CAM WILLIAMS:
Thank you for joining us, Tony. It’s an honour for everyone to be here but Australians feel particularly about Lone Pine.
PRIME MINISTER:
This was an absolutely savage battle. It was the fiercest battle of a very fierce campaign and we remember what happened then. We remember the spirit that the Australians took into the battle. We remember the service, the sacrifice. We are the descendants of the Anzacs and we want to be worthy of what they did here.
CAM WILLIAMS:
You are the highest officer in Australia and there is something about Lone Pine and the other sites around here that strips rank away. Do you feel very Australian to be here?
PRIME MINISTER:
I feel particularly honoured to be here as Australia’s PM in the Centenary of Anzac year. This is about them. What we have to do is cherish their memory, to honour their service and as far as we can in these different times be worthy of their example.
CAM WILLIAMS:
You have got daughters, I have got daughters. There is something about visiting these places that makes you pray that they won’t ever experience anything like that.
PRIME MINISTER:
Indeed, absolutely right. It was a horrific baptism of fire for our young Commonwealth and the events of the Great War cast a pall over a generation. There was a long funeral, effectively, in the 1920s and the 1930s. We still live in a difficult and dangerous world. We have service personnel in many troubled spots right now and they are worthy inheritors of the Anzac tradition.
CAM WILLIAMS:
I know it is your first visit here – it is mine – it gets you this place.
PRIME MINISTER:
It sure does and I don’t think anyone who is here will ever forget the experience and, I guess, recalling our forebears who were here under such awful circumstances just reinforces the sacredness of this place.
CAM WILLIAMS:
You have had a tight schedule. I notice that you have made reference to the ability of Turkey and Australia to get on in the spirit of friendship despite the bloodshed that started our relationship.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, they fought savagely but despite that there was very considerable mutual respect from the beginning. On those occasions when there were ceasefires to bury the dead and the exchange of cigarettes and for those who could converse there was conversation. They remember us as an honourable enemy. Certainly that is how we remember them and that has been the foundation of a strong friendship ever since. Like everyone else I will be remembering those who came ashore on that fateful day a hundred years ago. I will be wondering what would have been going through their hearts and minds at that time and again a sense of humble gratitude to be their heirs and a sense of wonder at the duty and service of that generation.
CAM WILLIAMS:
Prime Minister, thanks for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks Cam.
[ends]