The Documents Don’t Lie: What Australia Knew About Agent Orange — and the Volume We Still Can’t See. Greens 5/10/2026
Updated: 17 hours ago
Dear Senator Shoebridge & Gigi,
I wanted to update you following your response about the RMA being unable to investigate or issue SoPs for congenital conditions affecting veterans’ children, including those affected by Agent Orange.
I’ve since uncovered something I think is extremely important.
On 16 December 1969, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2603 A (XXIV) on chemical and biological warfare, declaring the use in international armed conflict of chemical substances employed because of their direct toxic effects on “man, animals or plants” contrary to generally recognised rules of international law.
Australia had been a party to the 1925 Geneva Protocol since 22 January 1930. New Zealand was also a party to the Protocol. My father was New Zealand-born and served in the Australian Army in Vietnam.
UN source
DFAT source
My father, William Christopher Pitcher, arrived in Vietnam the very next day — 17 December 1969.
I have now also located Australian Army records placing PITCHER in Plant Troop → Plant Section, consistent with his service record showing he was qualified as an Operator Plant Grade 2.
What makes this even more significant is the timing.
The UN resolution was adopted 15 years before Australia’s Agent Orange Royal Commission reported in 1985.
Royal Commission’s Final Report itself states:
“At the United Nations the ‘ecological’ warfare debate continued.”
On that same page, the Commission discusses the Vietnam evidence concerning birth defects, chromosomal damage and other health consequences.
There is also the modern legal position. The Rome Statute expressly includes certain forms of poisonous/chemical warfare as war crimes, and Article 29 provides that crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction are not subject to a statute of limitations.
So my question is becoming very simple:
What did the Australian Government know about the international-law position on chemical warfare when my father entered Vietnam the day after Resolution 2603 A was adopted — and why, more than 50 years later, are the children of these veterans still falling through the legislative gap.
Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, is aware of my situation and has acknowledged my correspondence. In Geneva in March 2026, Professor Saul warned of States misusing counter-terrorism and national-security frameworks in ways that violate human rights.
Of particular concern, Volume 9 of the Agent Orange Royal Commission Final Report — the Exhibits List and Bibliography — is not available to examine online. This is the very volume identifying the evidence placed before the Royal Commission. More than 40 years later, we should not have to travel to an archive or piece together overseas collections simply to establish what evidence was before an Australian Royal Commission in the 1980s.
I have attached the UN material, the relevant page from the 1985 Royal Commission, my father’s service record and the Plant Troop record.
I would greatly appreciate you raising this with Senator Shoebridge and his Senior Policy Adviser.
Finally, congratulations to Senator David Shoebridge and Senator Steph Hodgins-May on your new roles. I look forward to seeing what you can do for the children affected by Toxic Remnants of War. After more than 50 years, we should not still be invisible.
Warm Agent Orange Burns regards,
Danielle Stevens (née Pitcher)
Geneva AP1 Article 77
We will always be a child of a Vietnam Veteran
Email received 6/10/2026
Dear Danielle,
Thank you so much for all of this information. Given recent changes in the Greens leadership we will be a little swamped with reviewing our estimates preparation work for a few weeks but I have this on hand for review with David and the team as we approach estimates at the end of the month.
Thank you so much for your advocacy here, this will be really helpful to review.
Warmest regards,
Gigi
Constituent Advocate
Office of Senator David Shoebridge
Leader of the Australian Greens
Senator for NSW
T: (02) 8073 7400
Our Sydney office is on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and the Australian Parliament is on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. We acknowledge that these lands were stolen and sovereignty was never ceded. We recognise First Nations peoples’ continuing
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