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

I second the motion. We have patriots on all sides of this chamber—

An honourable member: Correct

We certainly do, and we have patriots who have served in uniform on all sides of this chamber. We have heard, again and again, calls from both sides to lean in to bring in our nation together because we can all agree it has never been more divided than it is now. Here is an opportunity to lean in and focus on the thing that unites us more than any other—our war memorials—because when you go to the war memorials you will notice a list of names. There is no rank. There is no race. There is no religion. There is no party-political identification. They don't even have honours and medals because the purity of their name and who they were as humans matters, and on that War Memorial are many thousands of people who were not born in this country. On that War Memorial are Christians and Jews and Muslims and, but for the bravery of people of every faith, there would be many more. I know, as the member for Canning and the member for Herbert know, we saw firsthand the bravery of people of Islamic faith who fought side-by-side with us, and many of us would have been added to that War Memorial but for their bravery.

So this motion, which you have notice of, is about focusing in on what unites our nation, not what divides us, because this is about acknowledging the people who said, 'This is not just a piece of dirt surrounded by water; it is a nation that stands for something. It is a nation with fighting for.' We acknowledge the service, sacrifice and unbearable grief of the families who had to walk into bedrooms and know that their sons had given up all their tomorrows for our today.

Humans aren't very good at comprehending large numbers. Imagine what 103,000 young men looks like. Go to the MCG. Stand there and know that, in one morning, 640 from Gallipoli took a seat. In 24 hours, fewer than 2,000—1,917—from Fromelles took a seat. Those were the deadliest 24 hours in Australian history. That's half of the Ponsford Stand. Seven-thousand seats were filled from the Somme, the other half filled from Pozieres. Those who died at Bullecourt are 2,000. Over 2½ months, Passchendaele saw 12,000 young Australians pay the ultimate sacrifice. That's 12 per cent of the honour role in 2½ months. By the end of World War I, when our population was a lot less than it is now, 61,000 Australians had died. That's a significant percentage of the MCG for a small population. In World War II, we saw days where 50 rows were filled from the Montevideo Maru. People from both parties, including the member for Canning, have relatives who went down in that sinking. In seven minutes, we saw 1,054 die. That's one per cent of the honour role. Then, in Korea, 340 died. In Vietnam, 523 died. In Afghanistan, 47 died, including friends of those on both sides.

And what of those left behind? We have an MCG of dead Australians who died for this country, but imagine an MCG full of mums, another MCG of dads, many, many more of those who were injured and wounded and those who we have heard from the royal commission took their lives. ANZAC Day and war memorials are not about glorifying war. They are about acknowledging who we are, who they were, what they did, what they gave up and what they left behind. But, as the sun comes up on ANZAC Day and every other day, we don't just acknowledge the grief of what was lost; we acknowledge what they fought for, and we do that with smiles on our faces. We do that thinking of their last memories of home—and all of them had a last memory of home. It would have been a happy one of their family, their friends, their mum and dad and a place that stood for something—a place that still does. It's a place worthy of them and a place worth fighting for. When we stand up at citizenship ceremonies, these war memorials are for every new Australian, every Indigenous Australian, every Jewish Australian, every Islamic Australian and every Christian Australian. It's about what unites us, and we ask you to join us in this motion.

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