PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much. I acknowledge we are gathered today on the land of the Ngunawal people and we honour their elders, past and present.
I acknowledge many senior political representatives here – the Leader of the Opposition, The Speaker Tony Smith, President Stephen Parry, my ministerial colleagues, Dr Nelson, Chief of the Defence Force and Defence Chiefs, Rear Admiral Doolan, men and women of the Australian Defence Force, fellow Australians all.
We are here in this place of quiet contemplation and remembrance. It sits here on this side of the lake gazing across at the Parliament – a place of contemplation which is not always quiet but all of the freedoms we enjoy in Australia; all of the freedoms that we deliver and we exercise in our Parliament, have been hard won and bravely won by the men and women remembered here in this place.
The Memorial’s Roll of Honour of more than 102,000 names reminds us of the scale of the sacrifice that has been made to defend Australia and Australia’s values over more than century.
It reminds us too, this quiet solemn reminder, the eternal reminder to us, politicians, Prime Ministers and ministers – it reminds us all that there are no more heavy responsibilities, no more momentous decisions that we can make than sending our men and women of the Australian Defence Force into harm’s way.
It is our responsibility as we remember them and honour them - honour their sacrifice and honour their descendants in the ADF today – it is our responsibility never to put them in harm’s way unless they are well led, well supported and we have done everything we can as the leaders of this nation to ensure that they can do their duty and return safely home.
This is a year of centenaries and anniversaries – you’ve mentioned some of them, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele, Beersheba, Polygon Wood. And from the Second World War, the 75th anniversaries of Kokoda, El Alamein, Milne Bay. The fall of Singapore, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the bombing of Darwin, and the submarine attack in Sydney Harbour.
These, as we remember them are some of the darkest days in our history. But every one of them is lit up by the courage of Australians. Every one is hallowed by their courage and sacrifice, the heroism of Australians.
We must remember that those battles, those freedoms that have been won for us but not won by gods – they were won by men and women - our grandfathers, our grandmothers, our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers perhaps.
They were Australians. Australians just like us called into action to defend their nation. They came from bustling cities and close knit country towns. They left homes and jobs and families behind.
Private William James Johnson, who we remember today died in 1916 on the Western Front of wounds sustained at Pozières.
He was 45 years of age when he enlisted. He had been the Labor Member for Robertson in the House of Representatives - he’d been elected in 1910 and he lost his seat in 1913. He returned to his political career on Auburn Council where he had been a Councilor with the great Labor leader and future Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang. Private Johnson succeeded Jack Lang by a few years. He had a wife of 27-years and he had three children and he joined, he said, to set an example to the younger men.
He was one of the ordinary but extraordinary Australians who found themselves doing extraordinary things to defend our freedom.
In the crucible of the Great War, Australians forged a legend of courage and camaraderie of mateship that has inspired us and formed our national character ever since.
We see it in the selfless sacrifice a century ago and we see that spirit in their successors in the Middle East today.
We see it in all the men and women who have fought and who have kept the peace around the world - on the battlefields of the Somme and Flanders, from the Pacific to the Western Sahara, from the jungles of Vietnam to the mountains of Afghanistan.
Those whose valour earned them the highest honours.
Those who returned broken.
And those who rest forever in distant oceans, or in fields far from home.
We don’t remember them to glorify or to justify war.
And we recognise that the best way always to honour the diggers of a century ago, to honour those who have paid the supreme sacrifice here, the best way to honour them is to look after the men and women of the ADF of today, the veterans and their families.
And so, as we return to that House of freedom across the lake, the national Parliament, we will do so in the knowledge of the sacrifice and the magnitude of the sacrifice of those who served and those who died to keep us free. We could not do freedoms work without the service of the men and women remembered here around us.
Lest we forget.
[ENDS]