointments centred around PNG and the Pacific Islands. These culminated in an appointment as defence attaché, South Pacific, covering Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Following involvement in the 1987 Fiji coup and Operation Morris Dance, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and posted as a defence adviser to PNG and the Solomon Islands in 1988. This position was primarily an intelligence collection role, and he served on Bougainville in 1989 and 1990, in the early stages of the Bougainville war, in a plainclothes role. He was awarded a Chief of Army Commendation and an Australia Day Award for actions on Bougainville. Posted back to DIO in 1990 with the PNG/SWP section, he was then selected to be the defence attaché South Pacific accredited to the islands I have mentioned previously.

Mike resigned from the Army in 1995 on completion of his postings to Fiji and entered the commercial world. His subsequent appointments included general manager of Suncorp Stadium Brisbane, Clean Event Australia and vice president of Clean Event International, and during his time with this organisation he undertook the restructuring of the US-based arm of the company. He was also involved in the planning and conduct of the Sydney Olympics, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the Manchester Commonwealth Games and the Athens Olympics.

Mike's other sporting interests included being the manager of the Australian national rugby league team, the Kangaroos, and manager and coach of the PNG and Fiji national rugby league teams. The large number of South Pacific nations represented at his funeral demonstrated the high esteem in which Mike was held, and a beautiful traditional song was sung in his honour.

On his retirement to Adelaide, Mike became honorary consul to Fiji in South Australia. His leisure activities included a love of golf, serving for a time as president of the Lower Murray and Hills Veterans Golfers Association. He became heavily involved in veterans' issues, working with the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the RSL at sub-branch and state councillor level, and the RAR Association, serving for a term as president.

He was also appointed to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs National Committee on Emerging Issues in the Australian Defence Force. He was a strong advocate for a range of veterans' issues, especially those which he believed deprived veterans and their families of justice and their rights. He will be sadly missed by many, and particularly by the veterans community here in South Australia. Lest we forget.