Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pride and sadness that I rise to speak on the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. As so many Australians have done already this year and last year, we are commemorating those brave Australians who went off to represent this young nation in World War I.

I would like to start by particularly acknowledging the RSLs in Moreton, who did such a fantastic job on Anzac Day in making sure that the events were well organised and also that the individuals from each area were appropriately recognised for their service. Anzac Day is always a busy day for politicians. I was not able to get to every single RSL event in Moreton but I wanted to note the RSL services in my electorate. I am only going to mention the President for each branch—obviously there was a cast of thousands staging these events. I note: Mr Des Broome, the President of the Sunnybank RSL Sub-Branch; Mr John Stachan, the President of the Stephens RSL Sub-Branch; Mr Kevin Fitzgerald, the President of the Yeronga Dutton Park RSL Sub-Branch; Mr Kevin Alcock, the President of the Sherwood Indooroopilly RSL Sub-Branch; and also Mr Tony Stevenson, the President of the Salisbury RSL Sub-Branch. As I said, I was not able to attend all the services and I even ran out of office representatives because there were so many commemorations in my electorate.

From my observations in Moreton and having been to these events for the last decade or so, there seemed to be at least double the normal crowds and sometimes nearly triple the normal crowds. People certainly turned out for the start of the centenary of commemoration. At all of the events I attended, it was great to see schools in attendance and it was great to see families and young people turning up to recognise what would be great grandfathers or great great grandparents or grandmothers who were involved in the great War, the War to end all Wars as it was called—until we had a war barely 18 or 19 years later that killed nearly triple the number.

The centenary of the Gallipoli landings has been addressed in great detail by many of the speakers before me. I have revisited the history, the competing history and the contested histories in other speeches and in other ways. I particularly note that the Sunnybank RSL in my electorate a few years ago erected a memorial to the Australian-Chinese service personnel, not just in World War I but in other events. Chinese Australians were not classed as citizens, were not able to vote but went off and gave their life for this nation.

We are also seeing the stories of Indigenous Australia who also had horrors visited upon them when they returned because they were not treated as Australian citizens and were not treated the same way when it came to handing out soldier settlements. Some of the stories are starting to emerge. I am looking forward to exploring with the Indian community in my electorate some of the stories that did not necessarily make the official histories but are stories that do exist, that are part of family histories and will be told in the years to come. I know that there were Muslim Australia that landed at Gallipoli and their stories will be told as well.

Obviously it is important that we do not to say that there was one Gallipoli story; there were many Gallipoli stories. Especially as we now look into the Turkish archives, we are getting a more complete picture of what happened. There is no doubt the courage that was on display at Gallipoli on that first day, but, obviously, there are serious questions about the planning and the decisions that were made from that day. Obviously with history we can get things perfect when we look back as to what should have happened.

Before becoming a politician, I was a lawyer but before that I was a school teacher. When I started teaching, the first play that I had to teach was The One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour, a play written in 1958. It will be familiar to many Australians. When that play was written, it was almost like the Anzac veterans got one day of the year where their courage was recognised. Here we are, 100 years on and you could not say that. In fact, the parliament dedicated money to setting up committees to make sure that their service is recognised—a great initiative and some great work done by the RSL and members of that committee in my electorate. So we cannot say these Anzacs, these diggers are only recognised one day of the year. Now their story is well and truly a part of the bigger Australian story.

I think it is important to still learn the lessons from that play, The One Day of the Yearthat is, to recognise the current ADF personnel or those that have only recently taken off the uniform. Because, as I am sure the member for Bass would attest, many of his colleagues do not necessarily end up in a comfortable position. We have seen stories in the paper of the significant numbers of homeless veterans, not just in the US but here in Australia, on the streets of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. While it is important to recognise what went on 100 years ago, I would suggest it is even more crucial that we lend a helping hand to those returned service personnel who have only recently taken off the uniform.

I know the RSLs in my electorate recognise that many of these veterans are falling through the gap. The average age of RSL members is getting older and older because they are not getting the recent veterans, the veterans from East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. We do need to do more as a nation to reach out a helping hand to those people. At Annerley when I made a speech on Anzac Day, a veteran—I will not name him—came up and said, 'Thank you for mentioning that in your speech.' He did two tours of duty to Afghanistan and he said, 'I have been written to three times by the government ever since I came back, and one of those times they misspelt my name.' I think the mood that he was voicing was that there was not a helping hand and support.

I want to touch on one other personal element in concluding this speech, and that is from my family. When I am in Canberra, I stay with my Auntie Pat, and we were talking about this the other night. She was talking about her Uncle Jim. Her Uncle Jim died in World War I, so she never met him. That was her dad's brother, so my great-uncle, who died in World War I on 20 September 1917 in Belgium: James Alphonsus Morrissy. She was still using that term this week, talking about her Uncle Jim, the man that she had never met, but her dad always spoke about the Jim that he knew. Obviously, when people die in a family, that absence is always present. I had a sibling who died before I was born as well, and they are always present, even though they are absent. To hear my aunt this week talk about her Uncle Jim reminded me of how horrible it was for so many Australians.

I have here the particulars for my great-uncle Jim Morrissy, James Alphonsus Morrissy, written in my mother's mother's handwriting. This is written by Ellen Morrissy, and that is my mum's name as well. Just looking through the writing, you can see the heartache that would have been in so many families because 52,000 did not come back, in a small nation—not to mention those who came back wounded; that is another story for another day. The absence of the 52,000 who did not come back changed the shape of Australia, I think. Every street had some heartache. Not every family but most families had someone who was affected. In fact, my great-grandmother says so here. The official form asks:

Was he—

Jim Morrissy—

connected with any other Member of the A.I.F. who died or distinguished himself. (Please state Relationship)

In her writing, she says:

Uncle returned wounded and first cusin returned limless

She misspells 'limbless'. My mum's last name is Morrissy, and that was a misspelling of Morrissey, because they were poor Irish. They knew their name but did not know how to spell it, so I joke that I am from a family of dyslexics. Here in her writing, with the same name as my mum, she talks about the aching heartache of missing her son.

People have talked about the historical significance, but I think that individual families being affected did also shape the character of this nation, particularly in a volunteer army. Admittedly, there were two referendums that were close—about politicians deciding whether or not we should be able to have conscription—but that changed the shape of Australia. I particularly mention that note from my great-grandmother Ellen Morrissy. As I said, she had the same name as my mum, who passed away four years ago today.

I commend all the previous speakers and all those that will come after in acknowledging the anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. I thank the parliament for giving us time to so do.

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