Damian Drum (Murray, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In relation to the First World War, many of our memories and much of our commemoration is attributed to Gallipoli. However, many of those who were lucky enough to survive Gallipoli were sent to the Western Front, where the atrocities were much, much worse. Australia has done very well to acknowledge the contribution that our Australians made to the Western Front and the Battle of the Somme, with the Monash Centre recently being opened in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux. We've done very well to commemorate that. But the battle where we lost the most Australians was at Pozieres. In Pozieres we lost some 7,000 of our finest young men. Over half of those 7,000 were never recovered, because the battles were so sustained and were so fierce that our men were killed, they were blown up, they were buried, they were unburied and then they were reburied. By the time we had an opportunity to go and fetch our men, there was nothing left. We have 3,500 to 4,000 of our finest men who were killed in the First World War still lying in the fields of Pozieres. I think we can do more to commemorate the Battle of Pozieres, our greatest single loss. We should acknowledge 23 July as Pozieres day. I'm very committed to seeing whether we can do more to commemorate Pozieres.