Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We honour the service and sacrifice of those who have fought to defend our country. It's an important reflection of who we are and what we value, and a big part of this recognition is through memorials and commemorations. To me, the most powerful type of recognition is living memorials, acts of recognition that seek to provide opportunities to our following generations that bring Australians together. These are to me the most special kinds of recognition, and that's what we're acknowledging here today. I'm pleased to rise to speak in favour of this motion, acknowledging the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund and the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary.

The Gallipoli scholarship is a great story. It was originally established by veterans of the Great War to provide opportunities for the descendants of veterans to pursue higher education. Australian citizens who are the descendants of Anzac veterans who served in any peace or conflict operation since the First World War may apply. While the scholarship recognises academic achievement, weighting is given to the circumstances of the applicant to ensure that support flows to the most deserving candidate. I think that's really important and a credit to the scholarship.

It has expanded and today we're talking about a new and important development. The Turkish Australian community has come together to create a new bursary under the scholarship fund. The Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary will, from next year, support even more young people to pursue higher education. I attended its launch at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra in March, and it was great to join with others, including my friend the member for Parramatta, to mark this important occasion. Ataturk, of course, was a commander of Ottoman forces at Gallipoli and went on to found and lead the modern state of Turkey. It is poignant that a scholarship fund named for the bravery and sacrifice of our Anzacs in their first great engagement will offer a bursary named for the commander of their adversaries at that time. I've been to Gallipoli on Anzac Day, and it's an incredibly moving experience. At the site, as you may well know, Deputy Speaker Wallace, is a bronze bust of Ataturk inscribed with the following quote honouring enemy soldiers who died in Turkey:

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 … 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.

It's an incredibly generous sentiment expressed by Ataturk on behalf of the Turkish people. The power of the Gallipoli story rests in the capacity to bring people together, and I think this bursary is a wonderful example of this.

Turkish Australians have made an outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Australia. Yes, this scholarship fund and this new bursary is a living memorial to the sacrifice of our Anzacs, but, in a larger sense, it stands as a reminder of our subsequent friendship with Turkey and the ongoing contributions of Turkish Australians. It will directly improve lives and create opportunities. It is a great Australian story.

None of this would be possible without the hard work of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund Management Committee, including its chairman, my friend Michael Smith AO. Michael has had a distinguished career of service, retiring from the army as a major general. He also served as a founding executive director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre in Queanbeyan. He's here in the gallery today with another great Australian, Omer Incekara. Omer is the chair of the Ataturk Scholarship, and the Ataturk Scholarship contributed the bursary to the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. I thank Omer and Michael for their ongoing contributions. On a personal note, as a veteran who is the son of a veteran who himself was the son of a veteran and also as someone who is a great-grandson of a World War I veteran, I say thank you very much. It was a great honour for me to stand on the soil at Gallipoli looking out over that country and to know that this was such a big part of the story of Australia growing. And this, which you have created, is a great part of the story of our relationship with Turkey into the future. I encourage all members and senators to learn about the Gallipoli scholarship and the bursary and to promote it in your electorates.

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