Bligh blasted over `no minute`s silence`

The Queensland opposition says Premier Anna Bligh once supported a minute's silence
for a drug trafficker but wouldn't do the same for the last Australian to return
from the Vietnam War.
Nearly 700 people turned out in the southern Queensland city of Toowoomba on
Thursday for the full military funeral of Pilot Officer Robert Carver - 39 years
after his death.
But there was no such tribute in state parliament.
Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek had written a letter to Ms Bligh asking for a
minute's silence to honour Pilot Officer Carver during parliament on Thursday.
"Our concern at this oversight is magnified by the fact that on 2 December 2005 you
personally seconded a motion calling for a minute's silence to be observed for the
hanging of convicted drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen (sic)," the letter reads.
Australian Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged in Singapore on December 2, 2005, for
importing heroin in 2002.
"Against this backdrop, it is inconceivable that you would not move a minute's
silence for the return of the bodies of our last two servicemen missing in Vietnam."
Mr Langbroek told reporters he hoped Ms Bligh had not let her personal views on the
Vietnam War get in the way of an appropriate tribute.
"This is yet another issue that the premier had very strongly held views on when we
were at university together and I would be very disappointed if this lack of a
minute's silence was because of those views," he said.
"It's in stark contrast with the fact that we had a minute's silence for a drug
smuggler in Singapore a number of years ago when I was first in this parliament.
"I think the people of Queensland would probably like some answers about that."
Ms Bligh said she acknowledged Pilot Officer Carver in parliament earlier in the
week, and Labor MP Kerry Shine had attended the service.
"This is a very important time for his family and friends and they've had a lot of
uncertainty," she told reporters.
"I recognised that here in the parliament and the government was represented at his
funeral today by Kerry Shine in Toowoomba.
"This I think is the appropriate way I think to recognise the significance of the
return of this young Australian."
Pilot Officer Carver went missing in 1970 when his Canberra bomber crashed on a
mission.