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

Whilst forming up for the Anzac Day march in Palmerston in my electorate, I had a great chat with Joey Flynn. Joey was wearing her dad's medals. Jack Yates fought in the Second World War, and Joey gave me this poem that she'd written, 'An ode to the diggers of all wars':

You gave your lives in thankless wars,

your blood spilt upon foreign lands and shores.

Your lives slipped away as you thought of loved ones far away in Aussie land.

The bullets and bombs finding their target, exploding near and far,

the fear, sweat and the stench of blood and death.

Yet that Aussie spirit and determination kept you fighting through.

Your digger mates all around you succumbed to injury or death,

but you knew that you might never return home.

Your injuries and deaths, you had never planned.

As a daughter of a digger, I've grown up never knowing war.

I do not know you, but I will not forget your courage and sacrifices.

For all the fallen and wounded men, women and animals,

may your spirits and minds with flashbacks no longer be troubled.

We say we will remember them. Lest we forget.

We hold you closely to our hearts always.

Australians visiting and marching overseas and at home,

we often think of you so that you will never be alone.

Joey's mum was a member of the stolen generation, and she was proud to march on Anzac Day this year in Palmerston. Lest we forget.

See this speech in context