Teddy Sheean Victoria Cross debate ‘will go against the PM at next election’

Jacqui Lambie has warned Scott Morrison the Teddy Sheean Victoria Cross debate “will go against you in the next election”, arguing the Prime Minister's actions were “disgusting”. The actions of 18-year-old Tasmanian Edward 'Teddy' Sheean in WW2, which some deem worthy of a Victoria Cross, has become the cause of considerable debate among senior defence and political leaders. In 1942, at the height of Second World War's Pacific War, an Australian minesweeper, the HMAS Armidale, came under heavy artillery fire from a Japanese aircraft off the coast of Timor-Leste. Mr Sheean ignored orders to abandon the sinking ship and stayed back, firing his anti-aircraft gun at a Japanese plane that was taking aim at his shipmates who were in the water. He brought down one plane and damaged two more, before dying strapped to his weapon. An attempt to have Teddy posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross was knocked back, with Defence Minister Linda Reynolds saying a 2019 review by the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal “did not present any new evidence that might support reconsideration of the Valour Inquiry’s recommendation”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison intervened to set up a special expert panel to look again at Teddy's nomination. “This is not the way to do things,” Ms Lambie told Sky News. “You’ve already been told Prime Minister that Teddy Sheean deserves his cross. “Tasmanians have been fighting for that recognition for years. “For goodness sake, admit you made a wrong call.”

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