Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On further indulgence, Mr Speaker, I seek to acknowledge the 70th anniversary, on 15 August, of victory in the Pacific and the end of the Second World War. The Second World War changed our country and our world. Just 20 years after the horrors of the Great War, Australians again took up arms to fight the evils of Fascism, Nazism and militarism. Almost one million Australians, men and women, served in the Second World War and almost 40,000 died. To all of them we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be fully repaid.

The Australians who served did not just win the war. Along with all others who served in that dreadful conflict, they built a peace—a just and lasting peace. For all the problems of these days and for all the perils we face, these are the best times in human history, and that is largely due to the world that the men and women who served in the Second World War helped to create. They took to heart Churchill's dedication in his war memoirs:

In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.

Today, in this, our national parliament, we remember the men of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force. We remember the campaigns in North Africa, in Syria, in Crete, in Greece, in Malaya, in New Guinea and in the other islands to our north. We honour the personnel of the Royal Australian Navy, who fought with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, with the US in the Pacific and, particularly, at the Battle of the Coral Sea. We remember the Australians of the Royal Australian Air Force and we remember the Australians of the Royal Air Force, who suffered staggering losses, especially in Bomber Command. We acknowledge the 70,000 women who served in that conflict, including some 5,000 nurses. More than 70 Australian women died, including those murdered at Bangka Island and some who perished on board the Australian hospital ship Centaur.

On this anniversary of the war's end we remember the horror of the Holocaust, of man's inhumanity to man, and we rededicate ourselves to the great cause of peace. We acknowledge the sacrifice of those who died and we acknowledge the families who mourn them still. We acknowledge the suffering of those taken as prisoners of war and the mental and physical scars of those who made it home. We thank them for the free and democratic Australia that is their true legacy and we promise to strive to be worthy of their sacrifice.

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