Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to follow the member for Hotham in what was a very eloquent address to the parliament. She is correct: it is impossible to speak of the Centenary of Anzac without thinking very carefully about our losses and with great sadness. At our very infancy as a nation it was the very flower of Australian manhood that was thrown into what was the slaughterhouse of a European war—a war that was produced in large part by a failure of statesmanship, a failure of diplomacy and a failure, I think, to avoid war at all costs. There is a phrase that Europe 'sleepwalked' into a war.

We know that Anzac holds a dear role in our nation's history, because we became aware of the great cost of war. When you hear about Lone Pine or the Nek, you know that those battles preceded the terrible battles that occurred on the Western Front—like Pozieres and Fromelles—terrible days in Australian history.

The most successful part of the ANZAC landings was actually the withdrawal, the evacuation, of the troops on 19 and 20 December. But that was only after 26,111 Australian casualties and 8,141 deaths. So we are very aware, I think, of the true costs of war and we are very aware of those ANZAC values of liberty, justice, mateship and democracy that were exhibited every day of our time at Gallipoli. Whenever I have had to speak at welcome home parades or, indeed, farewell parades for 7 RAR or 92 Wing, both at RAAF Base Edinburgh in my electorate, I have always talked about those Australian values, which run from the Gallipoli landings right through every military engagement in our history.

We know that this was a very important time in our nation's history, so it was important that its centenary was marked with respect and, under the auspices of the Australian government, in a bipartisan way that included the community. In my own community, I was very fortunate to have a great Anzac Day 2015 committee: Tony Flaherty and John Allen from the Two Wells RSL, Bill Chappell from the RAAFA, Matthew Reschke from the Salisbury RSL, Bruce Naismith from the Barossa Light Horse Historical Association, Roy Crabb from Stanley Flat Soldiers Memorial Hall Inc. and Graeme Pulford from the Auburn/Clare Districts RSL sub-branch. All of those individuals helped me. In fact, they really ran the show and made sure that we had respectful and well-attended Anzac Day events in my electorate. I had the great pleasure of going to the Salisbury RSL, who always run a great Anzac Day event. This year it was so well attended, there was a very big crowd of people paying their respects.

I was lucky enough later on to go to the Freeling versus Kapunda footy match, which is always a grudge match. I used to play footy for Kapunda, for the Bombers, so it was great to be there with some of my old friends, likes Dominic Shepley, who plays a big role in the Freeling Football Club and helped to organise the events there.

I was lucky enough to go out to Wasleys to attend their event as well. That went off without a hitch, except during the minute's silence, when a rabbit ran through the middle of the crowd. It was very Australian, particularly as the rabbit ran straight past my blue heeler, who was sitting in the crowd with my wife—a very Australian experience.

Over the last year, we have all been educated about not just Gallipoli but World War I, and about all of the different stories in our electorates, including the personal sacrifices that were made. One of the most interesting stories that I came across was about a fellow called Charles Yells, who was a labourer in Kapunda, my home town. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 29 September 1914, joined the 9th Light Horse Regiment and, on 11 February 1915, embarked for Egypt. Charles Yells's fame came from the fact that he was assigned special duties: instructing Lawrence of Arabia and his Arab squads in the use of the Lewis gun. So he was instrumental in the early Arab insurrections against Ottoman rule in Egypt and across the Arab world—a very important contribution, I think, from someone in my home town. There was also James Woods, born in Gawler, who joined the AIF in 1916. For his actions while on patrol near the Hindenburg line, he won the Victoria Cross, a great honour.

I had the great fortune to go to the parade of the 3rd/9th Light Horse, the South Australian Mounted Rifles. The Barossa Light Horse Historical Association were there in exactly the same garb as our WW1 soldiers and with their horses, like those our soldiers would have departed with. It took you back to a different type of Australia. The 3rd/9th Light Horse's origins can be traced all the way back to those Gallipoli landings, and they are very proud of their heritage.

I was reminded of some of the great contributions made by Australians. We have talked about the backgrounds of the Anzacs, about how they were shearers and bushmen; but they were also members of the Australian Workers Union. In Charles Bean's The Story of ANZAC, he recorded:

The newspapers stated that by April, 1915, there had been enrolled 12,000 shearers and station hands, members of the Australian Workers Union …

Among them was Albert Jacka, a member of the Victorian Riverina branch of the Australian Workers Union, who won the Victoria Cross. It is said that an Australian Workers Union ticket was found on the Pozieres battlefield. When the 1917 annual convention of the AWU came around, of the membership of 70,000, almost 30,000 were enrolled in the armed forces. So we remember those bush workers, farmhands and station hands—really, as I said before, the flower of Australian manhood—and we wonder what might have happened, what contribution they might have made, if their lives had been unspoiled by war.

It is natural, I think, at these times to ask, 'Was it all worth it?' As I said before, World War I was a failure of diplomacy and a failure of statesmanship. But we have to ask ourselves: would Europe have been in better hands had it been dominated by Prussian imperialism, the Kaiser and the rules of aggression rather than the rule of law? That is the question we must consider whenever we ask ourselves: was that great sacrifice worth it?

It is important on Anzac Day to not be blind to the losses and to remind ourselves of the words of John Gorton, who, when he came home from World War II, made a very famous speech at an event for returned servicemen. He said:

I want you to see an army; regiment on regiment of young men, dead. They say to you, burning in tanks and aeroplanes, drowning in submarines, shattered and broken by high explosive shells, we gave the last full measure of devotion. We bought your freedom with our lives. So take this freedom. Guard it as we have guarded it, use it as we can no longer use it, and with it as a foundation, build. Build a world in which meanness and poverty, tyranny and hate, have no existence. If you see and hear these men behind me—do not fail them.

That is a fitting epitaph to all our servicemen who have fallen in battle, and we owe it to them to use the freedom that they have bought us as they have paid a bitter price to build a better world for all Australians.

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