Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not only is this Australian National Flag Day; it is the 75th anniversary of Australia's entry into the Second World War. On 3 September 1939 at 9.15 pm, a statement by our then Prime Minister Robert Menzies was broadcast on radio stations across the country. Mr Menzies said:

It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia is also at war. No harder task can fall to the lot of a democratic leader than to make this announcement.

Prime Minister Menzies subsequently set up the Department of Munitions. He dispatched the Second Australian Imperial Force and reintroduced compulsory military training for young men. After Menzies' fall in 1941, it was Prime Minister John Curtin who then led our country through the war in the Pacific and helped to bring victory to the Allies. Today, we honour the memory of the leaders who served our country and we salute the service of our people. Almost a million Australians served in the Second World War, some 40,000 died. We fought against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa; and against Japan in South-East Asia and other parts of the Pacific and, of course, the Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time.

The Second World War was a defence of freedom against tyranny. It was fought against the evils of fascism and Nazism. It was fought to defend civilisation. On this 75th anniversary of the war's commencement for us, we remember our allies, especially Britain and the United States. We remember the sacrifice of the Australians who died, the suffering of those who were wounded or taken prisoner of war and the mental and physical scars of those who made it home. To them, we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Almost a million Australians would answer their country's call in the Second World War, human history's most destructive struggle between tyranny and freedom. Many more would serve in civilian occupations supporting this effort. At 9.15 on the evening of 3 September, 75 years ago today, Prime Minister Menzies spoke of the:

… calm fortitude which rests not upon the beating of drums, but upon the unconquerable spirit of man …

Today we pay tribute to the sacrifices and struggles of the great generation. Tested by the trials of the Depression, they nevertheless went forth again as volunteers to confront the grotesque challenges of the Nazism, fascism and Japanese militarism, from the Western Desert to the jungles of New Guinea, from the skies of Europe and the Sunda Strait to the unimaginable suffering on the Burma Thai railway and Sandakan, from the towns and skies of northern Australia to the seas around our great island continent. These were ordinary men and women, our grandparents and our great grandparents, who gave extraordinary service to our nation. As Prime Minister John Curtin said, 'Let Hitler boast that every citizen of Germany is a soldier, let us be proud that every Australian soldier is a citizen.' For these are citizens of our nation, the horrors of the First World War hovered in collective and individual memory. Yet, still again, they left behind their homes and their loved ones to risk their lives in Australia's name. It is their bravery, their sacrifice and the love of the ones whom they left behind that we remember them today and we honour them today.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We do now move to questions without notice.