Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I do have a question, but I just want to give some context to the question before I get to it. I am sure you are very aware that for the Centenary of Anzac many grants were given out in honour of the centenary, obviously all related to World War I—memorials, honour rolls, cenotaphs and what have you. I would just like to go through a number of them that happened in my electorate in the context of the question that I want to ask. The first is one that it was wonderful to be involved with. As part of the grant process we gave $10,000 to the sub-branch of the Grafton RSL, which organised a re-enactment of the Light Horse recruitment.

It went for two days. A lot of young men who lived on farms rode their horses into Grafton from the surrounding areas and signed up. With this re-enactment everyone went to Copmanhurst, which is 20-odd kays out of Grafton, on the night of 23 April. There was a night at the Rest Point Family Hotel, where everyone assembled. The next morning there was a sign-up where you registered which I was involved with. Then they all rode off to Grafton that day. It took six to seven hours. On the morning of Anzac Day, in a very moving ceremony, they all rode into Grafton as part of the Anzac Day memorial. It was just wonderful to see these 150 people on their horses ride in with this re-enactment.

That is one that I wanted to share with you There were others that I would like to share with you as well. There were lots of replacements of honour rolls. One that was particularly moving to me was at Bonalbo. There was the replacement of the World War I honour roll at the Ballina RSL, and that was valued at about $7,000. Another one I thought you might be interested in was in Ballina, where there is going to be a tree planting. It is going to be called Walers Way to commemorate the Walers. Obviously, we all know—well, some of us might not know—160,000 horses went from Australia to World War I. Of those 160,000 horses, one returned. That is an amazing statistic in itself. They played an enormously important role in the World War I war effort as well. There are going to be a whole lot of trees planted in Ballina and called Walers Way to commemorate that. Of the 160,000 Walers, many were involved in the Battle of Beersheba in the 4th and 12th regiments to take the town's water wells, which were desperately needed in the desert. As I said, only one returned.

There were two others that I would like to share with you. One was in the Mid Richmond Historical Society in Coraki. There was a very moving honour roll there. It was a piece of teak which had been carved with all the names of people from World War I who enlisted in the Richmond Valley and did not return. It was carved with a knife by the mother of one of those men. They had the knife she did it with. Teak, as you would know, is a very hard wood, and the care, patience and devotion she had to do that in memory of her son was very moving.

The last one I wanted to share with you, Minister, is in Lismore. We put a glass enclosure around the Lismore memorial baths. You could not actually see the honour roll in winter because it was shut off by these wooden doors, so we enclosed it in a glass casing. It was quite moving to my wife and me because my wife's great-great-uncle Alfred Webber is listed on that honour roll from World War I.

In the context of that, Minister, my question is: Anzac Day in my community gives people the opportunity to remember, reflect and commemorate the service and sacrifice of Australians who have served their nation. What plans does the government have to continue commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac and Anzac Day in the future as well as the centenary of service, which underpins the government's program?

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