Kylie Russell

Text of the letter Kylie Russell sent to The West Australian newspaper on Friday night, the day after the Prime Minister snubbed her.

Despite ones opinion of George W. Bush and his visit to Australia, he is the President of the United States and as such it is a great honour for me, my daughter and our family for him to honour my husband SGT Andrew Russell in his speech to Parliament and at the National War Memorial. His visit to the war memorial should be viewed as an honour to all those fallen in the name of freedom. It is a shame that the leader of our own country has not shown this same honour to our veterans and widows. This outspoken widow has far from finished the campaign to improve veteran entitlements, and therefore will continue to be ignored by our own government as a result.

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Correction: In Snub for war widow I said that The West Australian had run quotes from Kylie’s letter to the editor in their Monday scoop that the PM would apologise to her. In fact, The West Australian’s Daniel Clery, a member of the Canberra press gallery, conducted a telephone interview with Kylie on Sunday, and the quotes cited are from that interview. The paper did not publish her letter. Kylie has not been available to the media for comment since that telephone interview.

PM’s apology progress: War widow’s long wait for PM’s apology.

Kylie’s activism: Why SAS widow’s quarrel is a matter of honour.