Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Remembrance Day is a sacred and solemn day, a day for Australians to pause, to honour and to pay our respects to those brave people who served, suffered and died in war and armed conflict. This year I had the honour to attend two very moving local services in Higgins. It was an honour to lay a wreath at the service run by the Prahran RSL and to join my community in paying my respects. I say thank you to the president of the Prahran RSL, Rod Coote, and his committee, including Noel Sanderson, and those who attended the commemoration of Remembrance Day, providing our community with this important time to reflect. I also want to acknowledge the 13th Malvern Scouts and their very moving ceremony, which I also had the privilege of attending.

Originally known as Armistice Day, on 11 November 1918, at 11 am, the guns of the Western front fell silent and the most destructive war the world had seen was over. In the four years of the First World War, more than 330,000 Australians served overseas and more than 60,000 died. Just over 20 years later, Australia would again be at war, and some 990,000 Australians served, of whom 40,000 died in conflict. This is a toll we should never have to pay again. As we have faced COVID, we know how important it has been for Australians to work together to defend ourselves against our enemies. Lest we forget.