Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was in the process of bringing my remarks to a close, considering Anzac Day in Indi.

At this part of my speech, I would like to close by making mention of my grandfather, Gladstone Robert McGowan, who enlisted in the second half of 1915, went to Egypt and then to England, and fought in the trenches of the Somme. He was an engineer. Their team were responsible for laying white tapes across no-man's land so that when the soldiers advanced they had some idea of where they were going.

Our family is so privileged to have his diaries, his maps and his stories. His legacy to his grandchildren was the importance of education. His experience of the war, which saw all material goods—homes and farms lost—left him with the commitment to educate himself and his family, believing that in whatever life presented an education would help in adapting to it. With this inspiration, I chose to be a teacher and am very grateful to Grandpa for his love, service, sense of duty and vision.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank the many public servants involved in this most amazing year of events. To the minister, Senator Ronaldson, and to his staff; and to the staff of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, who are always tactful, diplomatic and ready to answer any and every question: you did a terrific job!

The future of the commemoration of ANZAC Day is now in the hands and the hearts of our youth. In 100 years' time, when Australia is pausing to reflect on the 200 years since that Gallipoli landing in 1915, I hope that the young people of today and their children's children's children will remember the values that were embodied in Anzac, and that those will resonate still in our communities—the values of service to country; duty to family and community; and courage to fight for a better world.

In closing: to the veterans of Indi and to your families and communities, we say thank you for your dedicated service in our armed forces.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Prime Minister's recognition of one of this great nation's most historic milestones to date, the Centenary of Anzac.

One hundred years may seem like a long time but before we know it, it will be these young children at the schools that each of us visited in our electorates during this commemorative period who will be leading the 150 year-, or possibly even the 200-year, Anzac recognition.

But I truly believe that this may not eventuate in Australia's future if not for the hard work and dedication of our community veteran leaders, local governments across Australia, our schools, this federal coalition government and, of course, the hundreds of thousands of people who attended commemorative events over the past year and shone a light on this historic occasion. This centenary period has renewed our nation's Anzac spirit and has highlighted the importance of ensuring our history is not forgotten by future generations.

In school we all learnt about the horrors of foreign wars and our children learn about more recent wars, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq. But I believe our country's history should always be our greatest focus. This is not just with regard to the role our country played in Gallipoli but in all wars, such as the Vietnam War or World War II. As the saying goes, 'Life is a teacher. We are the student'. So we must remember those lives and the events of our past to ensure we learn from them and create a better future.

During this commemorative period I personally had the honour of participating in numerous school services across my electorate of Swan, rededication services for war memorials that this government assisted in revitalising and in the Anzac memorial services both on the eve of Anzac Day and on 25 April.

I take this time to make special mention of all the 12 schools in the City of Belmont who paid their respects to our servicemen and women at the inaugural combined schools service, which I must say was a fantastic commemorative event which I commend all the students for participating in and the city and school principals for organising. I also thank Perth Montessori School, Manning Primary School, Lathlain Primary School and the South Perth Senior Citizens Centre for welcoming me to each of their respective services.

On the eve of Anzac Day I attended the Victoria Park RSL Sub Branch's Anzac centenary memorial service to officially re-dedicate the sub branch's new memorial wall which, I am pleased to say, this government contributed nearly $60,000 toward under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program and the Saluting Their Service grants program. This was a very important project in my electorate of Swan which, again, I was humbled to be part of, as it specifically honoured those residents of the town of Victoria Park who enlisted or volunteered for active service during the First World War. Each serviceman that the sub branch was able to identify now has their own plaque on the newly-erected memorial wall, which this government can proudly say they assisted in creating. I am sure members can appreciate how onerous this task would have been.

I also had the honour of re-dedicating the City of Belmont and the Belmont RSL Sub Branch's new joint war memorial, to which this government also contributed $50,000 under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. This included a range of works, such as new walls, steps, rails, paving, earthworks, benches, flag poles and external lighting.

In the City of Canning $25,000 in funding was also granted by this government, but in this case it was for a commemorative event which the city invited all community members to participate in. The city's World Arts Exchange cultural festival is an annual event to celebrate Australia's national heritage. This year it was dedicated to 'Gallipoli Voices', commemorating this very important period of our history—the Anzac centenary. The event also served as the official opening of the WA National Heritage Trust Festival which, like the World Arts Exchange, dedicated this year's month-long festival to the commemoration of our servicemen and women.

The event was a fantastic example of cultures blending—in particular, Australia's ties with our former Turkish foes—with the festival featuring international guest artists from Turkey, who performed with several local arts organisations. The Consul-General of the Republic of Turkey, Dr Cahit Yesertener was an honorary guest. I would also like to mention Huseyin Aksakal, who is the president of the Turkish Islamic Association of WA for the work he put into promoting and organising the festival.

I am very proud that, as the federal representative for these communities, I was able to put forward these projects to the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program selection panel as valuable commemorative projects which will assist in preserving the stories of local service men and women for generations to come.

I am also proud to stand in this place today and inform members on all sides of the political divide that each of the services I attended on Anzac Day—at the City of Canning, the Town of Victoria Park and the City of South Perth—were overflowing with people, with the local City of Canning service in particular hosting more than double the number of attendees it did last year. We had people braving the cold and overflowing into carparks and side streets at the Town of Victoria Park. They actually had to turn the screens around to face the street there were so many people attending the commemorative service.

I am proud that as a nation we can hold our heads high and say that people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds took this time to recognise that this truly was a once-in-a-lifetime commemoration and to recognise that, while the horror of war was witnessed day in and day out in Gallipoli, so too were Australia's greatest ideals: respect for our fellow man; camaraderie; putting the interests of the whole before our own as individuals; building relationships, not breaking them; and protecting our nation and all those who are privileged to call it home to the best of our ability. We saw these ideals reflected by communities across Australia on Anzac Day, and we saw it when the Prime Minister stood shoulder to shoulder with the Leader of the Opposition on the same grounds that our soldiers fought on in Gallipoli.

Anzac Day is not a celebration. It is a day to hold reverence for our soldiers, both past and present, and to recognise the service they have provided to each and every one of us. To put your life on the line to protect people you have never met is a form of courage that few of us can truly claim to possess. I believe that the Centenary of Anzac is a milestone that every Australian should be humbled to be part of, because, without those who fought on our great nation's behalf on the shores of Gallipoli from 1914 to 1918 and in all wars since, we would not be living in this generous, diverse and tolerant country we each call home today.

From 2014 to 2018 the Australian government has committed its time, resources and energy to ensuring communities across Australia have the ability to commemorate our service men and women, to embrace our history and to learn from those events of our past to help create a better future. Striking a balance between commemorating these lives in a manner that encourages understanding, reflection and respect and generating passion and respect for the events that have been planned is not as easy as one may think; however, I believe that is exactly what has been achieved.

I congratulate all the local governments, RSLs and residents of my electorate of Swan for their participation in this historic milestone. Without them we would not be able to keep the Anzac spirit alive for future generations. And I salute the more than 300,000 Australians who served overseas during the First World War, the 60,000 people who lost their lives, which is more than in any conflict before or since, and all of our service men and women who continue to stand in defence of our nation today.

On a personal note, I will also mention that many of the diggers I have met in the past spoke very little about their war experiences. I found this out from my own father. When he passed away, we went through his possessions and found he had a photo album of his time serving in the South African Army in Italy during World War II. It was something that he never spoke of. He never talked about it once during the time I was with him growing up. That is probably the nature and character of people who serve when they fight to protect their nation.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 25 April our nation commemorated the centenary of the formation of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and their landing at Gallipoli as members of the British Empire force in 1915. This was the first occasion on which Australia as a federated nation had fought together. It was also the first occasion on which Australians had formed and fought as part of a combat unit with our friends the New Zealanders.

On the anniversary of 25 April every year since 1915, Australians, New Zealanders and, indeed, people of other nations have paid tribute to those Australians and New Zealanders who have served and died in all world wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. It is appropriate that we do so. In the centenary of the formation of ANZAC, it is appropriate that this parliament record its thanks, respect and gratitude for those who have served our nation over the last century.

The occasion which gave birth to the Anzacs was not a glorious victory. In fact, it was the complete opposite. The Gallipoli campaign was nothing short of a disaster. It was ill conceived by the British. It was poorly planned. There were many casualties, and it resulted in the defeat of the Allied forces and their withdrawal. The minutes of the war council stated that the objective of the Gallipoli campaign was to:

… bombard and take the Gallipoli Peninsula, with Constantinople as its objective.

The problem was that no-one had explained how that objective was going to be met. There was no intelligence or research submitted on the Turkish defences. No maps were submitted to the war cabinet prior to making that decision about the likely landscape and the defences that the Allied troops would face.

The initial assault was meant to be a naval one. The allies thought that they would be able to sail through the Dardanelles and that that particular territory and stretch of water would be undefended. The reality was that the Turks had well and truly mined the Dardanelles Strait and the British Navy could not get through. So plan B was a land invasion with infantry that would involve the Anzacs, who at that time were stationed in Egypt. So on 25 April 1915 our troops landed at Anzac Cove. Australians and New Zealanders fought with valour and bravery. The Gallipoli campaign was horrific in the toll that it took on our troops. The casualties were many—8,709 Australians were killed and 17,260 were wounded.

In recent times, some have been critical of Australia's reverence for Anzac Day and the fact that we commemorate a defeat. I disagree with this characterisation. It is not the outcome that we remember at Gallipoli; it is the sacrifice. Anzac Day has become Australia's and New Zealand's remembrance day. It is the one day when we as a nation pay tribute to those who served our nation, particularly those who have given their lives—and we have done so for 100 years and we must continue to do so. Some argue that we are being irreverent by playing sport or two-up or having a beer on Anzac Day. Again, I disagree. In fact, on the first Anzac Day in 1916, Sir John Monash, the great Australian general, wrote this in his diary in respect of what occurred in Egypt and the Suez Canal. Sir John Monash wrote:

For the rest of the day everyone was given a whole holiday. We spent the morning in cricket matches and other amusement, and in the afternoon the whole division went down to the canal to swim and took part in a great aquatic carnival. From the Serapeum pontoon bridge both sloping banks of the Suez Canal for fully a mile north were one teeming mass of naked humanity. At times there were over 15,000 men in the water, and whenever the judges launch tooted to notify that the course must be cleared the scamper to the bank was a sight worth seeing and remembering. Of course, we had many comic items not on the programme, including a skit on the memorable landing …

This clearly demonstrates that, in the eyes of a great general like Sir John Monash, the anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli was something for our nation to remember but also to come together and celebrate what it means to be Australian.

There is also much debate about the significance of the Anzac campaign in our nation's history and what it signifies. Some say it was the birth of our nation, our coming of age. Of course, this was not the first occasion in which Australians had fought together. We had fought together in the Boer War, although not as a federated nation. Our nation was clearly born at Federation. In my view, our involvement in World War I was an important step in the maturity of our nation. It awoke our confidence in our sense of independence. World War I, and particularly at Gallipoli, Australians proved that we were tough soldiers, that we were great strategists and that we could command troops. In fact, we began Word War I in Gallipoli as the infantry for other nations, but we finished World War I in the command of the troops of other nations and bringing success to pivotal battles that determined the outcome of the war. Many great Australians, including the likes of Sir John Monash, were involved in the command of not only Australian troops but troops from other nations.

In my view, Gallipoli awoke a consciousness of character in the Australian people. It created a belief in ourselves that we would be able to make decisions on our own, become an independent nation and have a confidence and attitude about ourselves—and that pervaded back home once the troops returned. So Anzac Day is principally a time to remember and pay tribute; but, culturally, it is also the symbol of Australian independence, confidence and determination. It is important to our nation's history in that respect. On the centenary of Anzac, it is appropriate that this parliament recognise and pay tribute to it.

Throughout the nation over the last 12 months, communities have been coming together to represent and to pay tribute to those who served. In Kingsford Smith I was proud to have established the Centenary of Anzac Committee, which did a sterling job in taking up applications from groups and members of our community and allocating funding to important projects and events to symbolise our tribute to those who served. I would like to congratulate the members of the centenary grants committee in Kingsford Smith: Tony Waller, Ann Slattery, Ronnie Davison, David Cohen, Roger Perry, Pam Richardson, Colin Flatters and Neil Lee. Our community thanks you for the work that you have done over the last 18 months in ensuring that we had an appropriate celebration and commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. It culminated in a number of projects, such as plaques being embedded in the footpaths of certain suburban streets named after World War I heroes, a Centenary of Anzac garden at Chifley Public School, the upgrading of the Light Horse monument at East Lakes and other important monuments and events. There was, of course, the spectacular Dawn Service that occurred at Coogee Beach, where 12,000 members of our community came together to pay tribute to those Anzacs. So, on behalf of our community, I again thank the members of our Centenary of Anzac Committee. I thank all of the members of the Kingsford Smith community, particularly the schools, the RSLs and the many other important community groups that came together to ensure that we had an important celebration, an important remembrance, of the sacrifice of those who have served our nation over the last 100 years. Lest we forget.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is truly a great honour to rise to speak to this motion commemorating the Centenary of Anzac and the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. It is a matter of deep national significance, and members have made many heartfelt contributions to the debate.

Australians enjoy a unique way of life that is the envy of the world. In 2014, almost 200,000 people migrated to Australia from every corner of the globe, seeking the great Australian promise of hope and opportunity. We enjoy many privileges as Australians. Most fundamentally, and above all else, we are safe, we are prosperous and we are free. It is not by chance that we are so fortunate. Freedoms and values which are today taken for granted are the enduring legacy of those who came before us. We have been kept free by the sacrifice and courage of great generations of Australians. Our service men and women, past and present, have through their service touched the lives of all Australians. All of us in this place representing our constituents as freely and democratically elected members of parliament are able to do so only because of those Australians who fought valiantly to preserve our democratic institutions against the threat of tyranny.

Much, of course, has changed since 1915. Borders have been redrawn, old empires have faded and new powers have emerged. Conflicts have arisen across the globe and through the decades. Time and time again, Australia has stood on the side of right as a vanguard of freedom and democracy. Today, as new and insidious threats arise that seek to poison our nation and to destroy our institutions, our security agencies and service men and women stand unyielding sentry in the best values and traditions of the Anzacs, ensuring that those enemies of all humanity will never succeed.

As foreign lands are again plunged into turmoil, and as we look toward the new and evolving challenges of the future, we must never forget the past. By learning from the past, we may stand on the shoulders of those great men and women. This Anzac Day, just over a month ago and 100 years after the Gallipoli landings, we paused to remember our nation's lost sons and to reflect on a storied century of service and sacrifice. At RSLs, avenues of honour and war memorials around the nation, on the rocky shores of Anzac Cove and atop the rolling hills of Villers-Bretonneux, record crowds gathered amidst an electric atmosphere. Australians, no matter where they lived, no matter their background and no matter the differences between each of them, had come together for the most significant remembrance event of our lifetimes. The Anzac Centenary has been a great coming together of our communities.

In my electorate of Dickson, the heartfelt and driven desire to honour the fallen has been inspirational and simply overwhelming. The Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program provided the community with the opportunity to hold truly remarkable memorial services and to create tangible and permanent expressions of our solemn gratitude. Through the Dickson Anzac Centenary committee, it was my humble privilege to assist local groups in securing the full $125,000 available under the program. The successful grant applicants were the Samford RSL sub-branch and Avenue of Honour Committee, the Dayboro War Memorial Association, the Pine Rivers District RSL sub-branch and Anzac Memorial Avenue Centenary Committee, and the Bray Park-Strathpine RSL sub-branch. Each submitted ambitious project plans, which they pursued with relentless pride and purpose.

The picturesque Samford Valley lies nestled between the mountains in the south-west of Dickson. Just beyond Samford Valley is a place of sombre reflection and a physical connection through history to our past—the Samford Avenue of Honour. The Avenue of Honour project is based around a newly constructed 700-metre pathway, which is shaped in the green pastures of Samford Parklands. At the path's highest point, a spectacular sandstone monument has been erected. It bears a plaque memorialising 20 local servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice. Twenty hoop pines have been planted along the length of the path, standing in their memory. A total of 100 trees have been planted, symbolising the 100 years of the centenary. These are just some of the elements of what is a breathtaking achievement.

I was honoured to officially open the avenue at last month's Anzac Day service in an avenue dedication ceremony. Years of work culminated in what was a remarkable event. I sincerely congratulate the committee on its resounding success. Under the outstanding leadership of President Jamie Whitehead, the Avenue of Honour Committee took what some believed to be an unattainable aspiration and gave it form and direction. Today, I thank Jamie, the committee secretary, Bill Gibson, the treasurer, Ian Ruffles, the artist and creator of the avenue, Jamie Maclean, and committee members John Denyer, Carmel and Ross Mazzeo, and Peter Bishop. The Samford Avenue of Honour Committee has left an indelible mark on the Samford community. Long after we are gone, in many years from now, our great-grandchildren may walk among towering pines and reflect upon the service and sacrifice of the distant past and the coming of age of a young nation.

Dayboro, a town of yesteryear, lies in the north-west of Dickson. Dayboro is a small and tight-knit rural community which has long held a proud connection to its past and shown a reverence for service. The Dayboro War Memorial Association is a testament to those values. In 1920, the Dayboro War Memorial was erected by the residents of Dayboro and district. It stood 14 feet tall and looked over the town from the elevated grounds of the state school. The memorial was inscribed with the names of 15 men from the district who died on service in the Great War. It also bears an honour roll naming the 34 men who returned home. Many years later, a solemn plaque was affixed in memory of six locals killed during the Second World War. In 2011, the memorial was relocated from the school to Roderick Cruice Park.

Almost 100 years after Dayboro residents first dedicated the memorial, the Dayboro War Memorial Association has marked the centenary of the Anzac with a project for the enrichment of the existing memorial site. Three tall black granite columns have been erected directly beside the grand old monument. These columns are etched with the names, the known history and the photographs of the 15 local people who made the supreme sacrifice. The columns give humanity, dignity and meaning back to those men, who are no longer mere names on a list. For the first time in a century, as their faces peer back from the glassy black stone, the people of Dayboro can see their lost sons again.

The project also involved the construction of a full-scale model trench and the purchase of World War I army uniforms for a re-enactment on Anzac Day. Generations of Dayboro residents will thank the Dayboro War Memorial Association for what they have done to preserve their history. Today, I congratulate them in this House. President Richard Hawkins, Vice-President Neil Rowe, Secretary Pamela Miller and Treasurer Michael Flannigan should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved for their beloved Dayboro and for what they have done to honour these men who have given their service to our country.

Anzac Avenue is a heritage listed road that runs from Petrie in the east of Dickson right through to Redcliffe in Luke Howarth's electorate of Petrie. The avenue was constructed by returned First World War servicemen as part of a postwar employment assistance scheme. It was to serve both as a tourist drive, connecting greater Brisbane with the sandy beaches of the Redcliffe peninsula, and also as a utilitarian memorial to those lost in the war. Construction began in 1922, and the road was opened to traffic in 1925. The Anzac Memorial Avenue was dedicated to Queensland's fallen service personnel, and from 1925 to 1929 around 1,800 trees were planted along its length. To this day, Anzac Avenue remains the longest memorial avenue in the state.

I want to pay tribute to the committee. They performed an outstanding duty. I was also privileged to be invited to the Petrie School of Arts to join the White family in planting a memorial tree as part of the committee's 100 Trees for 100 Years project. The Petrie School of Arts was the location of the first memorial tree planting in 1925, when the trees were planted by the then Governor of Queensland, Sir Matthew Nathan. I acknowledge the good work of David Dwyer, of Tony Watson, of Treasurer Darryl Neilds and committee members Judy Kranen, Brent Ledez and John Coutts. Each of these people were outstanding in the work that they did. I would also like to recognise all the schools and the work of the RSLs and to congratulate winners Jason Lejcak of Genesis Christian College and Megan Kennedy of Kurwongbah State School for the outstanding work that they did. They were awarded for the work they did in recognising the soldiers. I recognise also the members of the Bray Park RSL—John Burgess ED KM, Chairman Phil Symonds, Historian Brian Avery, Bowls Club Liaison David Antney, School Liaisons Lin Lahey and Peter Spies, also for his fundraising work, as well as Alex McMillan, Treasurer, and Brian Kay and subcommittee members Phil Livingstone, John Carruthers, Alf Richardson, Alan Davis, Mick McMillan and Jack Eviston. All of these people need to be enormously proud of the contribution they made.

In closing, I will very quickly acknowledge three more as my own family looks to the First World War service of James and Edward Leitch and Leonard Draper. Leonard was tragically killed in action two weeks before his 23rd birthday. We have an enormous amount to be proud of in this country, and the commemorations that took place in my electorate and around the country in this year of centenary commemoration are a great honour to our country. I thank the House.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a fortuitous coincidence that I should follow the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in speaking on this motion, because we spent Anzac Day in Anzac Cove together in 2008, and I know we both appreciated the privilege of that opportunity. Indeed, I am one of the relatively few people who have had the great honour and privilege to deliver both the Dawn Service Address and the Lone Pine Address at Gallipoli on Anzac Day. It is an opportunity and a privilege that can barely be described. Standing in the cold as the dawn breaks and listening to that very cold water lapping just behind the area from where you address the crowd is an almost surreal experience—addressing about 10,000 people, about 80 per cent of whom are Australians, typically dressed in yellow.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

All of whom were very proud of you too, Joel.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his intervention. And every year of course in Anzac Cove and in every corner of Australia, in every town and city, we do gather to commemorate the events of 1915 and all those events that followed them right throughout the course of what came to be known as the Great War. It is interesting to recall that something like almost 500,000 Australians enlisted to fight in the First World War. We were a population of just five million then. So, around 10 per cent of our population served in the war, something that is just unimaginable now. In recent years we have gone through conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with a significant number, but the numbers just pale into almost insignificance when you consider the 60,000 Australians who gave their lives for Australia in the First World War and the 156,000 or 157,000 or so who were injured, many quite seriously. When you think about it or analyse it, you can almost attribute Australia's losses during the Second World War to the imperfect settlement of the Great War. It was a conflict that had very significant ramifications for our country.

But the first battle, the landing at Gallipoli, is often seen as the birth of our nation, or at least the birth of Australians as we know them—the introduction of the Australian spirit, the Australian way, the Anzac tradition. That is why it remains such a significant event for all Australians. Of course, the more time that passes between 25 April 1915 and the present day, the more important it will be for us to remember and to remind. None of us knew those who landed on the shores of Gallipoli, and certainly they will be a more distant memory to those who follow us, and that is why it is so important that we continue to attend Anzac Day services in such large numbers. That is why it is important that the government of the day continue to put a very heavy emphasis on Anzac Day, to ensure that people do remember. I note that the further we move from 1915 the more emboldened people are to be critical of both the intervention and the way in which we commemorate those events. I think people are entitled to pass those criticisms. That is their right, and I do not challenge their right, but I think it is very, very wrong.

There were tragic mistakes made at Gallipoli and those tragic mistakes had very large consequences. But what we commemorate on Anzac Day is not war or what went wrong or what went right; what we commemorate on Anzac Day is the sacrifice and the fact that, regardless of the wrongs or rights of the strategy and the orders of their masters, Australians did what was asked of them without question, which is well depicted, of course, in the movie Gallipoli. I think the term 'without question' is very appropriate in this instance, and we should continue to very actively commemorate that day and the events which followed it in that spirit: young Australians volunteered to go to a distant place—with a very shallow understanding, it must be said, about why they were going, who they were fighting, what the strategy was and what the ultimate objective was—absolutely without question. When things looked hopeless and they were asked to keep going, they kept going, and that is what we commemorate each Anzac Day and at every service throughout the year when we remember those who have served in the First World War and, indeed, in the Boer War before that and in each and every conflict in which Australia has been a participant since.

Like those who have spoken before me, I want to pay tribute to those in my own electorate who make sure every year, but particularly this year, that the events of 1915 are properly remembered and commemorated. Leading them, of course, are those who make up our RSL sub-branches. They are all magnificent in my electorate, as I am sure is the case in each and every electorate around this country. Every year they work for months in advance to make sure that Anzac Day is an appropriately solemn occasion and that the commemorations run smoothly and, indeed, that people get something to eat and something to drink after the ceremonies themselves. This year, in the centenary year, local RSL sub-branches worked for years, really, to make sure the commemoration was all that it should be. I pay tribute to each and every one of them. They are all volunteers and they do wonderful work on behalf of not only the community but of course the veterans whom they represent.

Our local councils were also very active, not only in making applications for the funding provided by the government to make sure the events were properly commemorated but also in providing the in-kind assistance which is necessary on the day, from traffic management right through to the tidying up of local cenotaphs and the parks around them. They do a magnificent job and I thank them for those efforts.

I want to make mention of the Maitland RSL Sub-Branch because most members are aware that in the lead-up to Anzac Day we had very significant rains and floods in the Hunter Valley and it provided disruption for Anzac Day commemorations. I know that none of my other sub-branches will be offended if I say that Maitland possibly has the most beautiful environment for an Anzac Day service. The cenotaph is a very significant one and Maitland council always does a wonderful job in preparing the grounds and making sure the place is as beautiful as it possibly can be. I feel for the Maitland RSL Sub-Branch members who were forced to move their commemoration to the Maitland Town Hall, which itself is a significant building. In fact, it is where Edmund Barton, our first Prime Minister, delivered the first campaign speech for the first election around Federation, but Maitland Town Hall is not really designed for an Anzac Day ceremony. It was unfortunate that the floods and rains forced our local RSL sub-branches to take that second option, but that does not detract from the magnificent work they did in ensuring that the events for the centenary year were appropriately commemorated.

I quickly mention the residents of Gillieston Heights who were landlocked by the floodwaters. Both roads going into the town were blocked and the residents very quickly managed to organise their own Anzac Day ceremony on 'Gillieston Island', as they called it—the member for Paterson will be familiar with the term—so that local residents did not miss out on the opportunity to commemorate the centenary events. I congratulate all involved. It is a great privilege to be able to speak to this motion.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with sincere and profound respect for those who have sacrificed so much for our nation that I stand here today to honour and commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. Just over a month ago, on Anzac Day, we as a nation paused and we reflected on our nation 100 years on from that heroic landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—the Anzacs—on the shore of Gallipoli in Turkey. I am most pleased that we continue to have the opportunity throughout this year and years to come to remember our nation's most important commemorative event. I often wondered what it would have been like to have been one of those young, energetic, very brave and at times foolhardy young men who stormed the beach—those who signed up for military service because of the adventure, not knowing what their fate would be.

In 2010, along with my colleagues at the table here, we had the opportunity to visit Afghanistan as part of a defence exchange. After we had been to Tarin Kowt and Kandahar, I took the opportunity to go on to Gallipoli where I was joined by Malcolm Turnbull, now the Minister for the Environment, the Governor General and Warren Snowdon, who was then the Minister for Veterans Affairs. As an aside, I said to my young brother, who has now passed, that I was going to Afghanistan and I really wanted to take my father's original medals to Gallipoli and wear them at the Gallipoli service. He said to me, 'Why don't you take Grandfather's medals?'

Until that that point in time I had never realised that my grandfather had served in Gallipoli. My family has had a tendency never to talk much about their service, even though they were in the British forces.

I found the experiences that I had in the two days I spent in Gallipoli to be very deep and moving. We went from Canakkale to Eceabat. The first thing we did on 24 April 2010 was attend the Turkish international services. It was very moving to listen to the Turkish side of the story and their brave and heroic efforts. We departed Mehmetcik Abidesi and went to the French memorial at Morto Bay. Again, it was a very moving service. From there we went to the Commonwealth memorial at Cape Helles. That is where the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, because I tried to realise what it would have been like for my grandfather in storming those beaches. I cannot explain how I actually felt. It was very moving.

The next day, Anzac Day, we all took off on the ferry that went across to Anzac Cove. We sat there and witnessed the audience of people looking out across the water examining the beach, trying to understand what would have been going through those young men's minds as the hail of bullets rained down upon them, and yet they kept going. Yes, they landed in the wrong position. But their determination was so strong and their bond, their mateship, came to the fore like never before, and they dug in. They dug the trenches out of survival, hence the name 'diggers'. With my colleague Stuart Robert, we walked up and down some of the trenches. We visited some of the various sites. We went to Lone Pine and attended the ceremony there. We visited the Turkish memorial of the 57th Regiment. We went to the New Zealand memorial service at Chunuk Bair memorial. Each and every one of those services and each and every one of those grave sites hold special meaning and different meaning for each individual country but collectively recognise and reflect the heroic contribution that people made.

From there I had the opportunity to go over to Brussels and catch up with my very dear friend the Hon. Brendan Nelson, who happened to be the ambassador. He had organised for me during that tour, amongst other things, to visit Polygon Wood and to go to the museum in the Zonnebeke Chateau, which is a unique display of how people lived in those times and dealt with the effects of war. We went to Tyne Cot Cemetery and visited Hill 60, where miners from my region dug the tunnels to put the explosives under the hill to disrupt the German forces. We went to Flanders Field. Perhaps the most moving thing for me personally was to attend the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate, where I was honoured to be asked not only to present a wreath but to recite the oath. That gave me a sense of appreciation, and I reflected on the contributions of people in my electorate.

I thank the government for providing $125,000 to my electorate to help celebrate and reflect on people's contributions. I appointed a very distinguished independent committee to assess the applications for those funds, headed by Glenn Wall, a former veteran from Vietnam; Dennis Martin; Bill Garrett, the Hon. Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair, AC, former Governor of New South Wales; Keith McNeil; and Sonny Morris—all people deeply embedded within my veterans community. They assessed, independent from me, all of the applications.

They deemed that applications such as the Nelson Bay RSL Sub-Branch should receive money to erect a commemorative stele at Apex Park, to recognise the centenary of the service and sacrifice of those who served in the First World War. The Dungog RSL received money to restore a Krupp field gun for display in front of the RSL. The Dungog and District National Servicemen's Association received money to upgrade and replicate First World War honour rolls at the cenotaph in Stroud. The Bulahdelah War Memorial Trust were given money to establish a memorial garden and a commemorative exhibition. The Forster-Tuncurry RSL received money to upgrade their Lone Pine memorial. The Port Stephens Naval Association received finances to establish a memorial for the HMAS Psyche. The Karuah RSL produced a commemorative booklet about First World War soldiers from the Karuah area. The Newcastle Legacy Fund, Port Stephens Group received money to produce a tribute for the 100 years of service. The Maitland Grossmann High School received money to install an Anzac Centenary memorial garden. The Tilligerry RSL Sub-Branch received money to install a memorial plaque. The Gresford Community Group received money to plant memorial Lone Pine trees and Gallipoli roses for each locally born person who served in the World War I. The Raymond Terrace RSL Sub-Branch were given money for the Seaham 'knitting circle' memorial. Great Lakes College received money to research, design and construct memorial boards which detailed the battle of Lone Pine and the seven Victoria Cross recipients. The Port Stephens Veterans and Citizens Aged Care received money for a wall mural of the Anzacs. The Tea Gardens RSL received money to create a commemorative plaque for display. This was great work, well researched, understood and accepted by our community. I wish there had been more money for all the projects that were put forward, but sadly finances were somewhat limited.

As the member for Hunter said, this Anzac Day was rather special in our community, particularly in and around the Hunter region. I personally attended the dawn service at Dungog, which days before had been severely affected by floods, with loss of lives including two servicemen. I also had the opportunity to go to Nelson Bay for their Anzac service. On the way through I drove to Karuah and joined them for breakfast after their dawn service. It showed their spirit, because they did not have any power, so their complete dawn service was done by torchlight and candlelight. It did not dampen their enthusiasm.

What impressed me most of all at the various Anzac services I visited, those where my family represented me and from speaking to my staff who represented me was the number of people who turned out this year. The crowds were larger than ever before at each and every service across my electorate. So I say, 'Thank you' to my constituents for coming out after a difficult week and a storm event to pay their respects to those who gave us the freedoms and democracies that we enjoy and live by today. It would be remiss of me if I did not thank the people who are currently serving in overseas theatres of operation for their contribution to the safety and security of this nation, Australia.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no greater privilege in public life than to honour the service of our Defence Force personnel. This hundredth anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli was a very special year in our public life. As so many other members of this House have remarked, the experience this year on Anzac Day was so special—special because not only did record numbers of people turn out but they turned out to really connect with our veteran community. A large part of the success was the program, Australia Remembers. This year was special because it marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific and the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings..

The connection between the 100th anniversary and the 70th anniversary is that we in Australia have now begun to build a bridge between the war generations, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. So much has happened in Australia in the past 20 years that it is now a regular event for there to be an Anzac Day ceremony at every school in the areas we represent. That was not true 20 years ago. It has been special to see the diversity of projects that have been applied for across the areas we represent.

Last Anzac Day was a very special day. One hundred years ago 3000 troops from the length and breadth of this country landed to begin the assault on Gallipoli Peninsula. In the months that followed men from my area like Billy Sing, the Gallipoli sniper, and others with names like Bridges, Church, Collins, Mackay and Smith joined the battle in their thousands. Their lives and their experiences are represented on a new memorial wall, which was funded as part of Australia Remembers at the Geebung RSL. It is a very special wall, where they depict the cliffs of Anzac Cove, the bugles, the weapons they carried, the postcards of hope they sent home. And, of course, there is a very special picture of Billy Sing.

That morning 100 years ago, stuck in a landing boat, approaching the shore, an Australian officer recalled the noise of the incoming fire:

The rat-a-tat-tat was followed by the whistle of the little messengers of death.

Then it opened out into a terrific chorus, the key was being turned in the lock of the lid of hell.

Dozens were shot in their boats. Others drowned trying to get off the beach in the first few hours of the landing. The rest fought their way past the first line of Turkish defenders and scrambled uphill through thick bush to reach the ridges that surrounded the beach. In the months that followed, 26,000 Australians died or were wounded; many survivors were commended for their bravery but indelibly maimed by the experience.

In all 416,000 Australians enlisted in the Great War, 60,000 died and 156,000 were wounded—one of them was my grandfather. Last year, in my Nundah office, I opened an Australia Post parcel and, as I did so, some medals fell to the floor. As it turned out, they belonged to my grandfather, a man I never met and who died at 56 years of age from the effects of wounds and gassings experienced on the Western Front that completely wrecked his health. The note attached to the medals was very moving. It was from a collector who, decades ago, had picked them up at an antique shop. He felt with the centenary coming up, he would make every effort to find the owners of hundreds of medals in his possession. He said of the medals:

They all have a man with a story behind the name impressed upon them; they are fantastic pieces of history and mean a great deal to me; they were all great men.

Yes, they were great men. On Anzac Day they were all represented at the ceremonies we went to by the medals which were proudly worn by their descendants and by the medals proudly displayed by our current war veterans. This, more than anything else, signifies why this centenary is so important.

There was an air of celebration about this centenary, a lot of noise and a lot of media hype—and that was inevitable—but we cannot let it be commercialised to the point that we lose focus of the values and the people we respect and revere. The medals remind us of that. So it is not about a celebration or noise; it is about the things we do not have. It is about those lying in military graves in foreign lands, their headstones remaining as a profound statement of our nation's ideals. It is about the young people lost, the voices that have fallen silent, and those who carried their wounds through the rest of their natural life. It is about remembering what those lives and voices were like, and why they were sacrificed. And, of course, it is about quiet local events that occurred on 25 April right around our country in every community.

The true spirit of Anzac is local. The memorial wall at Geebung reminds that they could have been our parents, our grandparents or our neighbours. We, on the north side of Brisbane, played a significant part in the Great War. The area was pretty sparsely populated back in 1914, but, within in weeks of the start of the Great War, large numbers turned out to enlist. More followed after Gallipoli and yet more after the battle of the Somme began in July 1916. By November 1916, in Chermside in my electorate there were 2,400 men were in training. With that kind of presence, the local community formed organisations to give 'send-offs' to departing soldiers and planned 'welcome homes' for returning diggers. Locals raised money to send parcels to the troops on the front line. Pupils at the Chermside State School chipped in by knitting socks throughout the Great War. What they were doing was looking after our troops—looking after one another in good times and bad. That is what lifts this nation above being merely a collection of individuals.

As the son of a veteran of the Second World War and the grandson of a veteran of the First World War, I accept my duty to honour their service and to do everything that we can to ensure that those people and their families are looked after. I am sure it is a duty that we all accept and hand down to our children and grandchildren. In this centenary year, we are united by sacrifice and by the tragedy of war. It is a universal and unifying story about courage. Every year on Anzac Day we ask ourselves two fundamental questions: why did they fight, and why do we still fight? We do so because of principles that stretch back to the birth of Western civilisation—truly fundamental principles that form the bedrock of our modern democracy—the principle of justice and the principle that nations that trample on the rights of others must be resisted.

We do not put our young men and women in harm's way unless it can be justified by more than the self-interest of the empire-builders. They do more than just honourably defend us—they are fighting for universal principles. And underlying those universal principles are the notion and pursuit of equality. The central idea that drives us is the idea of egalitarianism: that one person is as good as the next. Our ideal is no master, no servant, just individuals bound together as equals. Our officers and our soldiers were not treated as separate castes. Our commanders valued the lives of their soldiers and spent those lives with the utmost reluctance.

Of course, our egalitarian ideals were not born at Gallipoli—Australia was egalitarian from birth—but at Gallipoli those ideals were tested, and they proved their worth. What emerged was a moral code that rapidly established itself as our supreme national virtue—a combination of bravery, resilience, the ability to improvise, and sticking together in hard times, no matter what. It is our national story—a story about being there for others when they need help, no matter where they are or who they are. It is about defending anyone's right to pursue their own patch of equality. That is what my grandfather and my father fought for. They fought for a nation founded on the universal principle of equality. That is a nation worth fighting for, and that is what the centenary year means to me.

That is why it has been so pleasing to have so many people working so hard to make this year a success—people like Pat O'Keeffe, Peter McNamara, Ron Virgen, Joy Bryson, Lindsay McCullough, Mark Takacs, Jeanette Gentle, Bruce Fogarty, Jenny Bullen, Sally-Anne Wright, Chris Manktelow and Scott Leonard, and fantastic projects at Wavell high, Banyo RSL, St Kieran's and the Geebung RSL. I think this a fitting tribute to all of those who served and have sacrificed for our country.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the centenary year of the Anzac landings, I think it is more than fitting that we in this House remember the service of those that have gone before us, and I offer some of my reflections on this Centenary of Anzac year.

One of my earliest memories from childhood was as a little infant school student, attending Anzac Day marches along with my classmates, where, at the intersection around the cenotaph, what seemed like thousands of people were gathering. That was from the early sixties, in a different time and a different space, and there were many living returned servicemen and women. One of my grandparents who served in World War I was still alive; my maternal grandfather had already passed on, but grandmothers, cousins and aunts all related stories from the war. So it was much more tangible at the time. Some of the sentiments to our opponents in the various wars and combats were still alive and palpable.

By the time I reached my teens, the closest I got to military service was joining the cadet force, but sentiments were quite different for a period there, and in retrospect the nation looks back on that with a bit of shame. There was a slight collective embarrassment or neglect regarding the service of our Vietnam servicemen and women. So much so that you were basically criticised by a lot of your peers for attending parades and being involved in the cadet corps. The cadet corps involvement became definitely uncool. It was only when we had the welcome home parade that, on a public level, that sentiment officially changed. People came to realise that the servicemen and women of Vietnam had done just what every other Australian serviceman and woman had done, and that was answer the call—particularly as many of them were conscripts.

By the time I reached my 20s, my interest was piqued in all things historical, but nothing was more interesting than a trip to Turkey to visit Gallipoli and see what it really was like. So I travelled there long before there was a good road down to the beach. A lot of the restorations had not occurred, but the lines of graves and the ceremonial areas were well tended by the Turkish nation, and it really was quite moving. We made our way down to Anzac Cove, and walking in from the water and looking up at the cliffs really did put into relief how frightening and daunting the prospect of scaling those cliffs must have been with a hail of bullets coming down at you. It must have been a horrible, horrible episode in anyone's life if they served in any battle, let alone there. The bullets are the same everywhere a serviceman goes and so are the bombs, but being there on the site of such a well-documented battle over many months really brought it home.

When I returned, I had the opportunity to read through my maternal grandfather's diary. He had been through the Anzac peninsula and on to the battlefields in France. My other grandfather served too in that same conflict, and my father and uncles served in World War II. It was through my father and uncles that I learned a lot about the service of our service men and women and saw up-front some of the consequences of putting yourself in harm's way for the betterment of your nation and our democracy.

There are some things that are seared into the memory of every Australian, and one is the phrase 'lest we forget'. I am very pleased to say that, in recent years, the ceremonial recognition and commemorations of Anzac Day are much more appropriate to the memory of those who have gone before us and served, and 2015 was by no means an underdone event in the Lyne electorate. At dawn in Port Macquarie, there were no fewer than 10,000 people assembled by the banks of the Hastings River on the town green for a very memorable service led by Port Macquarie RSL sub-branch President Greg Laird. No larger crowd has ever been seen in greater Port Macquarie. Returned service men and women were joined by up to four generations of descendants. We heard some very moving speeches, wreaths were laid, prayers were made, a very eerie last post and reveille were played, and the Australian flag was raised after the initial lowering. Some people in boats passed by just at the time the bugler was playing.

In Taree, on the Manning, similarly huge crowds turned up, I am told, at the dawn service, and I had the opportunity of joining them later in the morning for a very moving ceremony preceded by a march through the town attended by service men and women, community groups, school groups and lots of volunteer service organisations. There was a specially formed choir and a fly-past, and I would like to compliment the Taree sub-branch of the RSL led by its president, Bob Coombes, and Darcy Elbourne and Dennis Lawrence, who have been organising these services for many years. At that service in Taree, we had a very developed group of memorials that were very well restored and maintained, including the original cenotaph, which is really quite an amazing cluster of memorials for a town the size of Taree.

I then had the opportunity of moving on to a special luncheon with the Kendall RSL Sub-branch members, and they similarly had an incredibly large turnout for the small village of Kendall: up to 600 people made it to their dawn service. It was a very interesting set of speeches that we had from members and returned servicemen. I had the opportunity of attending four school-based RSL services, and I would like to compliment all of them. At St Joseph's in Taree, Mark Mowbray, the principal, organised a wonderful ceremony, with all the schoolchildren involved. Likewise, at St Joseph's in Wingham, Principal Emma Timmins did a wonderful job. At the Wauchope High School we had a huge turnout—every student. I do not think there were any non-attendances at school that day. Principal Glen Sawle was ably assisted by Des Hancock from the Wauchope RSL, along with teacher Graham Pinkerton.

I mentioned that saying 'lest we forget'; I can say that the Lyne electorate definitely did not forget. They turned up in droves, in their thousands, to honour the service and the sacrifice of our veterans over many generations. Everyone now is aware of their service and the principles for which they fought valiantly and for which many died. I am so pleased that the Australian populace now has a much greater awareness of the original sacrifice of our ANZAC veterans, and the service and undertakings of subsequent generations.

Debate adjourned.