Subjects: Commemoration of bombing of Darwin.
E&OE..................
Your excellencies, Chief Minister, United States Ambassador, my ministers, Leader of the Opposition, my fellow Australians. There are many expressions buried deep in the Australian idiom, and one of those that is very familiar to all of us is the expression "it can';t happen here". And if this commemoration of the bombing of Darwin represents many things, and it does, it certainly represents a recollection of a dramatic repudiation of that particular view. Because what occurred here 59 years ago demonstrated that anything could happen here in Australia, it did happen, and of course it is a vivid reminder that it could happen again.
To have real meaning, a commemoration should not only be an occasion for sacred and emotional reflection and gratitude, which we do to those brave men and women of Australia and America who died defending our liberty 59 years ago. In expressing that gratitude we express the gratitude of the people of Australia today, to the people of all backgrounds here in Darwin 59 years ago who laid down their lives. We thank the indigenous people of the Northern Territory for their contribution, we salute the contribution of our friends from the United States, and we reflect how differently life might be today had it not been for their ultimate and total sacrifice.
It is also an occasion to reflect on an alliance in war between 1941 and 1945 that delivered us the peace that we now enjoy and again we honour the presence of so many of our friends from the United States. We also reflect upon the flowering of that alliance in war into an alliance in peace. The ANZUS pact between Australia and the United States has done more to deliver the security of the Australian nation in the years that have gone by since World War II than any other international arrangement.
This is an occasion therefore my fellow Australians not only to express our thanks to those who died and our thanks to God for their sacrifice and their commitment, but it is also an occasion to reflect on what has delivered us the peace in the 59 years that have gone by. War is a terrible thing and the death of the young overwhelmingly in war is a poignant thing beyond the experience of just about anything else because it';s always the young who die in their thousands and millions in war. And as I walked in here today and I gazed upon those young children from the Northern Territory I thought to myself, please God they will never be asked to make the sacrifice that their grandparents and in many cases their great-grandparents were called upon to make.
So this commemoration is not only an occasion to give our thanks and to honour those who sacrificed all but it';s also an occasion to remember what has kept the peace since. It is also an occasion to understand that we live forever as part of the international body of mankind, that we have to have friendship with all people of the earth and we have to have friendships with all of our fellow Australians. We need our friendships with the people of the United States, we need our friendships with the people of Timor, with the people of Papua New Guinea, the people of Indonesia, the people of our region. So often in the history of this country Darwin has related the events of the world to the rest of the Australian nation. It occurred here 59 years when Darwin was bombed. We were reminded of the linkage again two years ago when this was the focal point of the movements of men and women and materials into the INTERFET operation in East Timor.
I say to my fellow Australians who live in Darwin and contributed so much to the history of this city and the history of our nation, I thank you for the special part you have in the history of this country. I join all in honouring and paying homage and tribute to those who died that we might live in peace and happiness and freedom and we might have the capacity to express the hope that never again will the young of the world lay down their lives in war and bloodshed.
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