QUESTION:
Prime Minister, how was your trip to Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I was very honoured to be there. It is likely to be the last prime ministerial visit to Tarin Kot – certainly the last prime ministerial visit while our forces are there in substantial numbers – and the point I make is that we were leaving not with victory, not with defeat, but with hope that Afghanistan will be a better place for our presence there.
QUESTION:
These symbols that you have returned or brought back to the War Memorial, can you take us through those? What is the significance of them?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, they were presented to myself and to Bill Shorten when we were there on Monday. The kangaroo and the boomerang was the symbol that was adopted by our reconstruction task force back in 2006 and that has been the symbol that the Australian forces in Uruzgan province have taken as theirs in the eight years that they have been there. The bell was fashioned from a shell that was found on the battlefield. It was hung near the chapel and it was used to summon the troops to important gatherings.
So, they are both highly symbolic and it is quite appropriate that these artefacts will now be in the War Memorial forever, because the War Memorial has been a magnificent custodian of our martial tradition; it has been a magnificent custodian of the ANZAC spirit from those times to these and for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who visit every year – particularly veterans and their families – it is a tribute to the service, the sacrifice, the sense of duty which has driven them on and sustained them.
QUESTION:
Do you support the decision not to change one of the inscriptions on the tomb of the unknown soldier?
PRIME MINISTER:
I understand that there has been some public commentary on this over the last few days. I think that the matter has been very satisfactorily resolved and I want to thank Brendan Nelson and Ken Doolan and the Council of the Memorial for coming to such a sound position.
Thank you.
[ends]