Richard Marles endorses Brendan Nelson’s AWM growth campaign on asylum-seekers

Labor has backed calls for navy personnel who have helped ‘stop the boats’ to be honoured at the Australian War Memorial.

Federal Labor has backed calls for navy personnel who have helped “stop the boats” under the asylum-seeker crackdown to be honoured in a potential expansion of the Australian War Memorial.

Opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles said he supported AWM director Brendan Nelson’s ambition for the national memorial to showcase the stories of sailors who stopped illegal boat arrivals from landing here.

Mr Marles — a Labor right figure who has pushed against the left’s opposition to offshore processing of asylum-seekers who come to Australia by boat — said sailors should be honoured for doing the jobs the Australian government asked of them.

Dr Nelson is pushing for a $500 million expansion of the AWM and believes there should be a place in the “medium term” to tell the story of border protection operations.

“The Royal Australian Navy has been asked to serve in this way by governments of both persuasions,” Mr Marles said. “The AWM should commemorate the contributions of all those who serve in our defence forces.”

Mr Marles’s support of Dr Nelson’s idea, revealed in The Australian on Monday, came as the Turnbull government went silent on the issue.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Marise Payne said: “Potential future exhibitions are a matter for the AWM council.”

Greens defence spokesman Peter Whish Wilson attacked the idea, calling it “weird” and “highly political”.

“It is called a war memorial for a reason: it is there to commemorate war, not every action of the military,” he said.