Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with a lot of reverence that I speak about this very, very important commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. Over the Christmas break, for the first time not having to sit on a harvester, I was able to go for a little bit of a holiday with my wife—self-funded, I might add, just to clarify. My wife and I visited Turkey, including Anzac Cove. Rather than talk about things that I could pull out of an encyclopedia, I thought I might reflect a bit about what it was like to be there, to actually see things that we had only seen pictures of before—to see the Sphinx and to see how daunting it must have been for those who landed on that day.

It was a very cold winter's day. We walked around the battle site of Lone Pine, which was surprisingly peaceful. We were fortunate, as we had taken the time to print out a list of things that happened on particular battle sites, which is available online from the Australian War Memorial. We read from the list while we were at particular battle sites. When we were at Lone Pine, I read that you could not actually walk from one side to the other—which is roughly the size of two tennis courts—after the battle without stepping on the bones or the bodies of the dead. Just reflect on that. In this area the size of two tennis courts—a little bit bigger than this chamber—thousands of Australians and thousands of Turks died.

That had an impact on me, as I thought about the futility of war. We as legislators ultimately have the great and humbling responsibility of committing Australians to battle. Do we do it too hastily? If you think about the enthusiasm of those young men, who thought that they were going off on an adventure, it is important for us now not only to commemorate their service but also to think about how that makes us feel as legislators. I found myself having to pay due respect to every grave as I walked around the battle sites of Gallipoli.

My wife had made the comment that she thought we would tire of it, but in fact we did not. It seemed that every grave needed to be recognised as a person, and as a proud Australian myself but also as a legislator I felt that I owed it to them to read each name, to understand the person.

Most of the graves did not say where they were from. They simply had a rank, a name, a battalion and perhaps a date. Some of them had a message. Obviously the families had had a chance to put a message on those graves. There were messages such as 'a dinkum Aussie', 'he died for the flag' and this one, which I thought was very insightful: 'Someday we will understand.' Another said 'answered the call, a cable tells a son was killed at the Dardanelles'.

One particular grave that we came across was that of AWA Barber, of the 8th Australian Light Horse, killed on 22 June 1915. What struck us was that it said 'born at Laen, Victoria'. Now, most people do not know where Laen is. In fact, Laen is not really a town anymore; it is more of a district in rural Victoria. It is rural Australia. That was back in the era when people did not have big harvesters; people were farming the country with horses and ploughs. So the population base was rural Australia. The average farm size was 200 acres. It was not 1,000 acres or 25,000 acres, as we see now. Therefore, many of the young men who fought came from those regions. It is quite fitting that, even in the movie that highlighted this for Australians this year, The Water Diviner, the men came from Rainbow, which is in the heart of my electorate of Mallee. But AWA Barber, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber, nicknamed 'Watt', was born in Laen on Christmas Day in 1891—so a very young man—and there I was, a legislator from the Mallee, standing in Gallipoli and looking at the grave of a young man from the Mallee who had ultimately given his life in the cause of freedom but in an immensely futile battle.

Barber joined up in Warracknabeal as part of the 8th Light Horse Regiment and left Victoria on the ship Star of Victoria. He was fighting in the battle of Walker's Ridge when he sustained extensive injuries as a result of a grenade explosion. There is nothing glorious about the way he died. The way he died was painful. The way he died was tragic. But he did die serving Australia. He was taken down to the hospital area, where he passed away. He was then buried.

We put out his story, just before the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, in a newsletter that goes right across the Mallee. It is a great thing for members of parliament to have communication with the people they represent, and I often go out and meet people in coffee shops right across the electorate. It costs me a few dollars; I shout people a few coffees. But we do do a good coffee in the Mallee. So, if you are there, by all means come and have one. In one of these coffee shops, a guy came and saw me. He said, 'I'm not really politically motivated. I don't even usually read your newsletter. But I happened to read it a couple of days after I found this,' and he presented to me AWA Barber's matchbox and a letter from AWA Barber that was written the day before he died. This man said that he was astounded that he had recently found all this memorabilia of his great-uncle. To then read about his great-uncle in the newsletter was very moving for him, and it said to him that we have not forgotten.

I suppose I want to make the point that 100 years later, in 2015, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber of Laen is still talked about as an example of sacrifice, in a chamber of the Australian parliament. It is right that we commemorate the tragic battle of Anzac Cove. It is right that we walk around graves and pay tribute to every one—not just one but every one—of those who fought in that battle and in subsequent battles. Tragically, over 100,000 Australians, in battles right across the world, have now given their lives in the cause of freedom.

In Anzac commemorations, we always say, 'Lest we forget.' 'Lest' is not a word that we use very much anymore. What does 'lest' mean? I put it to you that 'lest' means 'that we shall not'. It is 'that we shall not forget'. Why? What should we not forget? AWA Barber and the 102,000 Australians who have died right across the world for our freedom are testimony that war is a very blunt instrument for resolving human conflict. It is lest we forget—that we shall not forget—that we as legislators must not rush to war, that we as Australians must not rush to war, and that we should work for peace. Lest we forget. We want a peaceful world, not a world of war and conflict. And the testimony of the 100,000 or more Australians should remind us that our role in parliament is to work towards peace and ensure that their sacrifice is remembered.

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