Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Mackellar, every Anzac Day we commemorate the significance of World War I, and particularly the landing at Gallipoli, in a very memorable way right up and down the peninsula, which in my electorate is from Palm Beach to Dee Why. We do it over two days. We do it on Anzac Day itself but also on the Sunday that precedes Anzac Day. It is comprised of marches, of services, of a unique one-kilometre line of taxi cabs at Manly-Warringah that take the war vets into the city and through the streets of Sydney so they too can be part of it.

We have a unique service which takes place at Collaroy, where a single lifesaving boat usually goes out and, with oars high, a wreath is placed into the ocean waters to recognise the service and sacrifice. But, on this occasion, for this significant 100th anniversary, we decided that the Prime Minister's electorate and mine, which are joined, would combine to have some very important ceremonies take place. One was the commemoration service that took place at Rat Park. In attendance were the Governor of New South Wales, His Excellency General the Hon. David Hurley; the Prime Minister; the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Mike Baird; myself; the state members for Wakehurst, Pittwater and Davidson; and mayors and councillors from Manly-Warringah, Pittwater and Mossman councils.

The planning for this event took over two years of dedicated work by the Centenary of Anzac Organising Committee, comprising representatives from the federal electorates of Mackellar and Warringah, with Pittwater, Warringah and Manly councils, New South Wales Police, the State Transit Authority, the Rural Fire Service, the Vietnam Veterans Association, the National Servicemen's Association, RSLs and RSL sub-branches and others all involved. The committee was served by the chairman, Mr Bill Hardman, President of the Forestville RSL Sub-Branch; the deputy chairman, Commodore Graham Sloper AM, RAN (Rtd) from the Avalon sub-branch; together with a hardworking committee. The success of the day was made possible by the hard and dedicated work that they put in.

On the day, veterans, schoolchildren, Scout clubs, Girl Guides groups, New South Wales Police, Rural Fire Service, marine rescue, SES and various community group representatives assembled in the Boondah Reserve and marched up Pittwater Road to the strains of music played on pipes and by marching bands. Thousands lined the route and at Pittwater Rugby Park the marchers were greeted by a packed grandstand.

The Australian government provided each electorate with a grant to enable commemorations to take place. Mackellar and Warringah combined to fund the project under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program, which aimed to give Australians the opportunity to honour the service and sacrifice of all those who have worn our nation's uniform and those who have made the highest sacrifice.

Also on that Anzac Day, thousands of people gathered on the Dee Why beachfront to commemorate the 100th anniversary. This is a traditional place where, each Anzac Day, we march and gather. But on this occasion, thousands and thousands of people attended, and 100 children carrying candles and bearing small white crosses on which personal messages had been written stopped at the dais and placed the white crosses in beds of sand. Instead of one surf-lifesaving boat going out towards the line of breakers, this time 100 boats took part in a very moving ceremony.

All of this brings back to my mind the occasion when I was able to attend the 90th anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli, when I was part of the ADF Parliamentary Program. I was able to join HMAS Anzac, which formed the backdrop for the commemoration service at Gallipoli, and to be part of not 10,000 people but 20,000 people who were present on that occasion—it was packed. We arrived there at one o'clock in the morning, and we waited through those hours until the time was right for the ceremony to commence. I can say, as we stood there, or sat, or huddled, the weather and the temperature got colder and colder. And the closer we got to dawn, the colder was the temperature—the sort of temperature that seeps into the very marrow of your bones, and you feel that chill. The service itself was moving, and one could not help but feel what had happened there—in my case, 90 years ago; for those who were there this time, 100 years ago. The significance of that landing also involved the Navy. HMAS AE2, Australia's submarine, had passed through the Dardanelles, and was certainly influential in, and part and parcel of, the decision to land at Gallipoli and to dig in.

We talk of Gallipoli as being of such enormity in our history—and it is—and yet it was a defeat. People who are not, perhaps, imbued with the understanding of that event, are often perplexed as to why it is we commemorate with such fervour something that was, in fact, not a victory but a defeat. Yet when the Australians did take Lone Pine—you can say that the taking of Lone Pine in itself was a victory. And yet we lost so many: over 8,000 who died. And of course, those who were evacuated went on to serve on the Western Front—and we are now becoming more involved in and knowledgeable about just what took place on the Western Front and how, finally, with General Monash, we did see success.

The plan for the Gallipoli landing did not look like a bad plan. It was meant to foreshorten the war. If it had been successful, it may well have done just that. But what it did give us was the concept of Anzac—the concept of mateship; the concept of being there for your mate and of looking after his welfare. And, as we in my electorate over the weekend commemorated Vietnam Veterans Day, one has to say that every Australian who has worn the Australian uniform is imbued with that concept—that wonderful concept—of Anzac. Those who fought in the Vietnam War were fine soldiers who were initially spurned by an uncritical public, when they came home. But they too had the spirit of Anzac in them, and they served with distinction. But to return to the landing at Gallipoli itself, it is amazing how it has come to be that Australia and Turkey have drawn together, through the suffering and the loss of life, and that we have formed a bond of friendship, with these words of Ataturk:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

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