Original text
It is a profound honour to join with you today on this landmark anniversary. I acknowledge Her Excellency, the Governor-General of Australia, Sam Mostyn, I acknowledge the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition, and other parliamentarians who are here. I acknowledge former prime ministers' John Howa...
It is a profound honour to join with you today on this landmark anniversary. I acknowledge Her Excellency, the Governor-General of Australia, Sam Mostyn, I acknowledge the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, and the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition, and other parliamentarians who are here. I acknowledge former prime ministers' John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison. Importantly today, most importantly, I acknowledge serving members of the Australian Defence Force, including Admiral Mark Hammond, the Chief of the Defence Force, and other veterans who join us, particularly the veterans and their families who served in Afghanistan. Near where we are gathered is a pair of fluffy dice. Among the other artefacts, they look almost incongruous – but like everything else gathered for display here, they tell a story. They belonged to Captain Lukas Wild, who took them out of his V12 Monaro and carried them to Afghanistan. What they offer us is a strikingly and profoundly Australian moment from what was, in so many ways, a deeply Australian story. It’s now a quarter of a century since the beginning of Operation Slipper, the dawn of the Australian mission in Afghanistan. In New York, fires were still burning at Ground Zero from the September 11 attacks a month earlier. The world felt upended. Though it would change so devastatingly a year later in Bali, it was not yet directly our fight. Yet Australia did what is so resolutely in our nature. We went to support our friend and ally. We went because we saw what was at stake. And we went on the principle that September 11 was an attack on a way of life that belonged just as much to us. The very freedoms that are at the heart of who we are as a people and a nation were under threat. And the enemy that had so devastatingly declared itself in opposition to those freedoms was al-Qaeda. As Prime Minister John Howard put it at the time: “If we left this contest only to America, we would be leaving it to them to defend our rights and those of all the other people of the world who have a commitment to freedom and liberty.” Over two decades, more than 35,000 Australian Defence Personnel served in operations relating to the war in Afghanistan. They made an invaluable contribution to a complex multi-national mission, upholding the finest of Australian military traditions in the process. Their courage, the strength of their character and the bonds of their camaraderie are a beacon to us still. Likewise every Australian who served in what amounted to a whole-of-government mission. Among them were members of the Australian Federal Police and civilians from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including AusAID and other agencies directly engaging with Afghanistan government officials, provincial and district leaders, tribal elders and village communities. It was an environment in which vigilance had to be as relentless as the dust that we saw depicted in the video that began today's solemn ceremony. Where every footstep could feel heavy in a landscape sown with explosives, where any crowd might hold a suicide bomber, and where the threats came from without, and sometimes – devastatingly –from within. What shone brightly amid it all was the courage of so many Afghans. The soldiers, the interpreters, all who stood against their oppressors and put their own safety on the line to help. Many of them are here with us today. We acknowledge them, we thank them, and we honour them. Today, our nation expresses our respect and our gratitude to all who have served in our name. The fighters for peace, the keepers of peace. We honour all who went and all who fell. We honour those who came home, wounded in body or wounded in soul, hearts changed forever by the fight. And we acknowledge and honour the families. Those who have felt both the pride and weight that comes when a loved one puts on our uniform. Those who have lived with the grief that is the pain of love wrapped around an absence that can never be filled. As we look to Afghanistan, we are reminded again of what Australians in war have faced. Crucially, we are also reminded of the difference they have made in the truest spirit of humanity. Through the sheer power of example, you have shown us what is worth fighting for, no matter how elusive it can sometimes feel. What Australians serving in Afghanistan embodied is something we must never lose. In a month’s time, it will be Remembrance Day, and with it the 85th anniversary of the opening of the Australian War Memorial – an event that took place just months before the Second World War reached our shores. I always find myself turning back to Prime Minister John Curtin’s message that day about how this place would bring our nation closer to the meaning of Australian courage, Australian sacrifice and Australian faith. It is a mission the Australian War Memorial has undertaken for generations of Australians laying out for us with great clarity and power how much our veterans have stepped up for us, and reiterating our duty to step up for our veterans. With the opening of the new Afghanistan Gallery, the memorial brings us closer to another chapter of Australian courage, sacrifice and faith. A chapter that is a proud part of our national story. A story we will keep telling, now and through the generations. Lest we forget.
Speech Brief