Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

It is a curiosity of Australian history that such a genuinely towering figure as Nancy Wake is not as well known as she should be. This is a person whose history, story, contribution, energy and simple impact on history far outstrip that of anybody other than a very few number of Australians over the last century.

Nancy Wake was born in New Zealand, but came to Australia at the age of two. She fled at age 16 to New York and Europe. She became a correspondent in the Hearst empire. Most importantly, while in Europe she was motivated by the early signs she saw of what the Nazis were doing to the Jewish population. She could see creeping evil working its way across Germany and across Europe, and she vowed to stand against it. So during the Second World War, because of her marriage to a French industrialist, she became an agent of the Resistance. She fought heroically, as others have set out magnificently in both chambers of this parliament. She was an extraordinary leader, and the fact that a young Australian woman, living in France, could become the number one most wanted person on the Gestapo list says that this was an Australian who transcended all boundaries to be utterly vital and utterly effective for the French Resistance, which was critical in aiding Allied pilots who were shot down, critical for leading the French resistance movement, critical to defying of the German war movement and critical to providing a beachhead in the lead up to D-Day. This was about preparing the ground, preparing the way and being engaged in the fundamental activities that helped to break down and weaken the German front across France. This was freedom's front line in its absolute definition.

The life that she lived was a life well worth living. She lived it in her early days during the wartime years and then in the postwar years. For us, it is a great thing that she was a Liberal candidate in 1949 and 1951—coming close to defeating Evatt, who was the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in those two respective elections—and again in 1966. She achieved great swings on each of those three occasions as a candidate for the Liberal Party but fell just short. It was the parliament's loss that one of the really great but unsung figures of the last century in Australia never made it to this parliament. It was certainly the Liberal Party's loss, but it was the parliament's loss as well.

But we can reflect on a life well lived, in the best sense. It was a life of adventure. It was a life of opinion. It was a life that was willing to risk everything for the sake of something greater and it was a life of profound impact. We as a country are better for it. My one thought is that, strangely and curiously, we have not told her story properly. I hope that it is not just this short period of remembrance where her deeds are elevated again but that she becomes a part of the curriculum taught in Australian schools as an icon, an indicator and a role model of courage, integrity and simple chutzpah, as somebody who lived life as well as it could be lived. Vale Nancy Wake.

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