Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the statement given to this House by the Prime Minister in respect of the centenary of the Anzac landings on 25 April 1915. Of course, we are now in August and it is an appropriate time to remember the August Offensive and the Lone Pine battle. This is a vital part of Australia's cultural history. We commemorate Anzac Day on 25 April each year, not specifically about the Gallipoli landings but about all service that people give in the name of Australia.

It was the first significant contribution that we made as a country. I think the reason it is so significant to our culture is that we were not forged in fire like so many other democracies—the Americans, who often celebrate the American Revolution and the Civil War and, of course, the United Kingdom had similar experiences. But Australia negotiated through argument and debate for our Constitution. When we formed our nation, it was not actually formed through a battle. I think this is why this contribution in 1915 was so significant to our cultural history, why it is so significant going forward and why it is so important to recognise what was then done in Europe, what was done in the Second World War, what was done in Vietnam and what was done in so many other contributions that we have made. Obviously, we continue to make them today in Iraq, where servicemen and women are giving their lives for our freedom.

The statement that the Prime Minister gave to this House and the bipartisan nature of the fact that we are commemorating this occasion is very significant. I think the government did a good thing with the local grants program that each electorate oversaw. In my own electorate we had a Mr Jock Statton AM, who was formerly the president of the South Australian RSL branch, chair that committee to ensure that the funding was appropriately handed out right across the electorate. He did an outstanding job with his committee, made up of Kym McHugh, Christine Bell, Ann Herraman, Julie Reece and Mike McRae, in ensuring that RSLs particularly received money to help ensure that the legacy, and that the contribution that was made all those years ago continues to be commemorated each year, and that we continue to focus on 25 April on the sacrifices made by those people at that time, all others since then and all those in the future that will continue to serve our great country.

This has been a very important year for us to remember that. We will continue to remember the many battles that Australian troops fought in, particularly in Europe in the latter part of the First World War, where the sacrifice was immense and the legacy substantial. This has been a terrific opportunity for us to remember all that sacrifice from so many who have made our country so great.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join my colleagues in discussing the most important part of heritage that is occupied by the Anzac legacy and to inform the House about events in Bennelong in commemoration of this centenary year. The nation paused on 25 April 2015 to remember the bravery and selflessness shown by Australian and New Zealand soldiers at the Gallipoli landings 100 years ago. And just last week we again paused to remember the 100th anniversary of the battles of Lone Pine and the Nek and the bravery and selflessness shown by Australian and New Zealand soldiers all those years ago.

These moments were not lost in Bennelong, which saw thousands of residents turn out on Anzac Day to commemorate those who served at a number of local memorials. I am immensely proud of the efforts made by our local RSLs and the dedication of the public who turned out to these events. Over 3,000 people attended Epping RSL's dawn service and a further 2,000 were at the dawn march held by North Ryde RSL. In addition, the weeks preceding saw thousands more people attending a number of Anzac services at Ryde Ex-Servicemens Club, Gladesville RSL and the Epping cenotaph. All the local RSLs held beautifully moving commemorations and our history, character and heritage were confirmed by so many people attending.

I would like to mention the hard work of the many people involved in organising these events. There are too many individuals to name them all, but I would like to thank in particular the President of Ryde District Sub Branch, Mr Bernie Cox; the Gladesville RSL Club Vice-President, Mr Peter Astridge; the Epping Sub Branch President, John Curdie; and the Epping Sub Branch Secretary, John Prestige. These men and their respective RSL clubs put in the same dedication to service as they had done during the conflicts. I congratulate them all.

Bennelong has a close connection to the Anzac legend. Between 1914 and 1918, 2,000 men volunteered from the area that is now covered by Bennelong. At the time, there were a mere 3,500 dwellings in that same region. This level of volunteering was almost unprecedented across the country. Remarkably, these volunteers came in a steady stream throughout the war, barely dipping after the retreat from Gallipoli or during the defeat and stagnation of the Western Front in 1916. This patriotism and bravery is incredible and it is worthy of the huge turnout seen across Bennelong last month.

There is also a proud tradition of commemorating Anzac Day in Bennelong, which I would like to briefly explore. The President of the Ryde District Sub Branch, Bernie Cox, has researched the history of the Anzac service itself and made some very interesting discoveries. The Anzac legacy tells us tales of the diggers commemorating the first few anniversaries of the Gallipoli landings from the trenches of the Western Front, but less is less remembered about the origins of the early Anzac services held on Australian soil. It is believed that these first services were held in Martin Place before the Hyde Park Cenotaph was completed in 1936. These initial ceremonies were not full of the military regalia that we see now; they were more modest affairs and were led by just four Sydney ex-servicemens clubs. One was from Lane Cove and another was a now defunct factory in Concord populated largely by demobbed veterans. However, the bulk of the veterans apparently came from two branches local to Bennelong—the Ryde and Eastwood branches. It is believed that Ryde RSL is descended from this group of ex-servicemen who forged the tradition of commemoration that we have recently taken part in.

Of course, it is not just our excellent local RSL clubs that have been remembering our veterans this Anzac Day. Thanks to the federal government's Anzac Community Grants local schools, charities and other organisations have been able to share in over $100,000 to assist with their commemorations. These grants have gone to a wide range of groups and allowed them to remember the Anzacs in a variety of ways. Indeed, I spoke about one particularly memorable effort—namely, the 'Ryde Goes to War' book compiled by the Ryde District Historical Society—in this place recently. This is an amazing resource for future generations and I again commend its dedicated authors for their incredible work.

In addition a number of schools, including Ryde, Gladesville, Denistone East and Epping public schools, have used the funds to build commemorative gardens or improve existing memorials. Epping RSL Sub-Branch has used their grant to collect together their WW1 memorabilia and display it for the public. And St Albans Parish in Epping has used their grant to restore their memorial to the local soldiers who fought in the First World War. I recently attended the re-opening of the Anzac memorial garden at Gladesville Public School. This garden has been in place for many years to remind students of their forebears who went to both world wars. However, it was overdue for refurbishment and needed some TLC. Last year they applied to my office for an Anzac Centenary Grant and were successful in receiving $18,000 towards their garden. I was honoured to represent the Minister for Veterans' Affairs at the event to open the new garden, and the students performed beautifully. An incredible job has been done to create a moving yet practical garden and I congratulate the school and all involved for their excellent work.

The Centenary of Anzac events will be remembered for decades, particularly with the help of the Abbott government's Centenary Grants. I have visited many of these projects and I look forward to seeing more and congratulating their recipients in the coming weeks and months. Last Sunday I attended a poignant memorial to the soldiers who served in the Battle of Lone Pine 100 years ago. This memorial was held at the Epping RSL and was very well attended. It was especially wonderful to see younger generations in attendance and learning about this pivotal battle in our history. I again commend the Epping club for their special work.

This is a significant year for all Australians. It has been important that we honour our service men and women at an Anzac Day ceremony. I am incredibly proud of the many groups across Bennelong that have pulled out all stops to commemorate Anzac and of the thousands of people who have turned up to take part in the commemorations and remember our brave veterans, and I thank the organisers of these many fantastic initiatives. This year's commemorations have been incredibly special, and I thank everybody who has been involved in making them so. This 100th Anniversary of Anzac is more than just the commemoration of a battle; it celebrates the birth of a legend and the formalisation of our unique Australian identity. Our great sense of mateship, egalitarianism, ingenuity and larrikinism was formed on those battlefields 100 years ago. Mateship is that rare blend of caring, fun loving, freedom, the gentle nature, the devout, the irreverent, the strong and the heroic.

The Bennelong Cup this year has invited two more countries to participate. Along with Korea, China and Japan, Malaysia will also play. To commemorate Anzac, we have invited New Zealand to join us and play as Australasia. It may surprise you that, in the Davis Cup competition at the beginning of the previous century, Australasia competed together—the great Norman Brookes teaming with Anthony Wilding, taking on the world, beating the world and bringing the cup to our shores. In this year of commemorating 100 years of Anzac, it is so appropriate that Australia and New Zealand again team together to play our neighbours and our friends in this region. The motivation behind the Olympic Games was to seek, through engagement in sport, to bring peace between warring groups. The effort of New Zealand and Australia teaming together to engage in sport in our region will seek to do the same. It is interesting to note that the games of tennis and table tennis start at 'love all'.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gallipoli is not just a place but also now very much a condition in the human spirit so profound it empowers Australians to be their best selves—brave and patriotic with a sense of the importance of mateship burning deeply within. Although by military standards the 1915 Anzac campaign was a disaster—and an epic one at that—the symbolism of Gallipoli and what those hearty and heroic diggers achieved truly united Australia and Australians like nothing else could have possibly done at the time. Looking back now, we should be not only proud but also thankful—eternally thankful—for the deeds that established the ethos which is held so dear by all who wear a military uniform of our country today.

Many, if not most, people—certainly generational Australians—have a relative who fought in and possibly never returned from the First World War. The 1914-18 conflict touched so many families, robbing us of a generation of men and forever changing our nation. An ancestor of mine, Maurice Joseph Curran, was one of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In the words of St John:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

On 14 October 1922 Maurice's mother, Jane, of Coolamon, signed for his memorial plaque—this memorial plaque—the war medal no-one wanted to receive. Marrar-born farmer Maurice enlisted with his younger brother Jack on 27 March 1916. They, like many others across the Riverina and throughout Australia, no doubt felt a deep sense of obligation to join the war effort after what happened at Gallipoli. News from the Dardanelles over those eight fateful months told the grim tale of the hardship endured, service contributed and loss suffered by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps following those original landings in the predawn darkness on that momentous day forever burnt into the consciences of bereaved yet grateful nations on either side of the Tasman—25 April 1915.

Maurice, of the 36th Battalion, fell during the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium on 12 October 1917, killed in action with three other digger mates when a shell landed amongst them just as they were about to 'hop over'. He was aged just 30. His lifeless body fell against or past his brother Jack, later awarded a Military Medal for bravery as a stretcher bearer. He buried his poor brother and then had the awful duty of writing to his mother in Coolamon and telling her what had happened.

Another brother, Leslie William Curran, was recruited during Australia's longest recruiting march—350 miles, from Wagga Wagga to Sydney—in 1915-16. This epic walk will be re-enacted a century on thanks to the efforts of an energetic Southern Highlands group led by Graham Brown, Rhondda Vanzella and OJ Rushton, setting off from Wagga Wagga on 5 September en route to Campbelltown. Les Curran was also awarded a Military Medal, for gallantry at Whiz Farm east of Wytschaete—known to the troops as 'Whitesheet'—on the night of 3 March 1918. They were brave diggers those Currans. Fortunately Les made it home, albeit as an invalid, in 1919 but was well enough to serve in World War II and died aged 64 in Mooroopna, Victoria in 1958.

A memorial plaque was issued after the First World War to the next of kin of all British and Empire service personnel killed. The plaques were made of bronze, and were often referred to as the 'Dead Man's Penny' or 'Widow's Penny' because of their resemblance to the significantly smaller penny coin. There were 1,355,000 plaques issued and 450 tonnes of bronze were used in their production. How very sad! A total of 8,709 plaques went to Australians lost as a result of the Gallipoli campaign. The long casualty list included many Riverina boys—from the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in the east to the red soil plains in the west and everywhere in between—who, in the immortal words of Laurence Binyon:

… went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

On the centenary of Anzac Day, they remembered those hardy heroes at Wagga Wagga and West Wyalong, at Griffith and Gundagai, at Tallimba and Tumut, and Adelong and Ariah Park. The Centenary of Anzac was commemorated enthusiastically throughout the Riverina.

Springdale, a tiny village just outside Temora, sent 34 young men to World War I. Ten never returned. As a percentage of fallen, this sadly ranks Springdale amongst the highest of any community in the Commonwealth. Another such unfortunate community is Tumbarumba. On Anzac night, Springdale paid tribute to those brave forefathers who served. Beautiful silver pin badges were presented to descendants, many of whom still live in the area. Nearly 250 people came from near and far, cramming inside the small memorial hall, to dine on a sumptuous Springdale roast and have Anzac pudding for dessert. The fare corresponded with that provided in the three farewell functions and the three welcome home dinners held in the very same hall between 1915 and 1920. What a truly memorable evening it was! It was country hospitality at its very best. Vietnam veteran retired Colonel Pat Thorne AM did a splendid job with all the arrangements. The entertainment was simply magnificent—Lachlan Reichstein singing It's a long way to Tipperary, Jenny Kotzur reciting a beautiful French poem and Stephanie Elliott doing a wonderful job with Joan of Arc.

More than 15,000—a record turnout—attended Wagga Wagga's Anzac Centenary commemorations along Baylis Street. What a remarkable parade it was! Kapooka commandant Colonel Steve Jobson gave an inspiring address. I intend to table that address at the end of this speech. The RSL Rural Commemorative Youth Choir sang beautifully, and personnel from our city's three defence bases did themselves proud.

I am very fortunate to live in a free and democratic country, as we all are. This is thanks to the Anzacs, those who fought at Gallipoli and those who followed—that long line of khaki who have done our country proud. I am proud to Kapooka represent in this place, the home of the soldier, where, as I say, Colonel Steve Jobson is now the commandant. What a fine speech he gave on Anzac Day. It was one of the finest addresses I have ever heard.

Lessons learned from our involvement in conflict the world over and which first came to light during that ill-fated Dardanelles foray are that the pursuit of peace often comes at a terrible cost. As a nation, we must always stand ready to protect ourselves and those who rely on us. In commemorating the Centenary of Anzac, Australians and those across the Tasman, our everlasting New Zealand friends, share a unique bond which will forever remain unbroken. People from all countries know, admire and respect the enduring qualities of the Anzacs, the core values of courage, initiative, respect and teamwork.

Over the years Australian service men and women have always put the interests of maintaining and at times restoring freedom and the inherent risks associated with going on active duty above their own personal safety. You and I, Deputy Speaker Mitchell, saw that firsthand when last year we took part in the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program and went to Afghanistan. We saw that firsthand. We saw how brave those men and women are and will always continue to be.

Long lines of crosses, some marked, others not, in military cemeteries and row upon row of names on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra and on monuments right across the Riverina are grim reminders that our nation and region have paid a heavy price for upholding our ideals, our gallantry and our willingness to help others. In keeping the peace, our Air Force, Army and Navy personnel, as well as those wonderful nurses and medical staff, have done us proud. This is why we should always honour their memory on Anzac Day and, indeed, every day, for our way of life has been made possible only because of their sacrifices on our behalf.

With a little indulgence, I will read a poem which was published in The Anzacs march again and other verse by Cecil S. Watts in 1944. It brings home just how important Anzac Day in the Riverina is.

We are at a battle-station, where the

restless tropic sea

Thunders on the reefs of coral a threat of

storms to be,

With the jungle close behind us we are

resting by our guns,

And I'm thinking it is Springtime on

the Riverina runs.

They'll be busy now, lamb-marking,

clipping ears and snipping tales

Till the tar-splashed wood is polished

along the holding rails,

And I'm wishing I could saddle up, to

ride the plains and sing

All my praise of Riverina, Riverina in

the Spring.

There's a group of wooden crosses where

the shore and jungle meet,

From village to inland village the

primitive war-drums beat,

And I'm thinking of a Southland

guarded by this aerodrome

… Of the green and gold of

Springtime round my Riverina home.

There'll be blossom on the wattle,

the old pepperina tree

Will be shading Bluey's kennel—

wish that dog was here with me!

And the bush birds in the timber

will make the echoes ring

With their songs of Riverina,

Riverina in the Spring.

We have heard before the message

carried to us by the drums,

And we're ready for the foemen—no

matter how he comes:

We have held his southward sally, and

those of us who died

Are buried 'neath those crosses by the

restless tropic tide.

It is not for martial glory that those

hearts are sleeping there,

They also loved their homeland:

Australia, free and fair!

And I fancy

They are sharing

the joy that

memory

brings,

As I think

of Riverina,

Riverina in

the Spring.

Lest we forget. I seek leave to table Colonel Steve Jobson's speech from the Anzac Day ceremony at Wagga Wagga this year.

Leave granted.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the past few weeks we have heard a lot about the special events that have been held to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. It is 100 years since brave soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps went ashore at Gallipoli, Turkey, in 1915. In the lead-up to this important centenary, I met many people around the electorate of Capricornia who had their own personal connection to the story of the Anzacs.

One of them was Rockhampton's Ron 'Tiny' Clark from the Capricornia RSL sub-branch. Tiny showed me his father's medals from World War I. His father, William Malcolm Clark, served in Gallipoli in 1915. According to a commanding officer's diary, it appears William Clark may have been the last or second last wounded soldier to be carried to safety by John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his famous donkey, just before Simpson was killed. Simpson and his donkey became an iconic and heroic symbol of Gallipoli.

During this centenary year, I have also learnt about other local soldiers who played a role in the Gallipoli conflict. Among them was a bloke called Albert Tiegs. Private Tiegs enlisted for World War I from Rockhampton. He found himself having a 'good last meal' on board an Australian ship, before climbing into a small boat heading for the beach at Gallipoli. Private Tiegs managed to keep a detailed and fascinating war diary, with a blow-by-blow account of his days spent amid the action as an Anzac.

I am pleased to inform the Australian parliament that Private Tiegs's war diary has been brought to life in audio and visual form in a new display at the Central Queensland military museum in Rockhampton. Titled The Gallipoli Experience, this project was supported by a federal government grant to mark 100 years since Gallipoli. Recently, I had the privilege to officially open the project. And I can honestly declare that this display is one of the most moving local tributes to mark the Centenary of Anzac that I have seen. When you enter this display, you take a seat in a small boat and watch a film on a huge screen displaying re-enactments of extracts of Private Tiegs's Gallipoli diary. While sitting in the boat watching the film, you get a heightened sense of what it was like to make your way onto the Gallipoli beach.

The Central Queensland military museum sits in a historic building that once served as the original Rockhampton military barracks. I commend the work of museum volunteers for their contribution in preserving local war history. Like many non-profit organisations, the volunteers here carry out an important task. Without their enthusiasm, this history and the stories that go with it would be lost. The Central Queensland military museum project was one of 15 projects in Capricornia funded by the federal government to respectfully mark 100 years since Anzac. The projects range from the re-enactment of a troop train journey through Central Queensland, the publication of local history books, the re-enactment of a famous 100-year-old war recruitment photograph, new memorials and the restoration of World War I artillery guns for public display.

One of the most significant events to recognise the Centenary of Anzac was the re-enactment of a troop train journey that took place 100 years ago. The original 1915 steam locomotive embarked from Winton in outback Queensland en route to Brisbane via Longreach, Emerald, Blackwater, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Maryborough. Estimates suggest up to 1,000 people turned out to greet the re-enactment train, which stopped in Rockhampton a few days before Anzac Day this year.

Other key Capricornia projects marking 100 years since Anzac include local history books. In Sarina, the RSL sub-branch received a federal grant of just over $21,000 to publish a local history book about World War I. I have opened a new office to service Sarina, and I was delighted recently to meet Sarina RSL sub-branch Anzac book committee members Gail and Brendan Maguire and Sharon Price. The book they are working on is titled More Than Just a Name and depicts the lives and service history of men and women who served in World War I from the Sarina region. The names were taken from the town cenotaph.

In Rockhampton a $9,268 federal grant went to the Central Queensland Family History Association towards the publication of a local history book titled The Great War—Stories from Home and Abroad. The book provided an opportunity for families in the Rockhampton district to tell the stories of their loved ones who contributed to the war effort. I was fortunate enough, just before Anzac Day, to officially launch this book at a family history open day. In other Centenary of Anzac projects in my region, nearly $15,000 was given to the Livingstone Shire Council to install plaques at both the Emu Park and Yeppoon Centenary of Anzac commemorative precincts. St Joseph's School, Park Avenue, used a $2,500 grant to create an Anzac memorial at the front of the school.

The sum of $1,211 went to the Keppel Sands State School P&C to establish a Centenary of Anzac Memorial at the school. St Joseph's School at Clermont received $7,624 for a Centenary of Anzac commemorative walkway. The sum of $16,124 went to restoring and relocating two World War I German artillery guns to the site of the John Leak VC memorial on Rockhampton's riverbank, sited under the Rockhampton Regional Council. The Nebo RSL Citizens Auxiliary received $3,167 towards the restoration of existing honour boards and memorabilia at the Nebo Memorial Hall. The Nasho Combined Central RSL Sub-Branch received $6,050 towards the refurbishment of a World War I German Howitzer artillery gun, held by the Rockhampton Regional Council at the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens. The Capricornia RSL and Rockhampton sub-branch received $6,050 for re-enacting original local World War I recruitment activities. This included re-staging an historic photograph with members of the local community and Capricornia Living History Unit. The sum of $5,631 went to replica uniforms for the Capricornia Living History Unit for Centenary of Anzac commemoration services. There was $3,112 used for a Clermont Historical Centre display relating to an Anzac heroes and heroines exhibition in the Isaac Regional Council. These projects all marked a respectful way to honour the tradition and Centenary of Anzac in Capricornia. Lest we forget.

Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a lot of reverence that I speak about this very, very important commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. Over the Christmas break, for the first time not having to sit on a harvester, I was able to go for a little bit of a holiday with my wife—self-funded, I might add, just to clarify. My wife and I visited Turkey, including Anzac Cove. Rather than talk about things that I could pull out of an encyclopedia, I thought I might reflect a bit about what it was like to be there, to actually see things that we had only seen pictures of before—to see the Sphinx and to see how daunting it must have been for those who landed on that day.

It was a very cold winter's day. We walked around the battle site of Lone Pine, which was surprisingly peaceful. We were fortunate, as we had taken the time to print out a list of things that happened on particular battle sites, which is available online from the Australian War Memorial. We read from the list while we were at particular battle sites. When we were at Lone Pine, I read that you could not actually walk from one side to the other—which is roughly the size of two tennis courts—after the battle without stepping on the bones or the bodies of the dead. Just reflect on that. In this area the size of two tennis courts—a little bit bigger than this chamber—thousands of Australians and thousands of Turks died.

That had an impact on me, as I thought about the futility of war. We as legislators ultimately have the great and humbling responsibility of committing Australians to battle. Do we do it too hastily? If you think about the enthusiasm of those young men, who thought that they were going off on an adventure, it is important for us now not only to commemorate their service but also to think about how that makes us feel as legislators. I found myself having to pay due respect to every grave as I walked around the battle sites of Gallipoli.

My wife had made the comment that she thought we would tire of it, but in fact we did not. It seemed that every grave needed to be recognised as a person, and as a proud Australian myself but also as a legislator I felt that I owed it to them to read each name, to understand the person.

Most of the graves did not say where they were from. They simply had a rank, a name, a battalion and perhaps a date. Some of them had a message. Obviously the families had had a chance to put a message on those graves. There were messages such as 'a dinkum Aussie', 'he died for the flag' and this one, which I thought was very insightful: 'Someday we will understand.' Another said 'answered the call, a cable tells a son was killed at the Dardanelles'.

One particular grave that we came across was that of AWA Barber, of the 8th Australian Light Horse, killed on 22 June 1915. What struck us was that it said 'born at Laen, Victoria'. Now, most people do not know where Laen is. In fact, Laen is not really a town anymore; it is more of a district in rural Victoria. It is rural Australia. That was back in the era when people did not have big harvesters; people were farming the country with horses and ploughs. So the population base was rural Australia. The average farm size was 200 acres. It was not 1,000 acres or 25,000 acres, as we see now. Therefore, many of the young men who fought came from those regions. It is quite fitting that, even in the movie that highlighted this for Australians this year, The Water Diviner, the men came from Rainbow, which is in the heart of my electorate of Mallee. But AWA Barber, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber, nicknamed 'Watt', was born in Laen on Christmas Day in 1891—so a very young man—and there I was, a legislator from the Mallee, standing in Gallipoli and looking at the grave of a young man from the Mallee who had ultimately given his life in the cause of freedom but in an immensely futile battle.

Barber joined up in Warracknabeal as part of the 8th Light Horse Regiment and left Victoria on the ship Star of Victoria. He was fighting in the battle of Walker's Ridge when he sustained extensive injuries as a result of a grenade explosion. There is nothing glorious about the way he died. The way he died was painful. The way he died was tragic. But he did die serving Australia. He was taken down to the hospital area, where he passed away. He was then buried.

We put out his story, just before the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, in a newsletter that goes right across the Mallee. It is a great thing for members of parliament to have communication with the people they represent, and I often go out and meet people in coffee shops right across the electorate. It costs me a few dollars; I shout people a few coffees. But we do do a good coffee in the Mallee. So, if you are there, by all means come and have one. In one of these coffee shops, a guy came and saw me. He said, 'I'm not really politically motivated. I don't even usually read your newsletter. But I happened to read it a couple of days after I found this,' and he presented to me AWA Barber's matchbox and a letter from AWA Barber that was written the day before he died. This man said that he was astounded that he had recently found all this memorabilia of his great-uncle. To then read about his great-uncle in the newsletter was very moving for him, and it said to him that we have not forgotten.

I suppose I want to make the point that 100 years later, in 2015, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber of Laen is still talked about as an example of sacrifice, in a chamber of the Australian parliament. It is right that we commemorate the tragic battle of Anzac Cove. It is right that we walk around graves and pay tribute to every one—not just one but every one—of those who fought in that battle and in subsequent battles. Tragically, over 100,000 Australians, in battles right across the world, have now given their lives in the cause of freedom.

In Anzac commemorations, we always say, 'Lest we forget.' 'Lest' is not a word that we use very much anymore. What does 'lest' mean? I put it to you that 'lest' means 'that we shall not'. It is 'that we shall not forget'. Why? What should we not forget? AWA Barber and the 102,000 Australians who have died right across the world for our freedom are testimony that war is a very blunt instrument for resolving human conflict. It is lest we forget—that we shall not forget—that we as legislators must not rush to war, that we as Australians must not rush to war, and that we should work for peace. Lest we forget. We want a peaceful world, not a world of war and conflict. And the testimony of the 100,000 or more Australians should remind us that our role in parliament is to work towards peace and ensure that their sacrifice is remembered.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to rise to speak on this commemorative motion about the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli Cove, the Centenary of the Anzac tradition. Anzac Day, April 2015 is one of the most important commemorative events that has occurred in our nation's history and appropriately so. It was the Anzac legend that shaped our nation like no other event before it or since, and 100 years later it is extremely pleasing to see millions of Australians across our nation turn out in such large numbers to remember the sacrifice of an entirely different generation from so long ago.

It is important that the Anzac and Gallipoli landings be remembered in context. It is an example of epic military failure. It is an example of epic disaster—unquestioned casual treatment of human life by military commanders. It is important that Australians understand, in the modern context, that never again should we treat human life so casually, either in a conflict zone or in our endeavours as a nation more generally. I think people are right to question 100 years later: 'Is this a relevant event?' I think people are right to say: 'What does it mean? What is the sacrifice for? Why did it happen?' These are the questions that are asked by millions of people, as they commemorate that important sacrifice of young men and their families and their women. And I think they are right to answer it and say: 'This was one of the most significant events in Australian military history.' This was one of the most significant events in a young nation's history, because almost an entire generation of people were lost in what ultimately was a fruitless and pointless endeavour. Out of that, of course, came so much courage, so much sacrifice, so much mateship, and so much of the legend that we understand modern Australia to be was forged and born—out of that great adversity and that great disaster that Gallipoli was.

Locally, I was so proud of my own community, who turned out in such significant numbers. Outside of the Sydney Basin, I believe it was probably the biggest single event—there were almost 25,000 or 30,000 people at the commemorative service in my electorate. I was very proud of the Centenary of Anzac committee that I put together. It was chaired by Colonel Don Tait, who worked tirelessly and in fact put in one of the first applications in the nation to put together a program of significant events that would ensure the whole community shared in the story and learned from the experience and benefited. Twenty-one events were conducted in the Centenary of Anzac program. They honoured the 22 Anzac veterans from my district who went to Gallipoli as well as the 539 veterans from the Hills district who went to World War I more generally.

The logistical management was expertly coordinated. It was extremely well received. There was a Centenary of Anzac children's tour launch. There was a film displayed at the events cinema. There was a Lego display which was actually really profound. There was a recruiting centre. The launch in our district was officially done by the New South Wales Governor, the Hon. David Hurley, and we thank him for attending. There were over 7,000 people at the launch. There was the Centenary of Anzac stage play. We had a Sunday commemoration service, with thousands of people attending, and the stage show and dawn service were attended by about 30,000 district people. It was a major program, expertly managed by Colonel Don Tait, who has his own very proud record of military service.

I also want to thank the many people who worked tirelessly who never did get thanked, especially from the Castle Hill RSL sub-branch, including David Hand, Barry Newman, John Payne, Sjouke Havenaar, David Cronan, Mike Yeo, Des Brady, Brian Walters, Graham Handley, Chas Naylor, Jeff Lowe, Peter Westwood, Allan Roderick, Ron Smith, Mike Lee, Claude Zavattaro, Barry Russ, Phil Evenden, Robbie Duncan, Bill Dokter and Eva Want. All of these people made great contributions and worked around the clock for the better part of a year to 18 months, giving up their time selflessly. And almost all of those people are veterans of conflicts.

I also want to take some time to pay great tribute to some particular people from the Hills district who served during the First World War. Septimus James Lewis, of Castle Hill, was a farmhand before enlisting on 16 September 1914, aged just 19, in the Australian Imperial Force, where he served with the 13th Infantry Battalion and was part of the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. On 30 March 1917 he was wounded in the chest, and he was returned to Sydney on 19 September 1917.

George Sidney Cook, of Baulkham Hills, enlisted in the AIF in August 1914. He joined 2nd Battalion, H Company and embarked for war on 18 October 1914. In his military career he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In addition, Cook was the son of Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook, an interesting bit of local history that many locals know.

Keith Wemyss MacKenzie, of Rouse Hill, was an accountant before enlisting in the AIF in January 2015 and joining 17th Battalion, B Company. By February 1917 he had been promoted to captain. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

We remembered not just those significant veterans but all of the veterans—including the 22 Gallipoli veterans, only eight of whom survived—from the Hills district. We remembered all of those who served in World War I. In the commemoration of Anzac, we also recognised the service and the sacrifice of all the brave men and women who serve our nation. Military service is unique and it is a great service to our nation.

This is perhaps one of the most important commemorations in our nation's history, and it is vital that we continue the trend that we have in Australia of encouraging our future generations to continue to remember important matters like this that have shaped and guided our nation's development. I know those 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds—even younger in many cases, where they forged their ages—who went to war would be so grateful to us today, 100 years later, for the fact that we did stop, pause and remember their service and their sacrifice and that we did say to our future generations that we need to continue remember the bravery, the courage and the sacrifice of so many people. It is not because we glorify war, not because we think that Gallipoli was a great success—we remember it was a great disaster; we remember it was a great military disaster; we remember it was a great spectacle of human misery and chaos—but because out of it was forged the great tradition of mateship and courage, of people working for their mates and for each other, of people who were prepared to give up their lives for one another in that great tradition of Australian mateship, where we look out for each other, even under the worst, the most difficult of circumstances. That is something worth remembering for another 100 years.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is an honour to speak today on behalf of the people of Braddon in support of the Prime Minister's motion of remembrance and commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. As a parliament we are acknowledging that 25 April 2015 marked 100 long years since Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli, and we do pay our respects to the 60,000 Aussies who fought in the Gallipoli campaign, including the nearly 9,000 who died, the 20,000 who were wounded and the thousands more who carried the unseen scars for the rest of their lives. We do remember the brave soldiers of Great Britain, France, India and Newfoundland who fought alongside the Anzacs 100 years ago. We do note that on 25 April solemn services of remembrance were conducted at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine in Turkey, and they were attended by some 8,000 Australians, including the widows of Australian veterans. We extend our thanks today to the people and the government of Turkey for their support of the centenary commemorations and their ongoing faithful care of the battlefields of Gallipoli. We do note today that on Anzac Day millions and millions of our fellow Australians in each one of our electorates gathered to remember the Anzacs and all those who have worn our uniform and served in the name of Australia. The people of every electorate are represented in this parliament and they honour this milestone of the centenary of the landings at Gallipoli. I have previously in this parliament echoed the words of the Prime Minister. I have recalled the valour, the heroism, the horror, the pain and the sacrifice of all those who have served this nation in peacetime and in war, and I have focused particularly on the conflict at Gallipoli.

In 1916 an 18-year-old young Methodist farmhand from Longford enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. His name was William Henry Mason. Whilst Longford is in the electorate of Lyons—the electorate of my colleague Mr Hutchinson—William Henry Mason was in fact my grandfather. It is wonderful how over many years all of us, all Australians, have had access to the phenomenal support services of the Australian War Memorial. With the technology available, each and every one of us is capable of discovering little bit by little bit the minutiae of the details of our relatives and friends and neighbours and leaders—where they served, on what days, when they went into hospital, why they went into hospital, whether they were seriously ill. My own grandfather, as I read the records I have here in front of me, certainly had his ups and downs as a member of the Australian Imperial Force. He was in and out of hospital, convalescing in England and then in France—it went on and on. Thankfully my grandfather quite obviously survived. I am sure that each of my colleagues across the parliament can sell stories of their own relatives and friends and neighbours. That is what makes this opportunity to speak so very special for us all—we are all linked not that far back to the story of Anzac. A hundred years may seem a long time, but really it is only three generations for many of us. This is an exceptional opportunity for us to speak not only about our own family lineage and its connection to either World War I or any other war but also in an honourable way on behalf of our electorate.

Today, following the Centenary of Anzac that we celebrated just a few months ago, I want to direct my few remaining remarks to the many ex-service men and women throughout the north-west of Tasmania, the west coast and King Island who worked tirelessly for a year or more to ensure that the many thousands of people who turned out on Anzac Day 2015 to commemorate the centenary could do so in a respectful manner that was worthy of the remembrance our forefathers deserved. Like all other members of this parliament and all other community leaders, I attended multiple services. I suspect that all of us as local members wished we had cardboard cut-outs of ourselves or genetically modified replicas so that we could have been in every spot in every electorate—that might not be the case in some of the inner suburbs, but in rural and remote areas where we had 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 Anzac Day services it was physically impossible to be at them all. But I attended a number, commencing of course with the dawn service and moving through the day right through into the afternoon. What a tremendous opportunity to fellowship with all the people of Braddon as we came together for an hour or so on one day of a given year to be on the same page—across party lines, across political lines, across religious or cultural lines—to remember together those who have served.

I did especially enjoy my time at the Devonport service, the Somerset civic service, the Burnie service and the North Motton service. Each of the services were unique, yet similarly moving. The older generation remembered their own service in some of the wars that we are aware of. They remembered the sacrifice of their mates. Many of them are now physically struggling to even attend the services, but they are both stubborn and courageous and wanted to be there no matter what the sacrifice or the pain. Middle-aged men and women thought of their parents. Young children, schoolchildren, proudly took part in the services through speech, song, poem and readings—and they rose to the occasion.

It has been an honour, since my election, to work with many of the local RSLs, in particular, and some other community groups to utilise the Anzac Centenary grants to upgrade existing memorials and, in some cases, to erect the first and only memorial in an area; to assist schoolchildren in their remembrance of this great anniversary; and to see taxpayer money well and truly spent in honour of those that have gone before us—some of the best taxpayer money that I suspect has ever been spent.

One of the special aspects of the new memorials is that while they may not be on the grand scale that you would expect to see in a capital city or a major regional town, they are no less meaningful—and they came about using local creativity and input. In finishing, I want to give a couple of examples. There was the small community of Tullah on the west coast—the mining area—of Tasmania, which placed a very small but memorable memorial using large boulders around a flagpole, with plaques commemorating local servicemen and servicewomen. And there was the Gunns Plains community, which repaired honour boards and also built a chair—a seat—in a beautiful setting, which can be used by anyone to take a moment to reflect on the sacrifice of others.

I thank the House for the opportunity to pause in the robustness of this place to remember the courageous service of those that have gone before us.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

(1) The House notes that:

(a) the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC, QC has agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 at Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney;

(b) the invitation to the Liberal Party fundraiser states that 'cheques should be made payable to the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales division'; and

(c) the invitation also states 'all proceeds from this event will be applied to state election campaigning'.

(2) Accordingly, this House declares that by his own action, the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC QC has disqualified himself from conducting the Prime Minister's royal commission into trade unions.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given that we are debating the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli in this chamber, there are appropriate times to move such a motion or seek leave. Twenty past 11 on Thursday is not the appropriate time.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are such a grub!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You will withdraw that!

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask the member for Rankin to withdraw that comment.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am making the point that there are appropriate times to move such a resolution and to seek leave to move such a resolution. Now is not the time to do it—in a debate about the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli—and, therefore, leave is not granted. I would recommend to the Manager of Opposition Business that he perhaps come back later in the day and move a motion, if he wishes to do so. But leave will not be granted at this point in time.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is not granted. Under standing order 47, you cannot seek leave to move a suspension of standing orders when there is business before the House. It must be relevant to any business under discussion in the House, so leave is not granted.

Leave not granted.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing order 47(c)(i) and so much of other standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving the following motion forthwith:

(1) The House notes that

(a) the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC QC has agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 at Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney;

(b) the invitation to the Liberal Party fundraiser states that 'cheques should be made payable to the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales division'; and

(c) the invitation also states 'all proceeds from this event will be applied to state election campaigning'.

(2) Accordingly, the House declares that, by his own actions, Dyson Heydon has disqualified himself from conducting the Prime Minister's royal commission into trade unions.

He is conflicted! He is biased! The royal commission is a farce!

Dyson Heydon is in a position now where he cannot remain in that role, and the sham, which we have said for so long that this royal commission was, has now been found out and exposed. To have somebody who the Prime Minister held up as allegedly being impartial and now to have a situation where he is promoting the Liberal Party, being the guest, the drawcard, for a Liberal Party fundraiser is an absolute disgrace. Those opposite are afraid of this debate. Those opposite want to shut this debate down. But the people know bias when they see it, and the Australian people will understand exactly what is going on—a royal commission reeked in bias, a royal commission completely conflicted.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not think we need advice from you on how to do the chair. I will give you the call now.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The procedural motion has been moved. The speaker moving it should be given the call. I also note that you have now given me the call. I move:

That the member be no longer heard.

I also notice you defied the Speaker.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the member no longer be heard. I will disregard that last remark. You should be very careful.

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

I do not need any comments from you either, because you would know that I am in the chair. I have the ruling. I have not moved over for the Speaker, who is now here. The question is that the member no longer be heard. All those of that opinion say aye.

Government members: Aye.

To the contrary no.

Opposition members: No.

I think the ayes have it? The noes have it? Division required? The clerks have indicated correctly that suspension of standing orders cannot be done at this stage, in this way. Therefore, we have got to rule it out of order and return to the business.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order. The motion moved by the Manager of Opposition Business seeks to suspend the standing order that is relevant to that ruling. It is perfectly within order for the Manager of Opposition Business to put before the House the motion that he has. What is before the chair is that the Leader of the House has moved that the Manager of Opposition Business be no longer heard. You actually put that to the House and had a vote on it, and I believe we are about to call for a division on that, and that is what should occur before the House right now; otherwise, it is subverting the will of the House. It is perfectly in order at any time for the House to control its own destiny, which is why we have moved, through the Manager of Opposition Business, a suspension of standing orders, including that suspension of standing order 47(c).

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grayndler, but I think I will stick with the ruling that you cannot suspend standing orders at this time, in the middle of business before the House. So we will return to the business before the chair, which is that the motion be agreed to.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order. Perhaps it would be in order in terms of the decorum of the House that the Speaker resume the chair.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You just want to attack the Speaker.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I don't. I want to assert the primacy of members of this parliament over the conduct of this parliament. That is what I want to assert. It is a very important principle. In practice, the clock is ticking on the 25-minute time limit for the suspension that has been moved by the Manager of Opposition Business, but it is a very important principle that at any time people are allowed to take actions in accordance with the procedures that are allowed for in this House. What would not be appropriate now and in the past would be if a member were interrupted while they were speaking to move a suspension, but it is perfectly in order to interrupt in between speakers to move a suspension, including a suspension of the standing order that provides for the suspensions of standing orders to be ordinarily conducted at a change of business. That is the normal procedure. But given that there is no change of business envisaged before the parliament with the current item that is before the parliament until it concludes at 5 pm is why the opposition have taken this decision.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Second Deputy Speaker, I think, for the elucidation of the opposition and for the House, the reason why oppositions routinely move such suspensions at nine o'clock, straight after prayers, for example, is that it is before the business of the day has begun. That is the reason why members of the opposition have done that. As a Manager of Opposition Business in the House myself in the past and as a member of the opposition, it was always my understanding that if there was to be a suspension of standing orders moved it needed to be between two items of government business, and nine o'clock was the usual time. The fact is that it was not done when a speaker sat down and before the next speaker got up in the middle of an item of business. I am sure the opposition want to fulminate about this matter. My suggestion is that they do so at the appropriate time, and that is when there is a change-over of items of business. I think you have made the right call, Mr Second Deputy Speaker, and the government supports you in it.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, to the point of order, if I can make a further submission in light of what the Leader of the House has just said. The Leader of the House has just referred to ordinary routine. There is nothing routine about what the House is dealing with right now. Nobody had any way of predicting that the commissioner would engage himself in Liberal Party fundraising, and the House has to have the right to be able to debate that issue. This is completely without precedent and the House must be allowed to suspend the relevant standing order to have that debate. As we are told a free and open flowing debate is what is meant to happen, it should be happening right now. This is the one way for it to occur. We moved the suspension of that very standing order and the House must be allowed to have this debate. It must not be used by the Leader of the House to cover up the head of a royal commission engaging in Liberal Party fundraising.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, the truth is that you have made a ruling. If the opposition want to disagree with your ruling, they need to move a motion dissenting from your ruling. I think that that would be unwise. My suggestion to them is that, if they wish to pursue this, they should do so at the next changeover of business, which I assume is two o'clock. If they wish to do it at question time, we can have the debate then, entirely as they wish to do so.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

You can ask a few questions too, Deputy Leader; that is the greatness of this democracy. But we cannot go on with endless discussions about this point of order. Either they move a dissent from your ruling, or we have to move on.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In light of the debate, I will stick with my ruling. It stands that the suspension of standing and sessional orders cannot be moved at this point in time, under standing order 47(c)(i). We will return to the business before the chair.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday afternoon, I went to a small rural community in my electorate called The Sisters. There, there was an incredibly moving commemoration to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine. As most in this chamber and in the general community will know, the Lone Pine battle was an incredibly important battle in the history of the Anzac conflict. In total, 2,277 Australians lost their lives in the Battle of Lone Pine. The total Ottoman death toll was between 5,000 and 7,000. The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting. The tree was situated near the centre of the eastern line of the Australian and New Zealand trenches around Anzac Cove.

An hour-long bombardment of the Turkish trenches at 4.30 pm on 6 August 1915 preceded the main charge. Packs had been dumped to the rear and each man wore a white armband or a piece of white material attached to his back. This was to help tell friend from foe in the close fighting that would soon be upon them in the Turkish trenches. Attacking battalions—the 2nd, 3rd and 4th battalions, all from New South Wales—packed into the Anzac forward positions. At 5.30 pm, the whistles blew and, as the rays of the evening sun shone into the eyes of the Turkish defenders, the Australians rose and charged. The Turks were taken by surprise—Australian forces against formidable entrenched Turkish positions, sections of which were securely roofed over with pine logs. In some instances, the attackers had to break in through the roofs of the trench systems in order to engage the defenders. The main Turkish trench was taken within 20 minutes of the initial charge, but this was the prelude to four days of intense hand-to-hand fighting, resulting in 2,277 Australian casualties.

The fighting at Lone Pine for both sides during these Turkish counterattacks was all about throwing bombs across hastily erected barriers, dashing around corners in trenches, and getting off a few rounds at the shapes of advancing men, slipping over the dead and avoiding the dying and wounded. General Birdwood later reported:

The boys went right through these Turkish works, and had regular hand to hand fights every yard. To show you the nature of the fighting I may mention that in one corner we came across eight Turks and six Australians, all dead, who had evidently fought it out man to man to the last.

One of the important things which occurred after the Battle of Lone Pine was that soldiers grabbed pine cones from that last lone pine, which was destroyed in the battle. It is quite extraordinary that, from the pine cones which were returned from that lone pine in Gallipoli, two direct descendants of that tree stand in the electorate of Wannon. One stands in the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens and the other stands at The Sisters, this small rural community in Western Victoria.

On Saturday, the community from The Sisters gathered to mark the 100th anniversary. They did so under the direct descendant of that lone pine. As the sun went down, the community commemorated. It was incredibly moving. Archie was there. From the time it was planted, Archie watered the lone pine seedling with his brother. Archie told me that he remembered ensuring every day after school that the seedling was properly nourished so that it could grow into the tree that it is today. He stood proudly as a contributor to the commemoration not only as someone who ensured that that lone pine continues to signify what occurred in Gallipoli 100 years ago but as someone who fought in the Second World War. He fought for us to defend our way of life.

Eric Bogle came along and played a song. Before he played the song, he talked about how he came to write it. He came to write it because he wanted to commemorate what had happened at Lone Pine 100 years ago, but he did not quite know how to do it. The words came to him after he attended the funeral of a veteran who fought in the Second World War. When he went to that funeral, the children of the veteran spoke of the horrors of war that their father had been through. He had always said to them how fortunate he was to have survived when so many around them had lost their lives. They said that their father always said to them, 'Every day you wake up, be grateful for the fact that you are alive, still living and you have a day to live.'

That was the theme of the song that Eric Bogle sang on a Saturday afternoon at The Sisters with the sun going down, with 400 people gathered around the Lone Pine to commemorate not only what our soldiers did on that day at the Battle of Lone Pine but also what they did on the shores of Gallipoli to keep our nation safe and to ensure that the liberties that we hold so dear continue today. If we have any say in it, those liberties will continue for many days to come.

I think the commemoration of the 100th celebration of the Anzac campaign has been something that this nation can be truly proud of. Nothing has given me greater pleasure than to ensure, through the grant scream which the federal government put in place, that all the memorials that we have in the electorate of Wannon now stand as a proper tribute to the service that our Anzacs gave 100 years ago. Also, there are the additional commemorations which were able to occur as a result of what we did through providing that funding. Right across the electorate of Wannon, I have attended moving ceremonies and seen the local community ensure that the legend of the Anzacs will continue for another 100 years.

I think that is the true testament of what we are doing here in these speeches today and through the actions the government are taking to commemorate Anzac, the Anzac spirit and all that the Anzacs did. That is because if we do not continue to remember the sacrifices that have been made and the reasons as to why they were made, we are letting those people down who fought for us, who gave up their lives for us and who gave the most important sacrifice that anyone can give. They were prepared to lay down their life to defend our nation and our way of life. It has been an honour to speak on this motion.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I speak on the Prime Minister's motion regarding 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, I congratulate my friend, colleague and electoral neighbour, the member for Wannon, for his fabulous contribution.

More than 60,000 Australians lost their lives during the First World War. The survivors met the war's end with a mixture of relief that the fighting was over and deep sorrow at the loss of so many friends and comrades. At the time, Australians celebrated; but in homes across the country people reflected on the terrible losses and mourned those who would not be returning. Today, I wish to highlight the contribution to that operation at Gallipoli of three individuals who came from my electorate of Barker.

Born in Mount Gambier, Frank Edmund Allchin worked as a clerk before enlisting on 21 August 1914, at the age of 20, in the Australian Imperial Force's 10th infantry battalion. Prior to leaving for the war, Allchin was sent off by the local community, including the local football club and boy's institute, which presented him with hairbrushes and a wallet. On 20 October 1914, he embarked from Adelaide aboard HMAT Ascanius as part of the first convoy to depart Australia for the war. He wrote home about his experience on the troopship and in Egypt prior to landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Allchin recounted the morning of the landing in a letter published in a local Mount Gambier newspaper. He wrote: 'You have no doubt heard all about our landing. It was early morning, and what a baptism of fire we had. All day long the battle raged, the din being awful. By nightfall, we had taken up a position which entitled us to say we had established a footing.' Just over a fortnight after the landing at Gallipoli, Allchin was promoted to sergeant. Later in the campaign, Allchin also wrote home in October to thank the Red Cross Society for parcels of socks sent to the troops. He added that: 'We here at the front are cheered and encouraged when we know you are all doing so much to help us, and so while everyone is doing their little bit there can be no doubt that the ultimate result will be victory for the Allies.' Allchin remained on the peninsula with the 10th Battalion until 22 November.

Having moved to the Western Front in early May 1917, Allchin was serving near Bullecourt in France and at great personal risk spent many hours under enemy fire repairing communication lines between the battalion and brigade headquarters. His commanding officer especially noted that: 'His courage and cheerful devotion to duty at all times was a splendid example to his men.' Accordingly, he recommended Allchin for the military medal, which was conferred on 17 July 1917. Thankfully, Allchin returned to Australia on 27 January 1919.

Born in Kersbrook on 26 March 1890, Avelyn Clarence Dunhill spent his early years in Orroroo before making his way to Renmark, where he was employed as a bookkeeper. Prior to the war, Dunhill was an active member of the community brass band and a competitive rifle shooter. Dunhill was reportedly one of the first recruits from Renmark in 1914 and formally enlisted on 26 August as part of the AIF's 10th infantry battalion. Less than two months later, he embarked aboard HMAT Ascanius and left Adelaide as part of the first convoy.

Dunhill wrote back to the local Renmark newspaper from the troopship describing the journey and then later from the AIF camp in Egypt, where he noted that: 'So far all the Renmark boys … are in very fair trim, and I think have managed to keep their end up pretty well.' Having landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, he was wounded by a bullet in the thigh less than two months later and was evacuated to Alexandria. Writing back home from hospital there, he noted that he had been looked after 'tiptop' and mentioned that the Sultan of Egypt had recently made an inspection tour of the hospital. Having rejoined his Battalion in mid-July, he remained on the peninsula until late December. While in the final months of the Gallipoli campaign, Dunhill reported back in a letter of the custom of distributing care packages among the platoon, including in one instance a pound of Australian butter that was described as 'luxury from the gods'.

In early 1916 Dunhill transferred to the 50th Battalion and commenced the rest of his campaign on the Western Front, having been promoted to lieutenant the previous November. In early July 1918 Dunhill was leading a patrol at Hamel which embarked on attacking an enemy post. Despite a failed first attempt Dunhill regrouped to lead a second charge, in which he himself was wounded. His commanding officer praised Dunhill's initiative, through which 'the success of the enterprise was entirely due to this officer's gallantry and tenacity'. For this action he was also awarded the Military Cross.

Having been transferred to hospital in England, Dunhill wrote letters of thanks for a care package received and especially recognised the role of Australia's women on the home front, stating that 'they are the ones who are having the greatest influence in this European show.' He acknowledged that:

The sitting still, waiting and wondering is considerably harder to stick than the life we lead with its constant change and excitement. Ours is really a poor part alongside of that borne by the women whose spirit is the thing which to a very good extent keeps all going with a good head.

Dunhill, thankfully, returned to Australia again in June 1919.

On 17 December 1915, the Southern Cross Adelaide newspaper reported the experience of military chaplain Reverend Daniel Francis McGrath while at Gallipoli. Born in Tipperary, Ireland, in February 1873, Reverend McGrath lived in Naracoorte, where he had been a member of the defence club since 1906. He embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Karroo on 20 October 1914 and served at Gallipoli attached to the AIF's 3rd Light Horse Brigade. Within the Southern Cross newspaper article, Reverend McGrath specifically describes his unique experience of celebrating mass in the Gallipoli trenches prior to departing to Alexandria for hospital duty.

The war correspondent and journalist, CW Bean, is credited with helping create the Anzac legend that has gone on to become the cornerstone of our national identity. His dispatches from Gallipoli gave vivid insight into the comradeship, tribulations and humour that pervaded the lines in this terrible battle, and allowed those mothers, fathers, sisters and younger brothers back home a window to view the character of the men who fought bravely on that thin strip of land in a faraway place. It is almost exclusively through his firsthand, eyewitness reporting that we know so much about the nature of the conflict we participated in.

That would have been an important legacy in its own right, but Charles Bean made another important contribution to Australia: he was a driving force behind the establishment and design of the Australian War Memorial and the deeply-held belief Australians have to this day that those who have made the supreme sacrifice in war should be honoured and remembered forever more.

Bean had hoped that there would never be another conflict of the order of the First World War. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Since the end of that war in 1918, Australians have time and again gone to faraway places to fight tyranny and oppression, and to protect our way of life. Instinctively, we are suspicious of grandiose schemes that seek to put our men and women in harm's way. This is a suspicion resulting largely from our searing experience on the Gallipoli Peninsula a hundred years ago, where our men made an enormous contribution for seemingly little gain.

Unlike some of the countries we have fought alongside, our nation is not one born of calamitous conflict but of peaceful democracy. If given our preference, the most intense of our clashes would occur on the sporting field rather than the battlefield; yet we have never failed to play our part to help defend the freedoms we enjoy, and which we hope to see others enjoy as well.

Regardless of our views on the merits of particular conflicts, the Australian community must always recognise that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and nurses who go forward to defend our nation do so because they earnestly believe it is in the best interests of our nation that they do so, and because they want to ensure that their families and the communities in which they live are safe from whatever peril may threaten our shores. By continuing to remember those who have served in the past and by honouring those who are serving today, we ensure that their legacy will live on forever.

Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Anzac story is the glue of our nation. A belief in mateship and rugged resourcefulness built this nation. At the 100-year mark, it is important to reflect upon the importance of that time and event then and now.

For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great enthusiasm. In response to the overwhelming number of volunteers, the authorities set exacting physical standards for recruits. Yet, most of the men accepted into the army in August 1914 were sent first to Egypt, not Europe, to meet the threat which a newly belligerent Ottoman Empire—now Turkey—posed to British interests in the Middle East and the Suez Canal.

The Australians landed at what has become known as Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and established a tenuous foothold on the steep slopes above the beach. During the early days of the campaign, the allies tried to break through Turkish lines, while the Turks tried to drive the allied troops off the peninsula. Attempts on both sides ended in failure and the ensuing stalemate continued for the remainder of 1915. As a result, the Turks were unable to inflict more than a very few casualties on the retreating forces.

In modern parlance, Gallipoli was a game changer. It changed the attitudes of the young men fighting and those at home. It consolidated a belief in the idea of a separate Australian identity. It showed how victory can be pyrrhic, and retreat a success. It demonstrated the changed and complex reality of war—quagmire, morale and operational factors were now in the minds of the millions. Every club, community and country, for it to be successful and enduring, needs a unifying foundational narrative, and 25 April 1915 marks a pivotal moment in Australian history. The Australian troops who stormed ashore as part of the allied landing force on the morning of 25 April were the newly-minted Anzacs, formed in Egypt only a few months before.

About 420,000 Australians enlisted for service in the war; almost 40 per cent of the eligible male population. This was the first time Australians had been exposed to the bloody horrors of 20th century trench warfare, and our young nation recoiled. Despite the savage introduction, something precious was salvaged from disaster. Gallipoli showed us what they were made of—and it is something to be proud of. It was because of the way in which the Australians performed, not their strategic achievements, that the Anzac legend was born. The Anzac Gallipoli legend says to us that such is our love of country and upright decency that we would literally go to the ends of the earth to defend our view of what is right and our way of life.

In Gallipoli the legacy of the campaign is clear. The landscape still bears the marks of trenches and artillery bombardments and there are 44 separate war cemeteries. The cemeteries honour the dead of all those nations that fought in Gallipoli but, due to the nature of the fighting and the complexity of recovering bodies during the campaign, the vast majority of soldiers who died have no known grave. While this ill-fated battle became a touchstone of Australian and New Zealand nationhood the British chose to forget the 'disgraceful disaster'. The war changed more than the hands that write history, but reality never does. And while it is right that we remember the valour and bravery of our Anzacs always, it is also right that we remember the context that drove them into war on foreign shores. Every little nation in the family of the British Empire sent its sons to help the then motherland. Our nation was no different. We were and are a part of a family of free countries. The war was about family—families suffering in sacrifice.

Although he never served in the Australian forces, I would like to honour my maternal grandfather, Bernard Bailey, who fought on the Western Front in World War I—one of the Allies. The attitude of service then was very strong. My grandfather was a bombardier in charge of a howitzer. In those days they had no hearing protection—so he went deaf in one ear as a result of the continual noise. He was medically released from service due to injuries that he sustained during the war. I recall watching him shave in the morning. He was wearing a singlet. He had a huge chunk out of his arm, and I asked him about it. A piece of shrapnel had gone through his arm. It is interesting some of the things they did in those days. Of course, they did not have skin grafts the. He told me what they did to try to prevent infection. They used the skin from hard boiled eggs to form a protective layer to prevent infection.

My grandfather was an interesting character. He was one of the early motorcyclists in the world. He was checking out a nurse when he was on a motorcycle and he crashed. The nurse he was checking out ended up being my grandmother. I was talking about the whole issue of service and the attitudes that people had then. My grandfather was not a large man. He was only five foot six inches tall. My uncle, during World War II, was not particularly interested in serving. My grandfather was really ashamed of this. So imagine this: here was a man who was around 50. At that stage he was blind in one eye because of a lazy eye and he was deaf in one ear. And he had a big chunk out of his arm due to war injuries. And he went to try and enlist! Of course, they did not accept him, but it had the desired effect: my uncle did then enlist. However, my uncle, different from my grandfather, never spoke about his experience in World War II in North Africa.

I really regret the fact that my grandfather died when I was only 14 years old. I would have liked to have him around a lot longer. The stories that he told were quite chilling but also very memorable. For example, he told stories of the trenches—and I imagine the same thing would have happened in Gallipoli. He said the rat infestation in the trenches was terrible and they used to have competitions to see who could kill the most rats. That was one of the ways the comraderie built up in awful circumstances. It makes me think back to those men on the Gallipoli shore and the terrible conditions they had. There was a great probability of them dying of injuries the majority of which today would not be a death sentence but were then because of inadequate drugs and inadequate medical treatment. The courage of those men in facing that persistent and consistent danger day after day beggars belief. In a lot of battles since, there is what is called manoeuvre warfare: you have a battle but, after that, things do not move; you have large periods where essentially nothing happens. But at Gallipoli and on the Western front it was just day after day after day. So I salute all of those Anzacs who served not only at Gallipoli but throughout World War I. I thank them for their sacrifice and the soul they brought to this nation called Australia.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak in this House on the sacrifices of the greatest Australians and on the events in my electorate to commemorate them. Before discussing the local commemorations on Anzac Day in my electorate, it is important to reflect on why those commemorations took place. I was born in the 1970s. To be born in the 1970s in Australia is to draw a tremendous hand from fate: our lives have been free and secure. Fascists have not murdered us. Communists have not enslaved us. Tyrants have not set one group of us against another. Criminals have not locked us up. We have not been killed because of our race. We have not been imprisoned because of something we wrote. We have not had to risk our lives to practice our faith. We have not had to meet in secret to talk about what we believe. We have not had to pay a corrupt official to get a job. We have not had break the law to provide for our family. We have been allowed to be our true and best selves. These things are true in our nation for two reasons: firstly, we have had the wisdom to know that there is nothing more important than freedom; and, secondly, we have had the courage to fight for it. That courage has been shown by generations of Australians, but nowhere more than at Gallipoli.

In our area, we commemorated the extraordinary events of Gallipoli through many local functions. On behalf of our community, I would like to thank the hundreds of people who were directly involved in organising these events, and the many thousands who attended. The largest commemoration in my community was held at Oatley, with at least 5,000 people in attendance for the dawn service. It was organised jointly by the RSL sub-branches of Oatley, Penshurst and Mortdale.

The day commenced with a performance by the St George group of Sing Australia in advance of the dawn ceremony. Though there were thousands of people in attendance, the atmosphere was one of quiet reflection. During the service, Sing Australia members gave a moving rendition of the national anthem. The group's conductor, Hayden Bowles, also sang a solo performance of the New Zealand national anthem, which was a moving and dignified tribute to the role of that great nation at Gallipoli. Thank you to everyone at Sing Australia for what you did on that day.

The service itself was extremely well organised by the local sub-branches, and I would like to pay tribute to them today. There were too many people involved to name them all but, in particular, I would like to pay tribute to the chairman of the organising committee, John Hoban; the President of Oatley RSL Sub-Branch, Mike Tiddy; and the President of the Mortdale RSL Sub-Branch, John Delaney. These gentlemen are all very well known in our community for their local service, and that commitment was to the benefit of all of us on Anzac Day.

I would like to thank the local community organisations that helped to make the Oatley services on Anzac Day so successful. My part of Sydney is very fortunate to have strong and active Lions clubs, and these clubs ran a very popular sausage sizzle after the dawn service concluded. Thank you to everyone from the Lions Club of Lugarno, the Oatley Lions Club, and the Georges River Lioness Club for making this happen.

At Riverwood, the Riverwood legion ex-services club and Club Rivers held a joint service later in the morning, which I was fortunate to attend. A moving video tribute to Australian soldiers was played, and the young men from the Riverwood Australian Air League band performed exceptionally well, as they always do. I would like to thank Dick Matthews, the president of Riverwood legion ex-services club, for all of his efforts in organising this event. In addition, President Michael Free and CEO Stuart Jamieson from Club Rivers deserve thanks for the substantial effort they put into organising this important event.

Several other events were held on this most important day. At St George Masonic Club, a service was held commemorating the service of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, which I attended in the afternoon. I thank the club for organising this event, and I also thank Mr Ron Haira, the honorary president of New Zealand Veterans in Australia, for attending this ceremony. Club Grandviews is an important part of our area, and serves as a hub for my community in the Peakhurst-Lugarno region. Although Club Grandviews is not a service club, it nonetheless pays tribute to our fallen soldiers through a service each year on Anzac Day. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this year, but I know from previous attendance that it is always a well-organised and well-attended event. Thank you to CEO Paul Nicholls and the club's board for their ongoing commitment to honouring our veterans.

I would also like to thank Padstow RSL sub-branch for the commemorations they held both on Anzac Day and on April 19, the preceding Sunday, which I attended. On April 19, a service was held at the war memorial on Cahors Road, followed by a march to Padstow RSL. At the RSL, a stirring service was held. Numerous local children performed, and the assembled crowd heard a powerful address on the nature of sacrifice. I would like to thank Padstow RSL Sub-Branch president, Bruce Knox, for organising these events, and for the ongoing leadership he provides to our community.

I would also like to acknowledge Bill Wright of Oatley RSL, who prepared a remarkable publication to commemorate the centenary of Anzac Day. Mr Wright, through research over a number of years, compiled a list of veterans from the Oatley area who had served in the First World War, and then he had the persistence and dedication to put that altogether in the form of a book. The book talks about the men who served in the First World War and it is an important commemoration to their extraordinary service.

Anzac Day is a very important event every year. This year was an extraordinarily important day. Those of us of our generation are extraordinarily fortunate to live in this country. The burdens and sacrifices that we have been asked of us are, frankly, negligible next to those of previous generations. We would not be here but for them. We must never forget that, and on the centenary of Anzac Day my community came together to remember that very important fact.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In this year, the Centenary of Anzac, communities around Australia and indeed around the world have come together to mark and commemorate 100 years since the active involvement of Australia in the First World War.

The Great War, as World War 1 became known, was unlike any previous conflict known to man. On the battlefronts in both the East and West of Europe 19th century military strategy met 20th century technological advances with catastrophic consequences. Around the world more than 65 million marched to war with 8 million never to return home. As a young, small country, geographically isolated, and with very strong economic, diplomatic and cultural links to the British Isles, it was natural that Australians saw the defence of England—our greatest ally—as the defence of our own nation.

More than 416,000 Australians enlisted, including more than 5,000 men from those suburbs that now make up the electorate of Higgins. Overwhelmingly these men were not professional soldiers but volunteers with limited training. Many women also took an active part in the war, especially as nurses and in taking over jobs on the home front. In remembering the war we honour those people, their sacrifice and that of their families. We also reflect upon their extraordinary bravery, stoicism, fraternal loyalty and service to their country.

However, we also reflect upon the lasting effects the war had on entire communities and indeed Western society. However difficult to quantify, there can be no doubt that World War I irreversibly altered the course modern history; the geopolitical boundaries of Europe; the development of science, industry, medicine and psychiatry; our notions of nationality and patriotism; and indeed our very understanding of humanity itself.

Therefore, as is only appropriate, communities across Australia have been marking this moment in time and reflecting on what it means. In Higgins on the weekend before Anzac Day we held an extraordinary centenary march. The march was attended by·   His Excellency the Hon. Alex Chernov AC, QC, Governor of Victoria, accompanied by Mrs Elizabeth Chernov;·   the Stonnington mayor, Councillor Melina Sehr; the Chairman of the Victorian Anzac Centenary Committee, the Hon. Mr Ted Baillieu; the State President of the Victorian RSL, Major General David McLachlan; the Chairman of the Legacy Council of Australian, Mr Ian Harrison; the consuls general from the Turkish embassy and the British and New Zealand high commissions; and the magnificent Creswick Light Horse. Just as importantly, the march was also supported by thousands of individual community members and numerous local organisations including many schools; the Malvern East, Prahran, Toorak and Hellenic RSL sub-branches; and Stonnington City Brass. The weather was unfortunately inclement, but this only served to remind us of the unimaginable hardships borne 100 years ago. Once again I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel David Blackwell, chair of my Centenary of Anzac committee, for his extraordinary efforts in bringing this event to reality; and the members of my very hardworking Anzac centenary committee.

At the Higgins Centenary March I was pleased to announce that with the support of my Anzac centenary committee I was able to produce the Anzac Centenary Higgins Memorial Map. The map lists many existing World War I memorials in the Higgins electorate, together with new memorials which have been funded through the federal government's Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. The map has been available to schools and community groups throughout this year to promote those lasting memorials of great service in my electorate of Higgins.

I am also proud that in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the landing of Gallipoli, and in my capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, I was able to launch a new coloured coin, only the fourth in general circulation, as part of the Royal Australian Mint's Official Anzac Centenary Coin Program, where a collection of commemorative coins capture the history, service and sacrifice of Australians at war. This special coin depicts a centrally sculpted and emotive design. It features poppies, symbolic of remembrance, amongst crosses used to honour the fallen and mark the graves of the unknown heroes. Inspired by the poppy, the distinctive and powerful red coloured print encapsulates the solemn words, 'Lest we forget'.

Finally, as part of the commemorations of the Centenary of Anzac I recently held the Higgins Anzac Centenary School Poetry Competition. The theme of the poetry competition was, 'What does the Anzac Centenary mean to you?' and the panel of judges included Mr Michael Gleeson, editor of the Progress Leader and Stonnington Leader; representatives of local RSLs; and the Higgins Electorate Anzac Centenary Committee. There were four levels of entry: years 2 to 4, years 5 to 6, years 7 to 9 and years 10 to 12. I was delighted to announce that the winners were Ellie Martin from St Cecilia's Primary School, Narisha Ford from Black Rock Primary School, Gabby Tymms from St Catherine's School and Rafael Ungar from the King David School. This competition was open not only to local schools but to local residents—hence the winners. I am delighted that the competition was so well subscribed with so many beautiful entries. It clearly gave young people in my electorate an opportunity to focus on making personal connections with the momentous events of one century ago.

It is community events such as these that provide the opportunity for us to pause, recall, reflect and commemorate. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has said, 'Grief is the price we pay for love.' In coming together we remember the grief of family, friends, communities and nations, for lives irrevocably altered and lost and a world forever changed. However, we should also dwell upon love—love for our kin and for our mates and, importantly, our love of peace; not just love for our country and its freedoms, but also the love of a grateful nation. In this centenary year, I pay my respects today to all those who have served, and continue to serve, our nation both at home and overseas. I give thanks for their sacrifice while hoping for a more peaceful tomorrow.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise very humbly to talk about and acknowledge the Centenary of Anzac and obviously the centenary of Gallipoli this year. Anzac Day every year is not just acknowledging people who served at Gallipoli but honouring all those who have served this country over many, many years. But obviously this year there was a focus on the centenary of Gallipoli.

I came across some statistics that I found very sobering. I had heard of both these places, as many of us have, but these statistics really reminded me of why most Australians have heard these two names. We have all heard of Lone Pine at Gallipoli. It is about the size of a football field. The number of men that were killed there—not just on our side—was 9,000 over the period of this battle, so 9,000 men were killed in an area the size of a football field. That in itself says a lot about why Lone Pine is very much remembered. Another area is the Nek. The Nek is the size of about three tennis courts, so again not a big area. Some 800 Australians attacked the Turkish trenches at the Nek. In one hour, 650 of those 800 men were killed or wounded. Again, we can see why the Nek and Lone Pine are very much remembered in our history.

In 1919, after the war, Australians were sent back to bury the fallen soldiers. One Australian looked over to the Nek from the ridge where he was and saw a large area of white. He did not know what it was as it was not there during the fighting in 1915. It was four years later. He scrambled through the scrub, went across from one ridge to the other, down through a gully, and came out at the Nek. The large area of white was the skeletons of the Australians who were killed in that hour four years earlier. That gives one the stark reality of exactly what we are talking about.

The first ashore at Gallipoli is a matter of conjecture. Through anecdotal stories, that role fell to Lismore's Joseph Stratford. On the morning of 25 April, eyewitness accounts describe Stratford plunging into waist-deep water from his landing boat and abandoning his pack to charge up the beach with rifle and bayonet. Less than an hour later, he was dead, having stormed a Turkish machine gun post single-handedly, only to fall riddled with bullets. Stratford's achievement has been eulogised locally and is mentioned in the Australian War Memorial archives but was never officially recognised. However, his memory was honoured with a plaque unveiled at the Lismore Uniting Church. Born at Coffee Camp near Nimbin in 1883, Joseph Henry Stratford was the fifth child in a family of 11. When 23, he left Lismore for the North Queensland cane fields and enlisted in the AIF in 1914. Promoted to sergeant, he was a natural leader and likely candidate to lead such a brave assault. Establishing an official record of exactly who was first ashore at Anzac Cove has always proved impossible. Many drowned or were shot before setting foot on the beach, while those who made it to shore were scattered and in disarray. But several eyewitness letters and verbal accounts mentioning Stratford as the first ashore made the case worthy of official consideration. His great-nephew Colin Stratford said 'it was only ever discussed in the family', but it was acknowledged all the same. He believed that there was enough evidence that Stratford should be recognised as the first man ashore. It is a number of years ago now that the Lismore Uniting Church officially recognised that.

The statistics have been mentioned before, but, however horrific they are, they are worth acknowledging. We know that around 60,000 men were killed or wounded during the First World War, and at Gallipoli itself there were many. Our current population would put the statistics at around 250,000 people, which again emphasises how horrific that battle was.

I thank the committee that helped me with the centenary of Anzac. There were lots of re-enactments, memorial plaques, displays et cetera through the Anzac grant program. I would like to mention a couple. I had the privilege of going to Copmanhurst two nights before Anzac Day where there was a re-enactment of the Light Horse Brigade. The day before Anzac Day, 150 men and women rode from Copmanhurst to Grafton to be there for the dawn service. It was very moving. When everyone was assembling at Copmanhurst two nights before, I am sure it was very similar to what happened 100 years ago. There was great energy, frivolity, laughter and what have you when everyone was assembling with their horses. While that was happening, we had to remember that people were going to an unknown, and how sad the results were for many of them. Also, I went to the unveiling of a memorial stained glass window at St Andrews Church in Lismore. There were also improvements around the Lismore baths. Some windows and glass doors were put in so that they could be observed all year around. That was particularly moving for my wife Karen, whose great-great-uncle, Alfred Webber, is listed on that memorial plaque as fallen.

There was also an interesting event at Ballina. There is going to be a planting of trees along the avenue and it will be called Waler's Way. As has been well documented, tens of thousands of horses from Australia went to the battle. It is called Waler's Way because the horses were predominantly from New South Wales. Only one returned. A lot of the young men took their horses with them, and not only did they not return but tens of thousands of horses were also involved in the battle. I went to many unveilings as well around the Kyogle-Woodenbong area. The day itself was very moving, as I am sure it was for all of us involved. I went to the dawn service in Ballina. The dawn service is always moving wherever you go and whatever type of day it is, but it was a particularly moving day with a particularly stunning sunrise. I acknowledge everyone involved in that. The service at Lismore later in the morning was also moving, as were those in Casino, Clovass and Coraki.

I would like to acknowledge everyone on the committee who helped me with those Anzac centenary grants. I obviously pay respect to everyone involved in the conflict. Over this year, because it is the centenary, we have all become more aware of what happened at Gallipoli and the statistics that were involved. As I mentioned at the start, I will never forget that 9,000 men were killed in the area the size of a football field and 650 of 800 Australians were killed or wounded in an area the size of three tennis courts in one hour. We should never forget that.

Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the son of a Vietnam Veteran it is a great honour to rise in this House today to recognize the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli and pay tribute to those who fought in the First World War and those who have served our great nation in subsequent wars and battles. May I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the 2,000 Australian Defence Force personnel currently deployed overseas as well as the increasing number of recently returned veterans.

My father, Reg, was attached to 103 Field Battery during the Vietnam War, where he was involved in the Battle of Long Tan, one of the most significant and bloodiest battles Australia was involved in during the war, that saw 18 Australians lose their lives and 24 wounded. On that fateful night of 18 August 1966, the battery fired for more than five hours under extremely difficult climatic conditions, firing 1,078 rounds, the highest number of rounds fired by any battery during battle, in order to protect D Company, 6 Royal Australian Regiment, who were trapped in a rubber plantation near Long Tan in South Vietnam. My father has never really talked about the war, and he is by no means alone. Most of his mates refuse to talk about it as well, silently carrying the burden of their experiences without solace or support. And of course there are those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice: never returning home to their loved ones. The Centenary of Anzac is an opportunity for all Australians to show our deepest respect and gratitude for the sacrifices that have been made and are being made every day in various locations throughout the world by our service men and women and their families.

The Gallipoli landings and the establishment of the Australian Imperial Force represent the birth of the Australian military as it stands today—for instance, 103 Field Battery, my father's battery, first formed at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt on 6 March 1916 as part of the AIF's reorganisation following the Gallipoli campaign. Accordingly, the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli is perhaps the most significant commemorative occasion in our nation's history because of its vital role in establishing us as a nation and as a people. Thanks to the hard work of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon. Michael Ronaldson, the government has provided the perfect platform to help communities across Australia to reflect upon and venerate the lives and achievements of our Anzacs through the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. I am proud to report that this program has played an integral role in Macarthur's Centenary of Anzac commemorations, providing more than $110,000 in funding to numerous schools and local organisations in my electorate. Rosemeadow Public School was able to build a memorial garden and learning centre thanks to this grant funding, providing the perfect environment for current and future generations of students to learn about the heroic deeds of our Anzacs. I was delighted to join Rod Armstrong, Secretary of the Campbelltown RSL Sub-Branch, at Rosemeadow's Anzac Day ceremony on 23 April to officially open the garden and learning centre. I would like to thank Principal Paul Hughes, Vice-Principal Michelle Lester, Karen Davies, Simon Greenshields and all the staff and students for what was a fantastic event.

Wollondilly Shire Council received Anzac Centenary grant funding to build a commemorative wall in Warragamba Civic Park, ensuring that residents in the Warragamba Silverdale area have a dedicated site to remember the fallen. The Warragamba and Silverdale region has a rich and proud Anzac history, with over 47 young men making the journey to Europe to fight in the First World War, including Patrick Sinclair Anderson, who was mortally wounded during the Gallipoli landings in 1915. I was delighted to join Jai Rowell, state member for Wollondilly, Councillor Hilton Gibbs and the Warragamba Anzac Committee in Warragamba Civic Park on 15 April for the official unveiling of this commemorative site. I would also like to give special thanks to Stonehill Stonemasons for their terrific work in creating this fitting tribute to the area's rich Anzac history.

The Veterans Recreation Centre in Campbelltown used funding to remove an existing Australian pine tree at Dredges Cottage and replace it with a certified lone pine that has been sourced by local horticulturalist and veteran John McDonald. The Veterans Recreation Centre is also preserving or replacing plaques on an existing memorial wall and restoring and reframing memorabilia photos and a painting dating back to World War I. I had the pleasure of visiting Dredges Cottage to have a look at these items on display and I am pleased to report that these historical artefacts make a significant contribution to Macarthur's historical record. The Veterans Recreation Centre has also assisted Lauren Hokin in receiving federal support to write a book detailing the sacrifices and experiences of locals who enlisted to fight in the Great War.

Camden Community Connections, a local not-for-profit organisation based in Narellan, hosted a picnic and poetry competition that involved schools across Macarthur. They also produced a DVD called Camden Anzacs: Our Stories that tells the stories of local Anzacs who served in World War I. The Anzac Centenary Community Picnic was a huge success, with hundreds of people flocking to Curry Reserve in Elderslie, where it was held on Sunday 26 April. I would like to congratulate the two poetry competition winners, Hermione Kiley, from Wollondilly Anglican College, and Taylor Skinner, from St Helen's Park School, for the moving recitals they made that day. I would also like to thank Sue Robinson and all her staff and volunteers for their hard work to make the picnic such an enjoyable and successful occasion.

Another benefactor of this fantastic program is the St Paul's Anglican Church at Cobbitty, which has received funding to restore a memorial plaque specific to World War I combat that was produced in memory of those who gave service and sacrificed their lives in the Great War between 1914 and 1919. This program also provided support for the Camden Show Society in conjunction with Camden RSL Sub-Branch to hold a military tattoo to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. Each year over 40,000 people from across the region attend the Camden Show, and this year was made even more special because of the way Camden's war history was commemorated through the production of the military tattoo.

The people of Macarthur are incredibly proud of the men and women from the region who served this country during World War I. This was demonstrated by the enormous crowds at Anzac services right across Macarthur this year. The official estimate for the Camden RSL Sub-Branch dawn service was 12,000 people, an unprecedented crowd.

A special highlight at Camden's dawn service was Vicki Katon's idea to make a poppy quilt. Sub-branch President Iain Richard-Evan put an advertisement in the local paper asking for interest in helping to make a quilt. Many individuals and organisations in the community helped out, with the residents of Camden Downs Retirement Village making a significant contribution to the quilt. Over 6,000 poppies were knitted, and the poppy quilt was presented at the Camden dawn service. I would like to pay tribute to Susan Young, from Camden Country Quilters Guild, who took a wreath over to Gallipoli to honour the Anzac Centenary. I would also like to thank Camden RSL President Iain Richard-Evan, Senior Vice-President Con Diomis, Andy Wright, Stephen Hunt, Len Carter and Major David Brown, with special thanks to Vicki Katon and Diane Richard-Evan, for the Camden Poppy Project, Emma Robilliard and Mayor Lara Symkowiak from Camden Council.

At the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch dawn service more than 5,000 people packed into the sub-branch's Memorial Garden and Sister Helen Haultain Memorial Park. Thirty-one schools were represented, along with four preschools, various church organisations, the scouts, military cadets, members of the Defence Force and local politicians and dignitaries. A good friend of mine, Pat McGeown, a well-known and respected radio announcer who also happens to be a member for the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch and ex Defence Force member, emceed the event. I would like to pay tribute to President Ray James, Vice-Presidents Patrick O'Grady and John Bow, Secretary John Lees, Honorary Treasurer John Beer and everyone involved with the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch for making this year's Anzac celebrations so successful.

The Picton Thirlmere Bargo RSL Sub Branch Anzac service and march, which took place as part of Wollondilly Remembers, was attended by the Thirlmere Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade; 237 Cadet Unit; Ingleburn RSL Pipes and Drums; the Campbelltown-Camden District Band; students from Thirlmere Public School, Wollondilly Anglican School and Picton High School, who marched alongside sub-branch members, veterans and their families; members of the public; and Tharawal Land Council elders and members, who marched with their banner in recognition of the Indigenous Australian Defence Force Service. I would like to thank President Tim Bennett-Smith, Anthony Stringer, Ossie Biele, Kerry Chisolm, Philip Brockett and all the friends and volunteers who helped make this event such a success.

Campbelltown RSL's Anzac Day dawn service and later march and main service saw record crowds packed into Mawson Park. They enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine, which only added to the magic of the occasion. I would like to thank President Dutchy Holland, Senior Vice-President Warren Browning, Secretary Rod Armstrong, Treasurer W.R. Robinson OAM, Welfare Officer Elwyn Spencer, and Ernie New for their contribution as well.

In many ways this outpouring of support for the Centenary of Anzac commemorations should be no surprise, as Macarthur has a rich and proud Anzac history. We can only imagine what it was like for our beloved ANZACs 100 years ago on the battlefields. Their actions set a standard for future generations, and I am extremely proud of my father and all the Defence personnel who have served this country. We thank and remember those who have sacrificed their lives for this nation. May the Anzac spirit live on in all our hearts forever. Lest we forget.

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk on the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC forces' landing at Gallipoli, one of the most important commemorative events in our nation's history. Like many of us in this House, I have had the honour this year of being involved in a range of community events, commemorations and school projects throughout Reid to mark the Centenary of Anzac. It has given me and many others in my electorate an opportunity to reflect on the great sacrifices that the men and women of our armed services have made and continue to make for all of us so that we can live in our wonderful, free and tolerant society.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 Australians served at Gallipoli. More than 19,000 were wounded and 8,709 were killed in action. There were also 11,000 New Zealanders at Gallipoli: 2,721 were killed in action and 4,752 were wounded. Of course, on the Centenary of Anzac we reflect not just on the Gallipoli campaign but on the entire First World War and the century of service which has flowed from it. Australia's involvement in the First World War came at a great cost to our nation. Out of a population of just five million in 1914 more than 417,000 Australians volunteered to serve in the First World War. Some 332,000 served overseas. Australia suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the allied forces: more than 61,000 made the supreme sacrifice and some 152,000, just fewer than one in every two, were listed as casualties by the time of the armistice in November 1918. The sheer number of memorials to the fallen across our country demonstrates how widely these losses were felt and perhaps goes some way to explain why the Anzac legend has lived on through generations since. One of the great things I have taken away from all the Anzac ceremonies and events that I have been to this year is that I have no doubt that the memory of those servicemen and women will continue to live for the next 100 years and well beyond. The reverence and solemn understanding that I have seen in Reid schoolchildren has assured me of that—that future generations will continue to respect the sacrifice that those men and women made for our country.

I congratulate the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Senator the Hon. Michael Robinson, for the excellent and heartfelt work that he and his office have undertaken in engaging with schools in our local communities in the lead up to the Centenary. I am also confident that the Anzac story will live on in the families of our newest Australians, as I have seen migrant communities from a broad range of backgrounds paying their respects to our Anzacs. I will talk more specifically about the Australian Turkish community in Auburn in a moment.

Amongst the many events that I was invited to attend this year, I would like to mention a few in particular. The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway dawn service in Concord was held the weekend before Anzac Day. It was a very special occasion, including an original piece of classical music, Meeting the Sun, composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and performed by the Australian Royal Navy Band and the Sydney Children's Choir, featuring lyrics taken from the poems of Australian diggers. This was followed by an address by His Excellency General the Hon. David Hurley AC DSC (Retired), Governor of New South Wales. Congratulations to John Haines, chairman of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway, and Alice Kang from Concord Hospital. Our local RSL subbranches performed their duty proudly, as always, and held services across the electorate. I would like to thank the RSL subbranches of Auburn, Burwood, Concord, Drummoyne, Five Dock and Lidcombe for their efforts in putting on their services for local communities.

I would like to thank the Reid Anzac Centenary Committee for assisting me in finding and selecting a range of projects for the Anzac Centenary Local Grants funding: Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu, the president of the Gallipoli Mosque, Greg Blundell from Homebush Public School, Allan Chapple from Homebush RSL, Marlene Doran from Homebush RSL, Colin Hodges from Burwood RSL, Alice Kang from Concord Hospital or, as we know it, 'the Repat', Robert Ridge from Five Dock RSL, Bob Turner from Concord RSL and Harry Withers from Homebush RSL. The projects we funded focused on the restoration of memorials in the community, including $36,707 for the restoration of the Davey Square Memorial; $21,550 for the construction of the Davey Square Reserve Memorial Wall to display the wall plaques from the former Homebush-Strathfield RSL subbranch; $38,600 for the restoration of the Concord War Memorial precinct in Queen Elizabeth Park; and $3,913 for the restoration and relocation of the Concord Public School honour board and stone memorial to former students who fought in World War I.

The many schools across Reid have all participated in the centenary with their own services, class projects and memorials—unfortunately, too many to name in the limited time that I have here today. But I would like to pay a special thanks to the students who have put in so much work to research and learn about the servicemen and women from World War I and the campaigns and battles they took part in. Of course, the teachers who have guided them through that process also deserve praise for the important work that they do in helping our future generations develop and grow into tomorrow's leaders.

I would like to mention a number of events undertaken by the Turkish Australian community in my electorate. In Reid I am fortunate to represent the Western Sydney suburb of Auburn, which, in amongst the united nations of new and future Australians, is home to a strong Turkish Australian community. The 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli was a commemoration of special importance for Australians from a Turkish background. While our two countries are close friends today, in the first world war we both paid dearly with the blood of our young men. With our history inescapably linked through conflict, the famous words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk echo through the years as a symbol of the healing that has occurred in the decades since:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

With such an intertwined history between Turkey and Australia, it is perhaps no surprise to hear that this centenary commemoration was held in special reverence amongst Australians with Turkish heritage. The CEO of Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance, Ertunc Ozen, and executive secretary, Gunes Gungordu, travelled to the centenary commemorations in Gallipoli to pay their respects to fallen Anzacs on behalf of the Turkish community in Australia. Auburn Gallipoli Mosque held a moving Lone Pine memorial service to commemorate both the ANZAC and Turkish fallen. The Wall of Friendship was unveiled in Auburn Memorial Park, with the inscription of the same words from Ataturk on that memorial.

The Auburn RSL sub-branch president, Mr Ron Inglis, provided a fitting summary when he said:

I think it's excellent, I think it's a fine thing that while we certainly remember the sacrifices of soldiers on both sides and the terrible conditions that they faced, and we certainly honour them for their bravery and sacrifice, but at the same time it's really wonderful to come together in a community event.

I will finish with a personal story of two celebrations within the one day in my electorate in Reid. At Rosebank College in Five Dock I listened to students talk about their great-grandfathers and their service at Gallipoli. I hopped in the car at one o'clock, and at two o'clock I hopped out and we started a celebration at Amity College, an Islamic Turkish school in Auburn. An hour before I had been listening to Australian kids talk about their great-grandfathers who were Australian soldiers at Gallipoli. An hour later I had the honour and joy of hearing Turkish-Australian children talk about the service of their great-grandfathers on the Turkish side. Some 100 years ago their great-grandparents fought half a world away, 10 feet from each other in hand-to-hand combat on a daily basis. Today you travel an hour down Parramatta Road and you move from one service celebrating the Australian sacrifice to another celebrating the Turkish sacrifice. I think that is one of the joys of serving in my local electorate of Reid.

We acknowledge the legacy the Anzacs forged for the servicemen and servicewomen who have followed in their footsteps and we pay tribute to those who continue to uphold the Anzac tradition to this day. We will remember them. Lest we forget.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I compliment the member for Reid on his contribution to this debate reminding us of the extraordinary significance of the Gallipoli campaign, a campaign which is part of the foundation story of three young nations: Australia, Turkey and New Zealand. Gallipoli is in a very historic part of the world filled with legends and stories of battles and heroism going back thousands of years. In many ways the myth, the life force, of three nations was founded there on those bloody cliffs and hills.

Why would a nation, any nation, commemorate a terrible defeat? It was a defeat that was not the consequence of the enemy's overwhelming force or superior strategy, a defeat that was utterly mismanaged by our side—the British side—from the conception to the execution. The only flawless part of the Gallipoli campaign was the withdrawal, and there probably is not a lot of glory in that. What is the answer? Why ANZAC Day?

A peaceful and peace-loving people laments war's folly and catastrophe, grieves for the dead, thanks them for their sacrifice but, above all, honours the inspiring courage, love, mateship and selfless heroism of the Anzacs. It is as though our nation, Australia, unlike any other, has cut through the gold braid, the medals, the great guns and ships and planes, has cut through all of that military grandeur, and reached down into the mud of the trenches and found what was really important: a human love, a yearning for peace, but preparedness to die in order to defend it.

It is the humanity of the Anzac story that is timeless and appealing. It is the love of country, the love of comrades and the mateship—that sheer humanity that was the one thing that could not be ground down by the folly of the generals and the horror of the war itself. That is what inspires Australians, and that is why every year more and more people, especially young people, attend the dawn services.

And so it was that this Anzac Day dawn found us among a very young crowd of 10,000 at North Bondi in my electorate for the service at the cenotaph. The North Bondi RSL sub-branch has a heavy concentration of young veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and those still serving. Their service was in line with their mission of supporting the diggers and veterans of 2015, not just honouring the diggers of 1915. Our modern army's sacrifice in Afghanistan was keenly recalled as the families of Sergeant Brett Till, Sapper Rowan Robinson and Corporal Scott Smith joined the service, three of the 41 Australian soldiers killed in that long war. We heard from the child of a veteran, the partner of a veteran and the parent of a veteran to put the emphasis, in the words of RSL trustee David Sims, on 'those who stay behind and those who serve Australia in a different, intimate, and important way'. I was pleased that we were able to support that North Bondi service and others throughout the electorate through our Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program.

The sub-branch general manager of operations, Kate Cass, who has served in Afghanistan, reflected on finally understanding the trials of her father's service through her own experience. This is part of what she said:

On my most recent deployment to Afghanistan, thinking of him, I pictured two young people from two different eras in conflict overseas looking through the same eyes at the same devastation at our feet and asking the same question: Should we be here?.....but knowing that service to this great country is so very necessary.

It a calling that stirs deep in the soul. It means military people have to, need to, and always will do put service first. I now know that if they don't, who actually will?

I now know now how capable the human mind and body are of adapting to adversity, and how capable the heart is of numbing itself against grief and fear. ANZAC Day for me is now no longer a retrospective concept.

Later in the morning the veterans of the Bondi Junction RSL marched to the Waverley Cenotaph, led by their president, Bill Harrigan. They were an older group, one or two from the Second World War, many from Vietnam and a few from wars of our own time as well. Reminding us that we did not fight Hitler alone, one of our Russian veterans attended, as he always does, in his magnificently medalled Red Navy uniform. He is always complimented by the old Australian diggers, who note that they could not fit into their old uniforms and they are very impressed that he is able to. The boys from Waverley College formed the catafalque party. As I sat there together with the community, I think all of us looked at the boys from Waverley College and looked at the names on the cenotaph and reflected that the names on the cenotaph were of young men who were not much older than the schoolboys at the service.

But perhaps the most idiosyncratically Australian Anzac Day service this year, as every year, was that held down the hill at the Bronte Surf Club. The veterans, their friends and supporters from the local RSL marched along the promenade to the surf club, where a surf reel serves as a cenotaph, and the link of selfless service between the soldiers and the example of Anzac and the surf lifesavers—many of whom served and died in Australia's wars—is remembered and renewed.

Like many of his generation, my grandfather Fred Bligh Turnbull did not talk about the war much. He had been wounded several times and gassed, which left him very short of breath all his life, but that did not stop him serving in the Second World War as well. They were a remarkable generation. Fred enlisted in 1915, a 22-year-old schoolteacher born on his parent's farm on the Macleay River near Euroka. He served in the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion for the last two years of the war, returning home in 1919. I remember Fred as an old man, me as a little boy. He had a sword from the time when he was promoted to an officer in the Second World War, and I always tried to get him to tell me stories about the war. You can imagine—little boys love that kind of thing. Fred did not want to talk about it. It was too horrible, too filled with needless death and mismanagement and poor leadership. Whenever we reflect on the First World War, we are reminded of the follies of war and we are reminded again and again that those Australian soldiers, whether they were at Gallipoli or elsewhere, were lions led by donkeys, until some lions in the form of Australian generals emerged—above all, of course, Sir John Monash.

We have a very strong military history in my electorate. My electorate is a very old electorate. It is the inner city suburbs of Sydney. We have Victoria Barracks, one of the oldest military establishments in Australia. It was a major recruiting centre throughout the First World War and still is a military headquarters. We have two important naval establishments, at HMAS Watson and Garden Island. We have six RSLs. There are constant reminders in my community of our great military tradition. But it is not those landmarks that link the tradition of Anzac to our community; it is, as I said at the outset, the example of love and of mateship and of sacrifice.

We can be proud of so many things as Australians but there is nothing of which we can be more proud than the Anzac tradition and the way in which we have taken a dreadful catastrophe, a shocking defeat, and made it a moment of celebration, of commemoration, of love, of sacrifice, of the most human values. This is really a peace-loving nation and one that respects the humanity that is not lost in the midst of war.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have great pleasure and a deep sense of pride to speak to this ministerial statement on the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and join with others who have spoken in this chamber about our involvement and what it means to us to commemorate that landing at Gallipoli and what it has given to our nation.

On 25 April 1915, young Australians from all walks of life rushed ashore at Gallipoli in the early dawn. They created, unknowingly at the time, a legend that would endure for more than 100 years. I believe from what we have seen throughout this 100th anniversary commemoration this year that it is in good hands in the hands of the next generation of Australians, who are taking up what is their possession forever, a priceless gift—the spirit of the Anzacs, the legend that in so many ways defines the values of our nation. I think so many Australians want to have attached to their own identity the enduring qualities that I believe describe what the Anzacs created that day—courage, determination and mateship.

Above all, as they rushed ashore that morning in the early dawn, the Anzacs had the courage to do what they had to do, regardless of the dangers. They were young, enthusiastic and eager, like so many young people. We have all gone through it ourselves. We feel at that age a sense of indestructibility. They were determined, because they were representing Australia. They were serving under the Australian flag. They were proud. They had been trained. They had been recruited. There was in many ways the sense that it would be an adventure for them. They were determined that they would carry out their duty in the name of Australia as they went ashore at Gallipoli 100 years ago.

The enduring quality of mateship and identifying with your mates is something that lives with us all today. We will talk loosely sometimes about a mate we have. But, for them, as they went ashore, they knew they had a mate beside them who would not let them down, that they would not be abandoned if they got in trouble because their mate was there with them. That is another one of those enduring values that I believe describes in many ways what it is to be Australian.

There is a wonderful site on the Gallipoli Peninsula. I had the great privilege as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs at the time to be able to establish that new site where we commemorate Anzac Day. I remember going there on a cold day in November, wondering whether we could move our commemoration out of a Commonwealth war cemetery to Ariburnu, right on the beach between Anzac Cove and North Beach. I thought to myself, 'How could you have lived in the open on these rugged hills above where I'm standing, day after day, night after night, with the real threat that you might lose your life but determined to survive there?' I knew I had a huge responsibility to make sure that, whatever we did, it was going to be a site where we would go in the future to commemorate Anzac Day.

It was with the cooperation of the local farmers in the area and the local Canakkle council that the Turkish government assisted in the process of having land allocated right on the beach where in fact the Anzacs first landed at North Beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula. So it had historical significance. It was the site that we all know now is where we commemorate Anzac Day.

I want to touch on the fact that, as we were commemorating the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli this year, no matter where you looked, from the smallest country towns to the biggest cities, from the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra to places where Australians meet all around the world, on 25 April this year, Australians young and old were there because they were proud. But they were also there to remember those who lost their lives not only on that fateful day at Gallipoli but throughout the last 100 years—including, prior to Federation, in the Boer War. They remembered those who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and the way of life that we have but that sometimes I feel is taken for granted in this wonderful nation of Australia.

I am also proud of my own constituency. Even the smallest communities in the last 10 to 15 years have refurbished the war memorials that were erected in good faith sometimes 80 or 90 years ago. In some places, the community has diminished in population numbers. But the residents and councils still there have kept faith with the ideals of those who established a memorial in their town.

One of those places, just west of my own home town where I grew up, is Muckadilla. I remember as a small child on Anzac Day seeing diminishing numbers year after year attending Anzac services there. Mainly they were those who had served. It got down to two or three people attending that service on Anzac Day. This year, there were over 300 who made a pilgrimage, honouring those from the area around Muckadilla who have served. In many ways, the centenary of the Gallipoli landings has ignited something in all Australians to want to know more about it. They stepped forward in their thousands and thousands all around Australia and many other parts of the world.

In a remote community out on the edge of the Simpson Desert at Bedourie, they had about 100 horsemen on horseback at a dawn service on a lonely hill to the north of the town—a place they call the Vaughan Johnson Lookout. In the early dawn it was very cold, but they were there. They made a very special effort, some bringing their horses over 300, 400 or 500 kilometres to participate in that dawn service on horseback, which reminds us all of the Light Horse and those who served in the Light Horse in the First World War and still serve in the Light Horse regiments today. I also want to acknowledge that in towns like Goondiwindi people gathered together the history of those from the area who had served and their families—their names, their records—and compiled the most wonderful collection of the service records of over 500 men and women. They established a record that could have been lost in time were it not for people stepping forward. I commend the people who have done this in so many towns like Goondiwindi, as in Wallumbilla, to the east of my home town of Roma. So many communities did likewise. They collected the history of those from their community who served; they produced books, established little memorials and made collections of memorabilia, which, throughout time, may have been lost were not for the commitment of people wanting to participate in this year's Centenary of the landing at Gallipoli.

In conclusion, I have been invigorated and in many ways stimulated to see so many young people taking hold of a possession that they will have for their lives—the possession of the legacy of the Anzacs, the spirit of the Anzacs, that lives on 100 years since that landing at Gallipoli. I am sure they will pass it on to their children and their grandchildren. I know that our Anzac Day commemoration, the spirit of the Anzacs, is in great hands in the next generation of Australians, as it is likewise with the generations today. I thank the House.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I had the distinct pleasure of joining one of my primary schools, Pacific Pines State School, as their senior class, year 6, gathered at the War Memorial. There is something poignantly wonderful about seeing the next generation, on a cold Canberra morning, rugged up, come to the very soul of Australia to learn, to pause and to reflect. We conducted a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and paused for a minute's silence. When I left them, I left them in the good hands of a digger, a veteran of Vietnam, to talk about his service.

On this 100th year since we stormed the beaches of Gallipoli, I was able to stand there with the next generation and point them towards the bronze panels in the halls of the War Memorial, to talk to them about what it meant for two million Australians to have worn the uniform of our nation, to speak to them about freedom never being free—a price is paid by a few for many, ultimately by those over 102,000 names on those bronze panels—to talk through the loss of some 60,000 in World War I, including the loss of some 2,200 sets of brothers who fell in that conflict, and the 154 mothers who gave three sons in that conflict and, incredibly, the five mothers who gave four sons. It is always wonderful to spend time with the next generation, explaining what those that have gone before have done for those that live now.

It is an extraordinary commemoration we have this year and then, rolling through to 2018, as we reflect on deeds done in the past, great men and women who have served and the nation they have left behind. The Prime Minister quite rightly represented the nation at Gallipoli; other senior colleagues were across parts of Europe. As the Prime Minister and I talked about where we should go, the Prime Minister, to his enduring credit and leadership, agreed that the minister needed to be with the current fight. So I spent the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day at the only service that was not televised, with the special forces troops in the middle of Iraq.

Nestled between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers at the special forces compound, I, with over 100 Australian special forces, including our colleagues from other nations and from the CTS of Iraq, which is the Iraq special forces, gathered on the dawn of 25 April this year. I also spent time at our operating base at Al Minhad, as well as two other locations—one in downtown Baghdad with our embassy, and with our aircraft force in the UAE to conduct similar services.

There is something extraordinary about watching the dawn rise over Iraq with our fighting men and women. The commanding officer of the Special Operations Group there had found a bugler from US special forces, he had found a piper from US special forces and he had put a young lady photographer on top of one of the shipping containers to take appropriate photographs. There we celebrated, commemorated and remembered the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day—me, the commander of the joint task force in theatre, the Australian Ambassador to Iraq and the fighting men and women we have deployed. It was an extraordinary moment in an extraordinary dawn as those who still continue to fight remembered those who had fought so long ago.

I made the point, not just to the Australian special forces there but also to our air component out of UAE as well as to our embassy staff, that, as we stood there, it was hard not to be drawn into the fact that men and women not only fought on the ground but also fought in the air. On that day, 25 April 1915, the fledgling Australian Flying Corps had already embarked on ships bound for Iraq. Indeed, we were the only British dominion to establish a flying corps for service during the First World War, and by war's end the Australian Flying Corps consisted of four complete operational squadrons. Australia sent one squadron to the Middle East—No. 1 Squadron. By the way, when Australia sent Super Hornets back into Iraq last year, it was 1 Squadron that led the way, the same squadron that was formed and sent 100 years earlier. Of the 800 officers and 2,840 men who flew in the Australian Flying Corps, 175 were killed.

In Iraq in 1915, the Mesopotamian Half Flight was established at the request of the British government of India and operated out of southern Iraq. Australia only had enough personnel for a half-flight, so that is what was dispatched: four officers, 41 other ranks and 18 mechanics. The Half Flight's aircraft were provided by the Royal Flying Corps. Initially, they were obsolete designs that were also unarmed—Maurice Farman Shorthorn and Longhorn aircraft. With a top speed of 50 miles per hour where desert winds got up to 80 miles per hour, you literally flew backwards. The aircrew were for a time forced to use pistols and drop two-pound infantry hand-held bombs. They arrived too late to help secure the Shatt-el-Arab and the oil pipeline, but they joined the British advance on Baghdad.

There I was, in 2015, with Australian special forces on the outskirts of Baghdad, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, talking about the Australian airmen who had been there 100 years before, supporting the advance on Baghdad.

In fact, on 4 July 2015, a Half Flight Cauldron G3 aircraft crewed by lieutenants George Pinnock Merz and William Burn were forced to land in enemy territory due to mechanical difficulties and were killed by armed civilians after a running gun battle over several miles. Our first casualties in the first air campaign in Australia's history were casualties on the ground in a land battle. The G3 had no machine guns that could be used to defend the aircraft. Ultimately, that attempt to reach Baghdad, supported by the Mesopotamian Half Flight, failed, with the tragic defeat at the Tigris marking the end of Australia's first experience of military aviation.

It was an extraordinary time for me in the Middle East. It is fitting and to the great credit of the Prime Minister that he ensured that a minister was with the men and women who are in the fight now, as he joined other great alliance partners in Gallipoli and other ministers across the world as we all remembered those who had gone before us and who had led the way in acknowledging that axiom that freedom is not free; it is paid by a few for the benefit of the many.

It was wonderful, at the same time, to see my own community on the Gold Coast come out in even greater numbers than before to reflect on what 100 years since the Gallipoli landings meant. The North Gold Coast RSL presented their new cenotaph—behind the Helensvale Bowls Club—which was ready in time for a fabulous service run by the RSL, which does so much for the community. Funds out of Anzac Centenary grants from the federal government were used by the majority of the schools in the electorate to run services to put in place rocks or cenotaphs of remembrance and to pay for wreaths.

As we commemorate the Centenary of Anzac, I thank the Australian service men and women, some 2,000, who are on 14 operational service missions across the world right now, eight of them in the Middle East. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you are doing. Thank you for your service to our country. This place recognises the sacrifices that you make and the sacrifices your families make. We recognise spouses at home and kids at home. We recognise the hard work and the seriously hard yards you do, with our flag on your shoulders and our country's name on your chests, for freedom's sake.

It will be an extraordinary few years as we continue this commemoration, but it is important that this parliament recognises, reflects on and remembers that over two million Australians have served, 2,000 continue to serve overseas and, in the years to come, thousands will serve under our flag, in our name. We remember you. We thank you. We are indebted to you.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year, 2015, marks the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. This is a significant year of commemoration as we remember the fallen and all who have served and continue to serve our nation. It is a time to take stock of where we come from and what we want to be. This year, we are reminded of what we have gained as a nation in the debt of gratitude we all owe.

The Gallipoli operation caused 26,111 Australian casualties, including 8,141 deaths. While this loss of life is difficult to comprehend today, we must put it into the context of a new and growing nation to truly appreciate its impact. Australia's total population at the time was less than five million, around the population of Sydney today, of which 417,000 enlisted, many falsifying their age so that they enlist and fight for their country. When the first ships carrying thousands of those brave young man approached the higher coastline of the Gallipoli peninsula 100 years ago, Australia had been a federation for just 15 years. Our soldiers stood on that foreign soil not as Queenslanders or as New South Welshmen but, for the first time, as Australians.

The first wave of men to arrive ashore was composed of the units of the 3rd Australian Brigade—three infantry battalions of men from Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. On 25 April, as dawn approached, they were tasked with storming the beach and pushing inland as fast as possible. But, even before they reached the beach, the bullets began. Still, they bravely pushed forward, taking on the steep peninsula in a hail of bullets. More than 620 Australians lost their lives on that first day. After nine days of continuous fighting, the battalion, which had landed with more than 1,000 men, had been reduced to just 309.

Yet it was in these dark times that the world was introduced to the Australian larrikin through the soldiers who maintained that recognisable sense of humour under the most trying of circumstances. Private Roy Denning of the 1st Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, wrote:

In spite of the dirty and in some cases ragged uniform covering tired bodies the men were cheerful and laughed at their plight …

…   …   …

… my heart swelled with admiration … I thought I was justified in being proud of being an Australian … Give me Australians as comrades and I will go anywhere duty calls …

New chapters to our national history were written and characteristics that have come to define us were born—endurance, determination, courage and mateship. We proudly embrace them to this day. As Australians, we have a responsibility to ensure that the sacrifice and service of those who fought in the First World War will be remembered by future generations. We are inspired to live up to the values that our service men and women displayed and which have served our nation well—values like mateship, courage, duty, sacrifice and dedication.

In my electorate of McPherson we are fortunate to have an extremely strong, tight-knit ex-service community. Our local RSL sub-branches play an integral role in keeping the Anzac spirit alive, and I would like to take a moment now to thank each of them for their tireless work: Currumbin Palm Beach RSL Sub Branch and President Ron Workman OAM; Mudgeeraba Robina RSL Sub Branch and President James McCann; Burleigh Heads RSL Sub Branch and President Chris Keating OAM; and Tweed Heads and Coolangatta RSL and President Joe Russell.

I would also like to make special mention of the RSL services held in my electorate. The Currumbin RSL dawn service was one of a number of Anzac services that I attended on 25 April. This incredibly moving service was broadcast live on both television and radio. The service attracted over 25,000 attendees and quite possibly over 30,000. I was humbled by the incredible community engagement on such a significant day. I was also very proud of our southern Gold Coast community for hosting this national event.

I also had the honour of attending the march and mid-morning service at Burleigh Heads and the unique sunset service at Mudgeeraba. Both of these events were very fitting tributes to all our service men and women, past and present. Many people attended the services held at Tweed Services by the Tweed Heads Coolangatta RSL Sub Branch, and I thank that sub-branch for its commitment to the veteran and the wider community.

Across my electorate, record numbers attended Anzac services in this centenary year, to remember and commemorate the service and sacrifice of those who served and continue to serve. It was my privilege to join with the southern Gold Coast community in these commemorations and I congratulate and thank all involved for making these services so successful.

The McPherson electorate was also able to access $125,000 for projects commemorating the First World War. The Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program assists and encourages all communities to undertake projects to commemorate the service and sacrifice of our service men and women in the First World War. Once again, our southern Gold Coast community rose to the task, and I am pleased to be able to advise the House of the following projects currently underway or completed in McPherson: a flagpole and memorial plaque at Hillcrest Christian College; a memorial at the Australian Industry Trade College; commemorative gardens at King's Christian College; support to the Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum to run the 'Telling the Anzac story' educational program; a memorial garden near the Great Hall at Somerset College; support to the Lions Club of Robina to assist in the construction of an Anzac memorial at the Robina Library and to deliver an educational program to schools; support to the Service Personnel Anglican Help Society for the construction of a First World War memorial garden; support to Currumbin Palm Beach RSL to preserve and display precious First World War memorabilia; money to the Mudgeeraba Robina RSL for the construction of a new memorial wall and First World War entry feature at the Mudgeeraba cenotaph; and a significant contribution to the Burleigh Heads RSL to install a new First World War memorial at the Burleigh Heads cenotaph. At four metres tall, 'The Anzac', as it is titled, depicts a soldier in the reverse-arms position and is composed of 100 individual layers of stainless steel—a striking tribute to our fallen soldiers. I encourage all visitors to the Gold Coast and all residents to go to Burleigh Heads and have a look at that memorial. It is absolutely outstanding and it looks quite different depending on where you are standing. I was delighted that, on the day of the dedication, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson was able to be with us to be part of what was a very special event.

I would like to acknowledge the McPherson Anzac Centenary Grants Committee, who worked to select these special projects for our community. The committee comprised Phil Roberts, Bren Milsom, Janelle Manders and Councillor Daphne McDonald, and I thank them for their efforts.

Gallipoli was a defining moment in our national history. I am proud of our continued commitment to honour the memory of those men and women who laid down their lives for Australia. Lest we forget.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing compares to standing on the beach at Gallipoli. When you see the gravestones just by the water's edge, it really communicates itself to you—the sacrifice that Australians made in the pursuit of our national identity and in those terrible battles where 8,000 Australians died, in that salient that could not be penetrated in all of those months of 1915.

I toured Gallipoli with the great Turkish historian from Canakkale university, Kenan Celik, who the previous day had taken me to the nearby site of Troy. Professor Celik's lifelong support for all Australians who visit that part of the world is truly appreciated and is emblematic of the kind of friendship that has grown up between Turks and Australians. We ended the day at Cape Helles. Standing underneath the colossal statue that the Turks have erected at the point of Cape Helles, he gave me some long historical perspective of the events at Gallipoli. He said, 'Michael, close your eyes and think that 80 years ago there were boats full of Australians rowing their way slowly towards Anzac Cove; close your eyes and imagine, thousands of years ago, Greeks rowing their way from the other side of Cape Helles into the Bosphorus towards Troy.' That part of the world has been the scene of great historical drama, including for Australia. The Turks, rightly, venerate Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was under explicit orders of the Germans, who commanded the Turks in the field, not to do anything unless he received direct German military orders. Kemal Ataturk knew better the great military dictum that Marshal Grouchy should have listened to at the Battle of Waterloo: march to the sound of the guns. As soon as he heard reports of the Australians landing, the Turkish division that he commanded ran to the heights of Chunuk Bair. There are many tales of Australians on the second ridge who actually saw the officer commanding—the later President of Turkey. Had he been shot or had we got to the third ridge, the entire history of the First World War might have been different. I know these stories because my lifelong friend the President of the Turkish RSL in Melbourne, Ramazan Altintas, and I often reprise what might have been and I have certainly discussed with him my visit to Gallipoli.

My personal odyssey with the First World War begins with my grandfather many years before that. As a little boy I remember him marching to the St Kilda Army and Navy Club outside Luna Park, up that scary European-style grill elevator up to where we used to have the Christmas party for kids at the St Kilda RSL. Representing the opposition, my odyssey took me to the First World War battlefield at Villers-Bretonneux, and I remember walking up the hill and seeing a sandstone wall in which the names of 10,000 Australians who were killed in the First World War and who had no known grave were engraved. There is a big sandstone monument in the middle which is pockmarked, and I was shocked to see that. I said to the Australian ambassador, 'Mate, you ought to be sharper in your job and have that fixed up.' He said, 'You don't understand, Michael—in the Second World War all of the Australian statues that surrounded this monument were blown up by the Germans, and they used this one for target practice by the Messerschmitt's from the local airfield. We did find on that wall the name of my grandmother's brother, David Swan, who was one of the thousands of Australians butchered in the British-led military operations after the Battle of Pozieres—probably the most disastrous event for the Australian nation in the First World War.

Of course we have had many activities in my electorate to remember these events. With due respect to Fremantle, the largest troopships—and in fact all the troopships—left from Port Melbourne. The Orvieto left on 19 October 1914 to take troops to fight and train in Egypt and Lemnos and then land at Gallipoli. We are all very proud of the centenary grants, which we have dispensed with due care and solemnity to various worthy groups in all of our electorates to remember these events, and I think that has been a very good program. We have done projects with the Australian Turkish community and with the Australian Greek community, and for the nurses, which the member for Lalor and I attended on the weekend. I will return to that in a second. The departure from Port Melbourne is very iconic because you see in every RSL around the country pictures on the walls of the Australians leaving there, with all of the streamers being thrown at them and very big crowds on the dock down below. Port Melbourne in those days was pivotal to the war effort. Melbourne was then the capital of Australia, and war materials were shipped from Port Melbourne to the far side of the world. Around 126,000 servicemen embarked from Port Melbourne, and more than 19,000 of the 60,000 who died in the First World War were from Victoria. My grandfather John Peek, later commissioned lieutenant, left for training in Egypt and landed in the first reinforcement at Gallipoli. To the great pride of generations of our family, his commission—proudly framed at home on our wall—was received on the battlefield in France, just as General Sir John Monash received his. My daughter found a wonderful picture of him with the officers of the 11th Brigade in the photo archive at the War Memorial—again an institution which honours the sacrifices of Australians through conflict. It is improving all the time and I pay tribute to Brendan Nelson for all of the work that he does the there.

Gallipoli continues to impact on Australia—especially on how Australians see themselves. The Water Diviner is Russell Crowe's directorial debut, and it shows us to the world. Crowe's film is particularly sensitive and particularly typical of modern Australia, and a greater understanding of our Turkish friends is emblematic in the film. If I may say so, I believe the great Turkish actor Yilmaz Erdogan stole the show. He was by far the best actor—better than Crowe—in this wonderful production, which I urge people to go and see. The evocation of life in Turkey and the post-war difficulties are very important for Australians to understand.

Just this weekend we have commissioned a brilliant sculpture by Peter Corlett of Matron Grace Wilson and a recuperating digger. Of course ANZAC girls made Matron Wilson famous, and we now remember properly the role of Australian nurses stationed on the Greek island of Lemnos. It was wonderful to have my colleague the member for Lalor there with her two sisters, all three of whom were granddaughters of one of the great heroic nurses and one of the first Australian women to serve in a battlefield situation, on Lemnos. This project was the largest grant for the Port Melbourne Centenary of Anzac fund and the launch was attended by the Greek consul general and hundreds of other people. I think the program has been a worthwhile way of remembering those events that have forged our great country. I am very supportive of the War Memorial and Brendan Nelson's continuing work.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43, and the debate may be resumed at a later hour.