David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

In my capacity as shadow minister for veterans' affairs I had the very great honour this year of attending the Anzac Day commemorations in Turkey. That began with me joining the Royal Australian Navy in paying tribute to the submarine and crew of HMAS AE2. Submarine AE2 was a part of the Royal Australian Navy that deployed to Turkey and the Dardanelles in 1915. The fact that it was present in this campaign underscores the fact that Australia has operated submarines now for over a century. The AE2 submarine played a pivotal role in Australia's campaign for Gallipoli and is very well regarded in naval circles for its accomplishments during the operations in the Dardanelles. Commanded by Lieutenant Commander HS Stoker, the AE2 was ordered to sail through the Dardanelles to disrupt Turkish shipping in the sea of Marmara.

The Dardanelles, a 35-mile passage, was at the time heavily fortified with minefields, fixed and mobile gun batteries, searchlight surveillance and patrolling Ottoman warships. The natural navigational hazards and peculiar currents of those parts combined to make the AE2's operations in those waters extremely difficult and indeed extremely dangerous. Without the sophisticated radar and sonar systems that submarines enjoy today, the AE2's ability to pass through the minefields was regarded as a matter of chance. Previous allied submarines had failed to pass through the strait and yet the AE2 took on this task with gusto and determination.

Australia's AE2 submarine was able to penetrate these various defences and make its way through the Dardanelles—at times its hull was scraping the very sides of mines that had been planted to prevent the passage of ships and submarines—and enter the Sea of Marmara. There it worked to prevent enemy shipping from transiting between the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. It sought to disrupt the reinforcing and resupplying of Turkish forces who were fighting on the front lines on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Just before dawn on 25 April, as the first boatloads of Anzac soldiers approached the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the AE2 was already in the Sea of Marmara and under fire from Turkish forces. Later that very day the AE2 was responsible for bringing down the Turkish Navy's torpedo cruiser Peyk-i Sevket. On 26 April the successful campaign to enter the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara enabled the AE2 to continue its attacks on enemy shipping but, alas, four days later, on 30 April, the operations of the AE2 came to an end when it was confronted by the Turkish torpedo boat Sultanhisar. It was forced to surface and all on board abandoned the submarine and were taken captive, spending the next 3½ years in a Turkish prison camp. But they were able to scuttle their vessel, thereby denying the enemy intelligence about what was for the time new capability. That submarine is at the bottom of those waters to this very day.

It was a pleasure and an honour for me to join the Royal Australian Navy on board HMAS Anzac in sailing the waters above where the AE2 rests and pay tribute to the outstanding efforts made by that Australian submarine during a ceremony on the waters, some 74 metres above where the AE2 resides today. The historical feat of the HMAS AE2 submarine is remarkable and it is one that forms an important part of the Australian story in the Gallipoli campaign. It is a testament to Australian courage and our innovation. It is a testament to the fact that those Australian submariners were in some respects the founders of a tradition that continues to live with our elite submariners to this very day.

The operation by the crew of the AE2 and their accomplishment in piercing those defences in the Dardanelles is just one of the many stories that contribute to the battle and history of Anzac Day. While in Turkey I had the privilege of attending numerous ceremonies commemorating Anzac Day and the campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula. These included the Turkish international service at Mehmetcik Abidesi, the Turkish memorial, the Commonwealth commemoration service at Cape Helles and the French commemoration service held in Morto Bay. I joined the Prime Minister, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, and many thousands of fellow Australians and New Zealanders who all made the long trip to Gallipoli to attend the dawn service at Anzac Cove, including 10 widows of Australian First World War veterans. Those widows are remarkable women. They remain our last living connection to the Australian forces and Anzac forces that came ashore on that beach 100 years ago. I laid a wreath at the Australian memorial service at Lone Pine Cemetery and attended the Turkish 57th Regiment service and the New Zealand memorial service at Chunuk Bair.

All of these events were remarkably moving and powerful. All of them were brilliantly organised and all of them kept faith with Australia's resolve to commemorate those events 100 years ago in a way that does service to the men who went ashore a century ago and the resonance that that moment has for contemporary Australia and our identity as a modern Australia. I thank all of those who worked so hard to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, in particular the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board chaired by Sir Angus Houston, who worked in partnership with the former Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Warren Snowdon, who I know is very proud indeed of what has transpired, together with the current minister, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson, in setting up and implementing the architecture for commemorating the Centenary of Anzac as well as the project to commemorate in 2018 the period of the Great War until Armistice Day.

I want to thank the Department of Veterans' Affairs for undertaking to ensure that the Anzac commemoration events were so well organised. They did a very fine job. I know they are—and they very much should be—very proud of their work. I congratulate the thousands of Australians who attended these commemorative events, who undertook the odyssey—indeed, one might say the pilgrimage—to that distant coast so very far away and enduring the various logistical challenges that they confronted, not the least of which was a cold night on the peninsula. I congratulate Lindsay Fox and his committee who have worked so hard to raise such a great sum of money to ensure that the commemorative activities taking place across Australia are supported by our business community. In that endeavour Lindsay Fox has excelled.

I also congratulate the Australian Embassy in Turkey and our consulate in Istanbul. Our ambassador, our consul and their dedicated staff did a tremendous job. As you can imagine, it was for them a blizzard, a tornado, of work as they coordinated so many Australians being in their country. They played such a key role in working with the people and the government of Turkey. Of course, let me make the point that the government and people of Turkey should be congratulated for continuing to embrace this very important event and for continuing to work so harmoniously with Australia and Australians as we travel to their country to commemorate that is, of course, so powerful for Australians but is, from the Turkish perspective, foreigners marking a failed invasion of their homeland. Notwithstanding that, the Turks continue to play host to Australia in a splendidly generous and graceful way, and it does them enormous credit.

Finally, let me congratulate my own committee in the seat of Batman: Mr Bob Cross, the President of the Darebin RSL; Mr Graham Hibbert, the President of the Reservoir RSL; Mr Barry Warden, the Secretary of the Darebin RSL; Mr Colin Langborne, the Secretary of the Reservoir RSL; Mr Ken Coughlan and Mr Bill Mountford, both from Darebin RSL; Mr Jack Langley, the secretary of the National Servicemen's Association sub-branch; Mr Noel Blake, the president of the National Servicemen's Association sub-branch; Barbara Hinsley, from Kingsbury Primary School; Mr Allan Waterson, from William Ruthven Primary School, which is named after a winner of the Victoria Cross; Ms Katrina Knox, group manager of community services at Darebin City Council; and Ms Jackie Goddard of Darebin Libraries. They have just done a magnificent job in assisting me in the task of making sure that commemorative activities across Batman have been of a first-class standard and that a range of memorials, honour boards and the like across the electorate have received the nurturing that they deserve. Thank you very much.

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