Last November, I stood with Prime Minister Key at Albany in Western Australia.
We remembered then the convoy of Australians and New Zealanders that had sailed together in 1914, bound for war.
It was said that when our countrymen met: “the cheering and the counter-cheering, the Maori war cries and the answering coo-ees would have moved a stoic”.
Six months later, on the beaches and ridges of Gallipoli, the original Anzacs were immortalised as brothers-in-arms.
On days such as this, we do not glorify war, but we do acknowledge the selflessness and the comradeship of shared struggle.
And we honour the century-old bond that the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps established between our two countries.
Among the 11,500 Anzacs who perished at Gallipoli was Captain Alf Shout of the 1st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, he served with the Border Horse, the Stellenbosch District Mounted Troop, and the Cape Colonial Forces in the South African War.
It was his love for an Australian that drew him to our shores and it was as a Sydney-sider that he enlisted and sailed for Gallipoli.
Just before he went into battle at Lone Pine in August 1915, he said to his mate, Lance Corporal Alex McQueen, “We’ll make a name for ourselves tonight Mac.”
And surely he did.
As McQueen recounted, “He was a lieutenant when going into the charge, became a captain the next day, gained the VC the next, and the following, eternity.”
Captain Shout has no known grave.
But he is known to us.
No longer solely Australian, no longer solely a New Zealander, he is – now and forever – an Anzac.
He is both our hero and yours.
We honour him with this memorial as we honour all the Australians and all the New Zealanders who have served together in a just cause, from Anzac Cove to Afghanistan.
We remember Gallipoli and the Western Front.
We remember the struggle against Nazism, Fascism and militarism.
We remember Malaya, Korea, Borneo, Vietnam and the Middle East and we remember the many peace keeping operations around the world.
We remember that we stood together.
We always stand together.
Even now, our armed forces are to work together in Iraq to promote our values and to protect our people.
On this soil, sacred to New Zealanders, we remember the values we have fought for; we remember the men and women who have paid the ultimate price and we remember those who have returned, wounded in body and in spirit.
We who come after them – we who come after all who have served together in our countries’ names – owe them a debt that can never be repaid.
With respect for the past, we dedicate this memorial to our future, as decent self-respecting peoples whose destiny will forever be linked and whom nothing can divide.
On the central pillar of this memorial is inscribed one word: ‘Anzac’.
Charles Bean, Australia’s first and finest war correspondent, once wrote: “Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance that will never own defeat”.
On the cusp of our second Anzac century, on behalf of the people of Australia, I thank you for the honour you do us with this Australian National Memorial here in New Zealand.
We are more than friends; we are family, as this memorial will always show.
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