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Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew has dismissed criticism of small forward Izak Rankine, insisting the 22-year-old's best AFL years are very much ahead of him.

Rankine claimed 16 disposals in the Suns' 52-point Queensland derby loss to Brisbane at Metricon Stadium on Sunday, failing to score a goal and spending a part of the match in midfield to escape the attentions of Lions defender Brandon Starcevich.

Dropped in round 20 last year, Rankine has played three straight matches after missing rounds two and three with a quad issue.

After a quiet seven-disposal performance against St Kilda last weekend, Dew said he's more than comfortable with how Rankine's career is progressing.

"I thought he bounced back. He knew last week was poor and he got busy tonight," Dew said.

"I said during the week, he's played 34 games, he averages 11 touches and a goal a game and there's a guy at the other end, number 23 for Brisbane (Charlie Cameron), that averages 11 touches and averages a goal and a half, whose played 156 games.

"We understand he's under the microscope but at the same point in his career he's very similar to a lot of these guys.

"I just want to, not protect Izak, but stick up for him.

"He's on the path. He's working so hard.

"He's not the player that people say. He's not selfish. He's the ultimate team-man and he's working hard at his craft.

"When we get better, he'll get better. He'll help us get better. They'll work together. He'll be fine but his workrate was really good tonight."

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The prime minister has doubled down on a promise not to introduce new taxes as Labor pledges to throw more than $500 million at Veterans' Affairs to fix a backlog in support claims.

Visiting Alice Springs on Sunday, Scott Morrison also spruiked a $300 million package for a new hydrogen hub and multiple carbon capture storage sites in Darwin.

Mr Morrison's tax pledge adds $100 billion to the national debt as part of a "lower tax guarantee" with no new income, superannuation, business or housing taxes if the Liberal-National coalition is re-elected.

"(Our) government has shown that it knows how to manage money and has a strong economic plan for the future. That means that (Australians) can have certainty going forward," he told reporters in Alice Springs on Sunday.

"We can give these sort of ironclad guarantees on no new taxes because that's what we've done."

The coalition also upped its scare campaign, suggesting Labor would introduce new taxes despite the opposition repeatedly ruling it out.

Labor has floated taking stronger action to curb multinational tax evasion and said more details on their plan will be announced soon.

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the latest announcement from the Liberals was contrary to a commitment Australia had previously made.

"There have been important global developments when it comes to multinational taxes. Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have said previously that Australia should be part of them. Today, (they're) saying that we shouldn't," he told reporters in Brisbane on Sunday.

"(Morrison) can't have it both ways. He can't give a commitment to no new taxes at the same time as he's given a commitment to the global community to do something meaningful about multinationals."

Mr Morrison said his tax guarantee will mean Australians will be $100 billion better off but there are questions over whether this figure represents already legislated cuts.

Anti-fracking protesters loudly chanted throughout the prime minister's press conference in the NT but he said they were "entitled to their views" on his hydrogen hub commitment for the territory.

"We're investing heavily in ensuring that the Northern Territory has a strong industrial future," he said.

"And there are some loud voices out there today, but there are many, many quiet voices all around this country which want to ensure that we have a strong economy on the basis of balanced and sensible economic policy."

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese - who remains in isolation with COVID - has dubbed the crisis in Veterans' Affairs a "national disgrace", saying there are 60,000 unresolved claims for help.

"For so many of our veterans, the war does not end when they leave the battlefield. Just as they stepped up for us, we must step up for them," Mr Albanese said.

Labor's announcement of more than $500 million for Veterans' Affairs, on the eve of Anzac Day, aims to cut waiting times, build new support hubs, increase veteran home ownership and boost pension and employment programs.

On Friday, the prime minister announced a re-elected coalition government would establish 14 new Veteran Wellbeing Centres providing access to health and wellbeing support, at a cost of $70 million.

Mr Morrison will head to Darwin later on Sunday for an Anzac dawn service on Monday, with Labor deputy Richard Marles to attend in Mr Albanese's stead.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce appears to be walking back previous comments where he compared the Solomon Islands' security deal with China to the Cuban missile crisis.

Mr Joyce said he believed the assurances from the Solomon Islands' government that a Chinese naval base would not be established in the country.

"I just hope that China does not get the capacity to set up a naval base because it's obviously an intimidating tactic to Australia," he told ABC's Insiders.

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Australian soldier Jack Jensen wrote to his girlfriend in February 1919, "I must ask you to release me from my promise".

In the anguished letter to Florence Campbell, the young digger described lying in muddy holes for days during battles on the Western Front.

Having fought at Gallipoli, he recalled the debilitating effects of mustard gas and illness in the trenches, as men died around him.

When his extended family read the missive many years later, Private Jensen's admission of mental torment was one of the starkest details.

"I must be left alone. I cannot get married and look after you when I shall be scarcely able to look after myself," he wrote.

More than a century later, that letter inspired Pte Jensen's great-nephew, Pieter Lindhout, to walk 400 kilometres in the footsteps of other World War I soldiers to raise money for youth mental health.

Mr Lindhout walked from Gilgandra, in western NSW, to Sydney last year, re-enacting the journey of 35 men who left their lives behind and marched to the city to enlist in October 1915.

It was known as the Coo-ee March, one of many recruitment marches in regional NSW and Queensland, a grassroots movement to boost enlistment after the loss of thousands of men at Gallipoli.

The Coo-ee men gathered more than 200 extra recruits as they passed through towns on their way to the city.

The legend of the marches lives on through descendants and locals, who stage re-enactments, care for monuments in their honour and remember them every Anzac Day.

Mr Lindhout felt a deep connection to the Coo-ee story, having spent years poring over his great-uncle's letters and turning them into a book, Love in the Valley of Death.

Like many of the men in Gilgandra, Pte Jensen had also grown up in rural Australia and went to war with an initial sense of adventure.

Mr Lindhout said his own trek gave him time to reflect on the Coo-ees' long walk to Sydney followed by months on a boat and years at war.

"That level of sacrifice is extraordinary. And I don't think we really even understand that sacrifice today," he said.

Gilgandra historian, Margo Piggott, has helped bring to life the stories of the Coo-ee March for the town's museum and historical society.

She says young and middle-aged men, farmers, bricklayers, bakers, a journalist and a postman, went to war, fuelled by a combination of adventure, patriotism and decent pay.

Many were badly injured or killed. A statue in Gilgandra honours their "eternal footprint on the history of our community and our nation".

Numerous Gilgandra families are dedicated to remembering and honouring the Coo-ee men and re-enacted the march in 1987 and 2015.

Ms Piggott says the stories of mateship from the Coo-ees and the service men and women who followed, have informed the way Anzac Day is commemorated.

"It's about helping your mate and making sure you look after each other," she said.

"There's more awareness of the impact and what they're like when they come home."

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