Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Almost a million Australians would answer their country's call in the Second World War, human history's most destructive struggle between tyranny and freedom. Many more would serve in civilian occupations supporting this effort. At 9.15 on the evening of 3 September, 75 years ago today, Prime Minister Menzies spoke of the:

… calm fortitude which rests not upon the beating of drums, but upon the unconquerable spirit of man …

Today we pay tribute to the sacrifices and struggles of the great generation. Tested by the trials of the Depression, they nevertheless went forth again as volunteers to confront the grotesque challenges of the Nazism, fascism and Japanese militarism, from the Western Desert to the jungles of New Guinea, from the skies of Europe and the Sunda Strait to the unimaginable suffering on the Burma Thai railway and Sandakan, from the towns and skies of northern Australia to the seas around our great island continent. These were ordinary men and women, our grandparents and our great grandparents, who gave extraordinary service to our nation. As Prime Minister John Curtin said, 'Let Hitler boast that every citizen of Germany is a soldier, let us be proud that every Australian soldier is a citizen.' For these are citizens of our nation, the horrors of the First World War hovered in collective and individual memory. Yet, still again, they left behind their homes and their loved ones to risk their lives in Australia's name. It is their bravery, their sacrifice and the love of the ones whom they left behind that we remember them today and we honour them today.

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