PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
SPEECH AT THE REMEMBRANCE DRIVEWAY CEREMONY, BASS HILL,
1 SEPTEMBER 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
Thank you for those very kind words, Major General Latchford. Could I
recognise the Mayor, Councillor Max Parker, other distinguished members of
the Council, my Parliamentary colleague, Doug Shedden, members of the
Remembrance Driveway Committee and ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to be here on this occasion. Indeed I have been
delighted with the Australia Remembers ceremonies over the course of this
year and I think it has been a good thing for our country, a good thing for the
soul of the country, to remember those who fought for us and those who died
for us. And, in doing this, we are saying that every Australian is special.
Every Australian particularly who fought for the liberties that we enjoy and
especially those who died for us. And that is why we are here to see this
Remembrance Driveway extended and to make that memory clear.
It is, I think, very poignant that this week we see this trouble in Sarajevo
where the First World War really began 80 years ago, the same city. And it
is a bit depressing to think that 80 years later, we are not free of these sorts
of conflicts and it makes it very obvious that we are not because the conflict
is in exactly the same place as it began. And we have spent most of this
century scrambling out of it. The First World War, of course, saw carnage on
a scale unequalled in human history and then it set up the conditions, of
course, for the rise of Nazism in Europe and Fascism in Italy and, as a
consequence, then with militarism in Japan we saw the Second World War.
And I know that the presumption is, of course, for the victors that the
righteous people won, the good guys won. But, of course, we nearly didn't
win in Europe. Had Hitler invaded Britain in 1940, and had he emasculated
the British Army in Dunkirk, we would have had great difficulty in getting a
beach-head in Normandy or anywhere else in Europe. And had he not made
the mistake of attacking the Russians who carried the war effort and the
burden of the war, really, from 1941 to 1 944 then we would have seen a
different world in which Japan's expansionism may have been more profitable
for them, though it would have taken time to build the United States military
machine up. Countries, like Australia, would have been under even greater
threats than in fact we finally were.
So it would have been a different world and one can't say whether the
democracies would have triumphed in the final analysis. In the Pacific,
I think, we would. But, again, with a neutral Russia, one even wonders about
that. One thing is for certain, there was great sacrifice made all the way through
and we have enjoyed, now, 50 years of peace which is one of the longest
periods certainly the longest period in this century. But one we rejoice in
and one that we thank those who had to fight and, of course, who paid the
greatest sacrifice of all.
These are the things we remember and we want to teach our children about
these things, that liberty always come with a price and the freedoms we have
taken to be our own and are endemic to our way of life are not necessarily
part of the way of life of many people around the world and that the price of
liberty and freedom can often be an expensive one and many Australians
have paid the price.
The Second World War, of course, is the time when Australia's sovereignty
was threatened. It wasn't threatened in the First World War, directly.
It certainly was threatened, directly, in the Second World War and this was
the fight to save Australia and Australia was saved, in part, by the gallantry of
Australian servicemen and women, particularly in the campaigns in the
Pacific, in Papua New Guinea where I am going in another week or so in
places like Kokoda and, of course, before that in the Middle East and in
Europe. So this was great conflict and I think that we make clear that for those who
fought and died that it just had to mean something, that 50 years later it just
shouldn't be something that has happened in the past which has scant
attention paid to it. But that it had to mean something and that we remember,
that we do remember these people and that our children will know about it
and they will remember it too.
So I remember the Remembrance Driveway as being begun in my youth
because I used to motor around here not in a car, but on a bicycle past
those trees and we were conscious then what they meant. We have been
conscious since, probably not as conscious as we should be, but now of
course our consciousness about it will be renewed by this new endeavour
and stands of trees which are there to grace this area and to refresh our
memory and to pay tribute to these people.
I am particularly delighted that so many young Australians can be associated
with this. The LEAP Program is a program which has seen part of the
Greening of Australia right across the country. It has been done by young
people with enthusiasm, under the Commonwealth Department of
Employment, Education and Training programs, and we thank them most
sincerely for their efforts and for their dedication and underline the fact that
this young generation of Australians have felt more poignantly the value of
Australia's environment and its nature, than other generations before them
have. And it is really to them we look for the preservation of this great
continent we have been bequeathed, to keep it in the kind of environmental
shape, to have respect and regard for it and to, perhaps, try and repair some
of the thoughtless damage which has been done.
Well here we are doing that to a dual purpose, to repair it, to replant it, but to
do so in memory of the people who served and were lost. So this is a nice
thing to do. I am delighted that the Committee has committed itself to this
project. Also, I am very pleased that the Roads and Traffic Authority can be*
involved. As is, of course, Bankstown City Council, which has always had I think a
good social heart and a good understanding of these things. But always
more importantly than all that, the community of this area which has always
been quite a clannish community, one that has always felt a sense ofcommunity.
And I think if the Second World War commemoration meant
anything, they really celebrate community action because the things we
always feel good about are the things we do together.
And I suppose the biggest thing we have done together, as a nation, is:
defend this country in the Second World War and it is that community action
we remember and that we commemorate. Again, it is the community actionhere
the community action by the Committee, and the young people, and.
the Government, and the Council but it is the community action of thepeople
of the area of Bankstown, which has in this case Bass Hill, which has
of course always given support to community values and to community
aspirations. So I am pleased to be back here. I used to drive down that road to thedrive-
in theatre, years ago, when it used to be there and around these
grounds on a bicycle. But they will always be special places to me. Morespecial
because of the things we have done today. Congratulations and
thanks. ends