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

On further indulgence, Mr Speaker, I seek to acknowledge the 70th anniversary, on 15 August, of victory in the Pacific and the end of the Second World War. The Second World War changed our country and our world. Just 20 years after the horrors of the Great War, Australians again took up arms to fight the evils of Fascism, Nazism and militarism. Almost one million Australians, men and women, served in the Second World War and almost 40,000 died. To all of them we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be fully repaid.

The Australians who served did not just win the war. Along with all others who served in that dreadful conflict, they built a peace—a just and lasting peace. For all the problems of these days and for all the perils we face, these are the best times in human history, and that is largely due to the world that the men and women who served in the Second World War helped to create. They took to heart Churchill's dedication in his war memoirs:

In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.

Today, in this, our national parliament, we remember the men of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force. We remember the campaigns in North Africa, in Syria, in Crete, in Greece, in Malaya, in New Guinea and in the other islands to our north. We honour the personnel of the Royal Australian Navy, who fought with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, with the US in the Pacific and, particularly, at the Battle of the Coral Sea. We remember the Australians of the Royal Australian Air Force and we remember the Australians of the Royal Air Force, who suffered staggering losses, especially in Bomber Command. We acknowledge the 70,000 women who served in that conflict, including some 5,000 nurses. More than 70 Australian women died, including those murdered at Bangka Island and some who perished on board the Australian hospital ship Centaur.

On this anniversary of the war's end we remember the horror of the Holocaust, of man's inhumanity to man, and we rededicate ourselves to the great cause of peace. We acknowledge the sacrifice of those who died and we acknowledge the families who mourn them still. We acknowledge the suffering of those taken as prisoners of war and the mental and physical scars of those who made it home. We thank them for the free and democratic Australia that is their true legacy and we promise to strive to be worthy of their sacrifice.

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

on indulgence—Seventy years ago the war in the Pacific concluded. Unlike some of the other anniversaries this parliament has been acknowledging with the First World War, there are many Australians still alive from that time and many children and grandchildren who in our own lifetimes have spoken to the participants in that amazing struggle.

The war in the Pacific marks the end of what I think changed Australia's sense of its own security. With the war by Japan we saw war coming to our own shores and to our own communities in a way which we did not see with the conflict in Europe and North Africa. The war in the Pacific saw great horrors for Australian troops, from the fall of Singapore and the campaign in Malaya right through the Dutch East Indies to the conflict in Papua New Guinea, be it the Kokoda Track or the fierce battles at Milne Bay. It was a war at sea with our Navy and our merchant marine, it was a war in the air and, of course, it was a war on land. Australian troops and military forces fought with great valour throughout this conflict of the war in the Pacific, from the remarkable victories at Kokoda right through Papua New Guinea and South-East Asia. Indeed, our troops served in the occupation in Japan.

It was a war which brought conflict and bombing to Australian shores. It was a war which saw our foreign policy change forever as we moved from our reliance on Great Britain to the forging of our strong ties with the United States. It changed forever the way life was organised in our home communities, with many more women being absorbed into the workforce right through the decisions of financing and relations between state and federal governments. It was a remarkable challenge to re-absorb so many hundreds of thousands of returning Australian servicepeople into our economy. It also saw, I believe, the development of the generosity of the Australian spirit, with the over-time forgiveness of the conflict and atrocities which had happened to Australian prisoners of war.

Australian men and women came back from that war forever changed, and indeed their families were forever changed. As Prime Minister Curtin said at the opening of the War Memorial about all our servicemen:

These men were individuals fighting as a community, for something they understood and cherished, the right to rule themselves like civilised human beings.

He said:

Let it be Hitler's boast that every citizen is a soldier; it is our pride that every soldier is a citizen. In such a community it is right that the soldier and the statesman should be honoured together in the capital city of our democracy.

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

on indulgence—For the information of members, I propose that time for further statements on indulgence on the 70th anniversary of VP Day will be made available on a later day.