The Honorable Graham Edwards, Australia Member of Parliament, will speak on "Australia and the U.S.: Mates - Past, Present and Future" at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in the David M. Kennedy Center Conference Room, 238 HRCB.
Edwards has served as Deputy Chair of the Joint House Standing Committee on Defense; Foreign Affairs and Trade for Australia; and Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Defense.
He served with the Pioneer Platoon, 7th Battalion, in Vietnam and lost his legs to a landmine.
In later years he was elected to the State Parliament and was the Minister of Police in the state government's cabinet. He subsequently was elected to the Federal Parliament in Canberra and serves as Chairman for the bi-partisan Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Committee, the most influential committee in Canberra. He is often in Washington discussing the ANZUS treaty with the United States.