Australian ex-servicemen are making another, possibility final attempt to seek recognition and compensation for their exposure to radiation as a result of British nuclear tests during the 1950s and 60s.
They're appealing to the Australian Human Rights Commission, arguing their human rights were breached when the Menzies government ordered they be exposed to radiation in full knowledge of the potential damage to their health.
As Karen Ashford reports, few veterans hold out hope of financial compensation, but would like health entitlements in the few years of life they have left.
"Well, hopefully this will help us. I don't know whether it will or not, but maybe it will."
Avon Hudson's voice betrays the exhaustion and despair he feels after a 50 year fight for acknowledgement and recompense for his exposure to radiation during British nuclear tests at Maralinga.
"This is kind of one minute to midnight for us who are left. There's not many of us left. It's not as though they have to pay higher pensions or compensations to tens of thousands - there's only about 300 of us who put our names forward in the case going to England, but we never got our chance, we were denied our chance to put that evidence before the court in England - the British government appealed and it was chucked out."
Late last year, a would-be class action by a thousand British veterans failed, dashing hopes of a legal precedent for Australian veterans exposed to radiation at Montebello Islands off Western Australia and Maralinga and Emu testing fields in outback South Australia.
So their legal firm, Stacks Goudcamp, is trying a different tack.
Lawyer Joshua Dale hopes the Human Rights Commission will find the veterans' human rights were breached and recommend the government act to redress a past wrong.
"The Commission can make recommendations about whether or not they believe some kind of human right has been breached by the Australian government in the past. Those recommendations can then not only make findings against the Universal declaration, but they can also recommend whether or not compensation should be paid, or whether or not things should be done in terms of altering the current veterans entitlements legislation to enable the nuclear veterans to then claim under that Act."
The Commission can make recommendations, but it cannot compel the government to act.
Avon Hudson hopes its findings may shame them into providing for veterans he says were knowingly used a human guinea pigs .
"They knew the risks but they were prepared to send their own people in and subject them to this high risk and danger, and the outcome is there are a lot of people dead and there are an awful lot of people still sick from the results of it."
Joshua Dale says the evidence is compelling.
"Evidence has no surfaced to say they were sent out there to see the effect that radiation would have on their body. There's other veterans that have been sent up in planes and told to fly through mushroom clouds collecting samples. They were given no protection from any of this. There are stories coming out that after the tests they walked out to scientists in white suits, you know, rubbing them down and testing them for radiation levels and they're standing there in shorts and shirts. A lot of the time they were blindly sent in and exposed to radiation and the government knew that this radiation could potentially affect them and cause them significant health problems, and they allowed it to happen. And they allowed it to happen for the better part of a decade."
Radiation can cause cancer and many lesser known but serious ailments.
Avon Hudson says successive governments have tried to ignore the science, but he says the incidence of illnesses amongst veterans cannot be explained away through other causes.
"Cancers - well I had cancer. I've also got a crook heart and I've got diabetes. And people will say 'Oh well of course people get that, they get all those things wrong with them and they never went to the bomb tests.' Yes, that's correct, that is absolutely right, except the question is why was the incidence of those ailments higher, much higher, like 40 per cent higher, among the nuclear veterans than the normal population? The government doesn't admit that and they won't recognise that."
There are fears, too, that the radiation may leave a longer legacy.
"This is the most troubling thing. As time has gone on we've had clients calling up and saying they're children have been affected and the most prominent thing that we're seeing, at least in our group of clients, is that their children are having fertility problems. There's other issues about some birth defects, some minor, some major birth defects but I think the overwhelming majority of the sons and daughters of the veterans are contacting us and telling us about fertility problems."
Avon Hudson believes government won't acknowledge the veteran's claims because they fear they'll open a "Pandora's box" of future claims.
But he says even setting the issue of compensation aside, many veterans would be greatly helped by receiving a so-called "gold card" from the federal government.
It's the top level of health entitlements for returned service personnel injured in battle.
He says at present, nuclear veterans are entitled only to the lowest level of health entitlements, called a white card, and only if they develop cancer.
Joshua Dale says it's a legislative glitch that the government has the power to fix.
"The legislation is framed in such a way that they have to have been injured during wartime activities. Now it's considered that these nuclear tests during the 50s and 60s were not during wartime and it was during peacetime, so that difference, no matter that history now tells us that a Cold War was in place - that's not recognised in the same way as if someone else went to war and was injured."
A review of veterans' entitlements in 2010 saw the federal government make provision for nuclear veterans with certain illnesses to gain immediate coverage for the cost of their treatment.
But Avon Hudson says it was a token gesture.
"We hope that they will make recommendations to give us what we believe we're entitled to, such as the gold card, benefits under the Veterans entitlements and any compensation that we might be lucky enough to get."
Avon Hudson says apart for the advanced age of the remaining veterans there's another clock ticking too - this one political.
"And if they're decent about this and have some compassion towards the people who served their country, well then they should address this problem and put the wrongs right while they're still in government. Because if it doesn't happen now and assuming there's a change of government in six months time, I just cannot see the Liberal government ever addressing this because they're still on the back foot and covering up what a Liberal government did back in the 50s."
And despite all the rejection and disappointment he's endured, Avon Hudson says his fighting spirit remains.
"We're not going to last forever. We did our bit, we did as we were told, we were loyal. We wouldn't do it again. They only want young people in the military, young and particularly stupid that do as they're told. Well we were one of those. We wouldn't ever do as we were told again, we'd tell them to drop dead. While I've got a breath I'll fight."
