Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: To the Acting Director of the Australian War Memorial, Major General Brian Dawson, to Vice Admiral David Johnston, representing the Chief of the Defence Force, the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, the Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Richard Burr.
All members of the Australian Defence Force and all the veterans who are represented here today.
To the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese. Can I particularly acknowledge the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, and the Shadow Minister Linda Burney.
Colleagues, Australians all.
Let me begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people and paying my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Can I also acknowledge the servicemen and servicewomen, the veterans, their families and descendants who are here this afternoon.
Can I join also in the acknowledgement on those, even as we speak and we see the smoke on the hills beyond Parliament House, all those who are serving out there today as volunteers in every capacity.
From fighting fires to supporting those who are fighting them.
We’re gathered here in our nation’s most sacred place.
Here we can feel the soul of our country like no other and hear the voices from our past that provided for today and our future.
This place is a memorial to the fallen; a landmark of courage, perseverance and sacrifice.
A physical pledge to never forget.
Generations of Australians have come here to remember, to learn, and to remind ourselves of the sacrifices made by those who have served and who serve to this day.
And it is fitting to start our Parliamentary year that members from the House of Representatives and the Senate come here to remember, to come together, and to draw strength.
To heed the lessons so as not to repeat them in the future, of past issues.
And to remind ourselves of our duty to our country and those we serve.
Here, at this Last Post, we hear every day one story that symbolises that duty.
One story at the going down of the sun.
One story that stands for the more than 102,000 stories written on these walls about us.
This evening, we will hear the story of Corporal Harry Thorpe.
An Indigenous man who gave everything for our country. For his country.
A bullet in the leg at Pozières.
A bullet in the shoulder at Bullecourt.
A final and fatal bullet in the stomach at Lihons Wood.
Later, you will hear of his courage.
So let me speak, not of his courage - but of his faith and his faith in us.
Corporal Thorpe was one of around 1,100 Indigenous Australians who volunteered to serve in the First World War.
It’s easy to love a country that loves you; much harder if you haven’t been loved in return.
The Australia of that time all but denied the existence of our Indigenous peoples.
The Indigenous men who enlisted weren’t counted even as Australians.
They didn’t have the right to vote.
They weren’t counted in the census.
Their very presence in the Army was the result of recruiters turning a blind eye to the letter of the law that required ‘European origin or descent’.
This was more than just equality denied.
It was a denial of respect and human decency also.
Worse, if an Indigenous soldier returned from War, they were denied access to soldier settlement schemes and often, war pensions as well.
All too often, the RSL was shut to them on every day but ANZAC Day.
In serving, our Indigenous soldiers chose to believe in a better Australia than the one they lived in and fought for.
This story of belief and faith in us, and what we could be as a nation and a people echoed into the Second World War, where some 4,000 Indigenous Australians served in Europe and North Africa
They fought in New Guinea.
They suffered in Changi.
And they defended the Top End from Japan.
And then we witnessed their service in Malaya, Korea, Borneo and Vietnam.
In East Timor and the Solomons. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
For too long, these stories were glossed over and they were forgotten.
Now, we honour as we always should have, our Indigenous Service Personnel more richly.
It’s been said that in the First World War, our Indigenous Soldiers were anonymous because their courage, bravery and valentry was overlooked.
Fortunately, the bravery of Corporal Thorpe was not overlooked.
He was recognised with the Military Medal.
The citation said, “his splendid example… inspired those under him”.
And it inspires us to this day.
Corporal Thorpe didn’t just inspire his men.
He inspires today a Prime Minister, a Leader of the Opposition, the parliamentarians who gather here and those who stand around this wonderful memorial.
He showed us what he believed we would become.
He showed us what we could be.
And he reminds us that while faith in this land may, at times, be difficult. It can disappoint.
But we owe it to him and to his Indigenous brothers and sisters past and to this day and into the future.
To all who have worn the uniform and to all who will.
To keep striving for the accepting, kind and decent Australia that they saw, that he fought for, and he ultimately died for.
That is why we gather today.
It is a great honour to respect him today.
And it is why we draw strength from the words as we go into the other place on the other side of the lake: Lest We Forget.