Queensland Ballet's Dance for Veterans Launch

Representing the Premier, Minister for Education and the Arts, the Honourable John-Paul Langbroek MP; Chief Investigator, QUT Health Dr Lieutenant Colonel Richard Maher; Chief Executive Officer, Returned and Services League of Australia, Queensland Branch, Mr Robert Skoda, and RSL Queensland Deputy CEO of Veteran Services, Mr Troy Watson; Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic Programs and Partnerships, Queensland University of Technology, Professor Gene Moyle; Executive Director, Queensland Ballet, Ms Dilshani Weerasinghe; Artistic Director, Queensland Ballet, Mr Ivan Gil-Ortega; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here this morning.

Graeme and I are particularly pleased to join you this morning for the official launch of Dance for Veterans.

 This unique program has emerged from collaboration between two of the great Queensland organisations of which we are proud to be the patrons – the Queensland branch of the Returned and Services League of Australia, and our hosts this morning, Queensland Ballet.

And at the outset, I want to congratulate and thank them both on behalf of all Queenslanders, particularly our veteran community.

I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Maher on the research which led to the award of his doctorate through QUT last year.

I suspect he is one of a very small number of people, world-wide, who could have brought together a career as a senior military officer and experience as an amateur dancer, but he has done so in an innovative, insightful way to explore the potential for dance-based programs to help veterans suffering from psychological injury.

As Australians, we have only recently begun to appreciate the magnitude of the mental health problem among our veterans.

This is not an issue affecting just a few personnel; over the past quarter-century, more than 100,000 men and women have served in conflicts from Bougainville to Afghanistan, and, as the former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Binskin said, 10 years ago, “Everyone who goes to war is changed by the experience”.

When Rick embarked on his research, he had very few similar programs around the world to draw on for comparison, and an equally small number of studies of their effectiveness. Consequently, I know he will have faced scepticism about just how effective a dance-based intervention could be in improving the psychological, physical and social health of veterans.

Fortunately, he could draw on some convincing evidence from military history and tradition – the thousands of years during which soldiers have trained and marched together, experiencing camaraderie and unity of purpose. Dance can produce the same feelings, and requires the same discipline, precision, and ability to work together towards a common goal, and it was this persuasive connection that saw the board and management of both RSL Queensland and Queensland Ballet embrace and support Rick’s original studies and the roll-out of the final Dancing for Veterans program last week.

I could not be more pleased because, throughout my long career in health and since my appointment as governor, I have been a passionate supporter of programs that promote an active lifestyle and help improve the health of my fellow Queenslanders. As a fellow doctor, Graeme shares my commitment.

We have watched Dance for Parkinson’s thrive as the community has realised its value and importance, and we look forward to seeing equal success for Dancing for Veterans.

My congratulations and thanks again to everyone concerned in bringing this marvellous program to fruition.