PRIME MINISTER:
Dr Patrick Simon, Mayor of Villers-Bretonneux. Members of the Sadlier, Stokes, McGowan and Bovington families. Mr Guillaume Fournet and students from Ecole Victoria. Mr Franck Bommelaer and students from Houtland College. Mr Christophe Decayeux, Ms Isabelle Galipaud and students from Lycée Sacré Coeur. Ladies and gentlemen.
Today we have been commemorating the brave men and women who risked and lost their lives in the First World War so that we may live today in freedom and in peace.
Today, children, Villers-Bretonneux is full of Australians. 100 years ago, it was also full of Australians but they were fighting hand to hand in the most brutal conflict to free your town and keep France free.
These young soldiers, young men in their teens and twenties, were thousands of miles from home. And some, too many, never returned. They were all volunteers, they came willingly, and they fought ferociously, for freedom and for the freedom of the people of France.
And we honour today among them, Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier and Sergeant Charlie Stokes. Their extraordinary courage and resilience helped their battalion to advance during the battle here in your town on the 25th April 1918, 100 years ago. And that courage and that of their comrades enabled this town to be free.
Their story, as well as those of so many others, is remembered by the Sadlier Stokes Prize, which I am honoured to be awarding today to young French students. We are all proud to see younger generations, both France and Australia, exploring the history of their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers who fought so hard here in the fields and towns around us.
It is also a great honour for us, particularly Lucy and me, to be here today with the descendants of both Clifford Sadlier and Charlie Stokes. Like many Australians every year, they have travelled a long way to pay tribute to their ancestors on the land where they fought.
This presentation is also a celebration of the remarkable friendship between Australia and France and so my warmest thanks go to you Monsieur Le Maire of Villers-Bretonneux, Mr Patrick Simon, all the local representatives and your community for your remarkable welcome.
You vowed that you would never forget Australia, and it brings such comfort and joy to our nation and to the descendants of the men who fought here to know that you have kept your promise.
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
I now have the pleasure of presenting the 2018 Sadlier Stokes prizes to the laureates.
[ENDS]