Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

I acknowledge the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of the land on which we gather, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging and to the Elders of all parts of this nation, and to all First nations people who have served with such distinction, and continue to do so, in the Defence Force.

108 years ago, just before dawn, soldiers of the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps floated in the slate-black darkness off the peninsula of Gallipoli. They waited in silence, in the calm before the sound of gunfire that awaited them.

The landing that followed, the first action by Australians and New Zealanders in the First World War, is etched deeply in the pages of our countries’ history.

The anacronym ANZAC, first used as codeword to designate the military Corps and the site the landing took place[1], has come to define our respective national characters.

It is estimated that 2,000 Australians were dead or wounded by nightfall. By 9 January 1916, nearly eight months later, with the evacuation of Helles signalling the close of the Gallipoli campaign, more than 8,700 Australians would lose their lives; and some 18,000 would be wounded.

A year later, on the anniversary of the landing, while war still raged in Europe, the first Anzac Day commemorations were held to honour the Australians and New Zealanders who served and had fallen in the Gallipoli campaign.

In many respects, it is baffling that this strategic military disaster would become a defining feature of our national psyche – both in war and in peace. But at its heart was and is an esprit de corps which did not and does not stand on ceremony. It is an esprit de corps which Australian and New Zealand service personnel have exhibited in every war and every conflict in which our defence forces have since been deployed.

Whilst the national spirit, the esprit de corps of which I spoke, does not stand on ceremony, today we stand in commemoration where ceremony is important. The Ode speaks of the sadness of war. The Last Post calls the soldiers home. The minute silence marks the loss of life. The bugle’s Rouse raises hope for the living.

The ANZAC ceremony is important because it is a reminder that remembrance matters. It is also a reminder of the importance of recognition and the honour which recognition brings. There have been occasions when we have failed to properly honour and recognise those who have served this country. We failed to recognise the service of First Australians who served as valiantly as all service personnel served in the Boer War and both World Wars. We have failed others.

This year marks two significant anniversaries where recognition was either muted or absent. 

It is 70 years since the signing of the Korean Armistice in 1953.

From 25 June 1950 – only five years after the end of the Second World War – until 27 July 1953, over 17,000 Australians served as part of the United Nations multinational force defending the Republic of Korea from the Communist forces of North Korea.[2]

339 Australians were killed and over 1,200 wounded.[3]

For many in Australia, the conflict in Korea – the first open conflict of the Cold War – was distant and easy-to-ignore.[4]  Sergeant (later Air Vice Marshal) Bill Collings described the indifference Korean Veterans often received on return to Australia. He said: ‘No-one knew I was home from Korea. “What are those medals for?” – they just didn’t have a clue, really.’[5]

This year also marks the 50^th anniversary of the proclamation by then Governor-General of Australia, Sir Paul Hasluck, formally ending Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War, the twentieth century’s longest conflict in which Australians were involved. 

More than 60,000 Australians served in Vietnam, 523 gave their lives, and over 3,000 were wounded. Like those who had served in other conflicts, few returned unscarred by the trauma that war brings, exacerbated by the neglect they received on their return, having fought in a conflict that divided a nation, lacking the governmental acclamation that they deserved, enduring a widespread sentiment that they had served in a war that was ‘not a real war’.[6]

Like the Korean Veterans before them, it was left to those who had served in Vietnam to support and advocate for each other. It was left to them to bring to light the lifelong effects their service and their treatment in the aftermath caused. It was not until 1987 that the men and women who served in Vietnam were given the ‘welcome home’ they deserved, when a parade was held in Sydney; some 25,000 veterans marched to the cheers of several hundred thousand onlookers.[7] It was not until 1988 that the first official Vietnam Veterans’ Day was held. Finally, in 1992 the National Memorial for the Vietnam War was unveiled on Canberra’s Anzac Parade, with nearly half Australia’s surviving Vietnam Veterans marching past.[8] It would not be until 2000 that a National Memorial for the Korean War would be erected.[9]

As former Minister of defence, Dr Brendan Nelson, observed “This is not a mistake we will make again. We can’t be captive to history, but we can learn from it.”[10]

This is why remembrance matters. Without remembrance it is too easy to forget.

Within the memorial behind me is the Hall of Silence; at its entrance, laid in brass in the black slate floor, the words: ‘Let silent contemplation be your offering’. As we look at the still surface of the pool before us, let us reflect on the cost of war.

That is why we say:

Lest we forget.

[1] anzacportal.dva.gov.au/resources/origins-word-anzac-history-focus

[2] awm.gov.au/articles/atwar/korea

[3] nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/korean-war.

[4] Darren Chester (Former Minister for Veterans Affairs), ‘Australians Remember the “Forgotten War” on Korean Veterans’ Day’, Clarence Valley Independent, 27 July 2020; available here

[5] nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/korean-war

[6] See, for instance: Noah Riseman, ‘The Vietnam War’, available here

[7] anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/vietnam-war-1962-1975/events/aftermath/veterans

[8] vvaa.org.au/memorial

[9] monumentaustralia.org.au/australian-national-korean-war-memorial; Jeff Doyle, ‘Another Forgotten War Remembered: The Australian National Korean Memorial, Anzac Parade, Canberra’, in The Korean War 1950-1953: A 50-Year Retrospective; available here

[10] Dr Brendan Nelson, quoted in ‘Long Tan Cross finds a permanent home at Memorial’, Australian War memorial Media Release, August 2018; available here