Bring Vietnam war dead back to Aust: Labor

Labor is backing calls for the last of Australia's war dead from Vietnam to be brought home from Malaysia.

Assistant defence spokesman David Feeney said it was time this wrong was made right.

"We have a lasting obligation to those men who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country," he said in a statement.

Mr Feeney said the opposition was supporting a campaign by Vietnam veterans organisations for the federal government to take action to repatriate the 24 Australians interred at Terendak.

They include Major Peter Badcoe, a member of the Australian Army Training Team awarded the Victoria Cross, Private Errol Noack, the first national serviceman killed in Vietnam and Lieutenant Robert Birse, murdered by a fellow soldier who threw a grenade into his tent.

They were buried in Malaysia under the long-running policy of burying war dead in the nearest Commonwealth cemetery, unless family were prepared to pay for their repatriation.

Following an outcry in 1966, the government agreed to pay for repatriation if the family requested.

Mr Feeney said Terendak was not a Commonwealth War Grave and veterans were were concerned that it wasn't well maintained and also difficult for families to visit.