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

Today we have observed Remembrance Day at the War Memorial with the Leader of the Opposition, the Governor-General, the Presiding Officers and, of course, our visitors—our guests—the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. We honoured, as we do every year, the sacrifice of the men and women who served our country in all wars and who are serving our country today. It is an opportunity to express our deep respect and love as a nation for those brave Australians who gave their lives so that we should have the freedom and opportunities we enjoy as Australians today.

This year's Remembrance Day marks the 100-year anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, 70 years since the end of World War II and 50 years since the escalation of our commitment to the conflict in Vietnam. Today is also a day to remind ourselves that this story of sacrifice and duty is not only to be found in the pages of history but is also being forged by today's Anzacs in the Middle East and around the world.

We honour the veterans and the current servicemen and women, including 33,500 Australians who have served in Afghanistan, 25,000 Australians who have served in East Timor, 19,500 Australians who have served in Iraq, 8,400 Australians who have served in the Solomons and 1,300 Australians who have served in Bougainville, and many others besides. We must never forget the dedication, the valour and the love of country—the love of our values—and the preparedness to make the supreme sacrifice in their defence by all of those who have served us, understanding and acknowledging our debt of gratitude for the horrors they have endured on our behalf and the pain and sorrow experienced all too often by their families.

They serve our nation to preserve our nation's values, and it is because of our values that we must care for them when they come home. The brutality of war can lead to lifelong scarring to the mind and soul, as well as physical injury. In days gone by—in the days of the First World War—it was called 'shell shock'. We now know that the strongest can confront the debilitating impact of post traumatic stress disorder. We know that many of these disorders that cause profound hurt and damage to the veterans involved are very difficult to identify, and that there have been—many would say—delayed advances in identifying and treating this.

I want to commend the Department of Veterans' Affairs for its focus on the psychological wellbeing of our returned servicemen and women as they transition into post-deployment life. In my own electorate of Wentworth I have seen the great work of many groups, including the North Bondi RSL Sub-Branch and Soldier On, in providing vital support networks for our veterans. It is the least we can do as a nation, as a society and as friends and family for those who loved our people and our values so much that they put their lives on the line. We are in debt, and always will be, to these brave Australians in ways that can never be repaid.

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

Today we pay our respects to the honoured memory of all those who have served in our country's defence forces: young men who lost their lives 100 years ago in a desperate scramble through heavy enemy fire up impossibly steep cliffs on a Turkish peninsula that most had never even heard of; we remember the thousands who fell as fast as rain, interred beneath white crosses and red poppies in the foreign fields of the Western Front; and those buried at sea in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, and in the North Sea.

We salute every generation of service: through swirling sand and unforgiving mud; in skies over Europe; in jungle dark in Malaya, New Guinea and Vietnam; in the biting winter of Korea; in the baking sun of Afghanistan and Iraq; and in the cause of peace in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific. We remember all who came home wounded or bearing the hidden scars of war. We think of their families and loved ones who endured the long and lonely nights, fearing the worst.

The world would learn far too quickly that 11 November, the end of 'the war to end all wars', merely marked the beginning of a fragile and fractious truce. The trials of those two decades between the two wars were more than some nations and some people would bear. As our greatest wartime Prime Minister, John Curtin, said when he opened the Australian War Memorial in 1941:

Not all came through with courage enough, and faith enough, to stand the shattering onset of another war and to know what they must do.

But Australia did come through. We did so, Curtin said, in large part because we kept alive the great traditions of Anzac without vainglory and without distortion. We kept faith with the citizen-soldier tradition which owed more to courage in the face of adversity than to imagined glory and sweeping victories. We kept faith with those who lost their lives in Australia's name. We kept the promise at the heart of who we are as a nation:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

But the lesson of the last century—from the challenges of soldier settlements to the shameful treatment of many who came home from Vietnam—is that the cost of war does not end when the guns fall silent. We owe those who served us more than praise. 'Lest we forget' has to mean more than just the respect of history; it must be matched by meaningful support for our veterans and for their loved ones.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an ongoing challenge which in many ways remains unmeasured and poorly understood. Today one in 10 Australians who are homeless is a veteran. Surely we are a better nation than this, and those who have risked their lives for our country deserve so much better. Veterans' Affairs do a good job. There are many remarkable organisations, from the RSL to Homes for Heroes—founded by Geoff Evans—who are doing great work. But it is up to us in this place to offer a better deal for our diggers—in particular the new generation returning home from Australia's longest war, in Afghanistan. Today, let us who do not serve remind ourselves of the duty that we owe. On a day defined, appropriately, by courage and sacrifice, let us find the courage to live up to that duty. Lest we forget.