PRIME MINISTER:
Distinguished guests, veterans, service men and women of today, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and a special welcome to our visiting students from France.
I acknowledge that we meet on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging.
We gather to commemorate the sacrifice of our two nations in war.
To honour our fallen, and the shared beliefs for which those men fought and died so heroically.
Last week we were in Villers-Bretonneux. To stand in the fields of the Somme, is to stand on land sacred to Australia and France: two nations that have fought, and bled, and died together.
Brothers in arms, mates, in freedom’s cause.
So many of our Australian sons lie in French soil, 300,000, more than 300,000 fought there, over 46,000 were killed on the Western Front, 11,000 of their names are recorded on the Australian National Memorial because they have no home grave, 130,000 were wounded, all of them volunteers.
In March 1916, on the deck of the troopship Transylvania bound for France, Second Lieutenant Frank Bethune addressed his men. This is what he said to them:
“We know what we have come for, and we know that it is right. We know that the Germans invaded a peaceful country and brought these horrors into it. We came of our own free will — to say that this sort of thing shall not happen, shall not happen in the world as long as we are in it.”
The deeds and sacrifice of those men, and all who have fought for our freedom since, are at the heart of the free and peaceful lives we enjoy today.
Mr President, last night you spoke with great passion about living in accordance with the lessons of our shared history.
Australia’s first casualty in the Great War was Lieutenant William Malcolm Chisholm, an old boy of Sydney Grammar School, just across the road from us here today. My old school in fact.
He lost his life in the Battle of Le Cateau in Northern France in August 1914, he was serving with the British army.
Now Australia was a nation then of five million. Over 400,000 Australians volunteered. More than 60,000 were killed. Sydney Grammar School is an example of the level of commitment. It was a School of about 600 boys. Around 1,800 former students and teachers volunteered. 308 were killed, made the supreme sacrifice.
And in the memorial there in the school, of course is inscribed the immortal words, of Pericles and his funeral oration: “The whole world is the tomb of famous men”.
In 2018, we mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Last week we honoured Anzac Day in ceremonies all around the world.
And next week we will mark the moment 73 years ago when victory in Europe was secured again.
Our brave servicemen and women have borne a heavy load to defend our freedom, and our values: in Korea and Vietnam, in conflicts in South-East Asia and the Middle East, in peacekeeping efforts around the world, and more recently, in Afghanistan and Iraq. I see with us here many veterans of those very long wars.
More than 102,000 Australians have died in defence of our nation.
When our people. French and Australians, met on the Western Front they recognised in each other their unbreakable spirit.
The French saw in our diggers courage and tenacity; their spirit of mateship.
It’s said that when French villagers, fleeing the German advance, saw Australian soldiers heading to the front, they stayed put: ‘vous les tiendrez!’ they said. “You’ll hold them.”
And, in return, our diggers saw the strength of France.
The stoic endurance of its infantry, Le Poilu. The French people’s pride and resilience; their deep love of their country.
So, the Australians fought as if France was their homeland too.
As Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, told them in July 1918:
“We knew that you would fight a real fight, but we did not know that from the very beginning you would astonish the whole continent.”
Between March 1916 and November 1918 more than 30 battles were fought on the Western Front, involving almost 300,000 Australians.
Some became household names: Fromelles and Pozières, Bullecourt.
In 1918 alone, a series of battles at Hébuterne, Dernancourt, Morlancourt helped stem the German advance. There was the capture of Hamel, and the brilliant seizing of Mont St Quentin and Péronne.
And on one of the few occasions where Australian and French troops fought side by side in the same battle, the defence of Amiens — your hometown, Mr President.
The French people carry in their heart the weight of war’s grief, and yet there is room too for enormous gratitude. And I felt it, as did all of our party, so deeply when we were in France.
Nowhere more evident than in the small village of Villers-Bretonneux, which I visited last week to open the Sir John Monash Centre.
Australia’s diggers were ordered to recapture the village from the Germans.
It was said they had no chance. But on Anzac Day, one hundred years ago, they achieved what General Monash described as “the finest thing yet done in the war by Australians, or any other troops.”
Villers-Bretonneux was saved and today, that sacrifice is honoured with love and gratitude.
The Australian flag flies high. Kangaroos watch over the entrance to the town hall. The main street is called Rue de Melbourne.
And in Victoria School — rebuilt with money raised by schoolchildren in Australia — the story of Australia’s fallen sons is told.
They are France’s sons, too.
As one of the plaques in the Victoria School reads: “May the memory of great sacrifices in a common cause keep France and Australia together forever in bonds of friendship and mutual esteem.”
Today we remember all those who’ve served in war, and all those who serve today.
We honour our Indigenous soldiers. They fought for a nation that did not fully appreciate their culture, or acknowledge their history, and was yet to see the possibility of their future. A nation that offered them few rights. But they fought bravely alongside their fellow Australians and they too, have our lasting gratitude.
We offer our condolences to all who mourn, their lives marked forever by the absence of those Australian and French heroes who are forever young.
And we remember that the best way to honour the diggers, and the poilu of a century ago is by supporting the servicemen and women, the veterans and their families of today.
So let us vow to learn the lessons of war’s destruction; to stand firm with our friends, to open our arms, and our hearts, to our neighbours.
That is how we’ll build a safer world.
Lest we forget.
[ENDS]