Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like many in this building and throughout our nation, I wasn't born here. When I first went to school, I learnt about Anzac Day fresh. I remember a moment where a teacher said to me, 'Come into this room. I want you to meet someone that you will remember for the rest of your life,' and in that room were some World War I veterans. The teacher said, 'You're going to tell your grandkids that you met them one day.'

We just came off an Anzac Day where the last of the World War II veterans were in our electorates. I had one that I got to speak to, Jim Burrows, in the days before Anzac Day. He couldn't make it on the day. Jim is 101 and served as a coastwatcher. In fact, he's the last coastwatcher. His older brother died on the Montevideo Maru, which he didn't know about until towards the end of the war. His twin brother died in an air crash over Papua New Guinea. Like so many families, he was one of three that served and he's the only one that survived.

If there's a chance for schoolchildren anywhere throughout our electorates to meet a World War II veteran, I encourage all members to tell them to do it. They won't regret it, and one day they too will tell their grandkids that they met the greatest generation of Australians.

See this speech in context