Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to be able to add to the very thoughtful and poignant remarks of my colleagues on this motion commemorating the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. The motion acknowledges this significant landmark. It is an anniversary in the formulation of our national character as much as anything. It also pays its respects to those who fought so gallantly, to the 9,000 who died, to those who were wounded and to those who continued with their service to head to the Western Front and other areas, where they saw tragedies that no eyes should have to see. It also recognises that we were collaborators with the brave military personnel from Great Britain, France, India and Newfoundland. They fought alongside our Anzacs as our allies. This motion also acknowledges what a profound time this was for our then-combatants and now collaborators—the people of Turkey—who also suffered greatly during these episodes.

This motion draws attention to what was a terrific day when our nation commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landings. My own community of Dunkley participated in full measure. There were thousands of people at Frankston Park, the home of the Dolphins, for a dawn service. There were hundreds and hundreds of people at other dawn services, including the one I attended in Mornington in my own community. Even later on in the day, the follow-up service at Frankston was extraordinary because of the number of people who attended and the respect and thoughtfulness with which they participated. We were inviting people to think back 100 years to 4.29 in the predawn on 25 April 1915 when the Turkish outpost signalled the alarm, which was barely discernible in the dark waters off Ari Burnu, a small plateau jutting out into the Aegean Sea. Rowboats were carrying Australians and New Zealanders to the Gallipoli shoreline. A minute later the first boatloads reached the rough shingled beach and courageous, patriotic and expectant men clambered out. They faced a steep cliff and were immediately under fire.

It is hard to imagine what they experienced but I have seen what they saw. As a former Minister for Veterans' Affairs it was a great honour and a privilege to represent Australia at the 91st Anzac Day commemorations in 2006. I saw the landscape and imagined the extraordinary challenge that confronted those courageous men and the great passion that the Turkish soldiers had that drove them to protect their land. I traversed the extraordinary memorial park, a landscape where each step could have been part of a burial location, for so many lives had been lost and such was the chaos that the orderly laying to rest of remains was not possible. It is quite an extraordinary place.

It was an extraordinary honour and a privilege to attend the Turkish international ceremony at Mehmetcik Abide, the French service at Morto Bay and the Commonwealth service at Cape Helles on Anzac Day. I also attended the dawn service at the Anzac commemorative site. I was very fortunate and quite blessed to be able to deliver a reading there. I then attended and made a contribution at the Australian service at Lone Pine and followed that up with the Turkish 57th Regiment service and the New Zealand service at Chunuk Bair. It was an incredible story of many nations' history and the legacy interwoven from so long ago but still respected with such reverence each year.

I should acknowledge the work and the collaborative efforts of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Turkish officials and the Governor of Canakkale, His Excellency Mr Orhan Kirli, who I was able to meet. They worked to make sure that erosion was not causing an extraordinary impact on the Gallipoli Peace Park. They worked together—once combatants, now collaborators—to make sure that the Anzac battlefield is properly cared for. It was extraordinary to go into the communities around the Peace Park and see the story of one nation's history playing out through the eyes of Turkish men and women—some young and some old—and to know it is such a huge part of our national story. That is something I will never forget.

Our own community turned its mind to that story and our commemorations started long before the 100th anniversary. We effectively had a genealogy expo at the site of the mechanics hall. We held the expo on the very same day that 100 years earlier the local newspapers and civic leaders had encouraged and extolled young able men to offer themselves to serve. At that very hall people had come together to sign on for what was understood to them to be their patriotic duty and potentially an adventure. Our nation contributed to that in a most extraordinary way. That was very moving.

Not many people realise that the first act of war was on the Mornington Peninsula, in our own state of Victoria a year earlier than the landings at Gallipoli. On 5 August 1914, just hours after World War I was declared, the first shot in the British Empire was fired from Fort Nepean. We still search for that shell in the mouth of Port Phillip Bay—it is a local endeavour that many are turning their minds to, to see whether they can find it. There we were on the Mornington Peninsula to prevent the German merchant vessel SS Pfalz from leaving Port Phillip, thankfully with no loss of life. The seamen on SS Pfalz turned around and that was one less ship available to the enemy. If anyone is wanting to get behind a great philanthropic enterprise, we are still searching for that shell.

The story that followed was that, from a population of 4.9 million, by the end of the war 417,000 men, many from our community, had volunteered and enlisted, and there were many women as well, in support of the war effort. There are great stories; there was extraordinary service. When you look back on the personalities that are remembered not only from that anniversary of the Gallipoli landing but from our military service that followed, it is incredible how we honour those who have displayed their compassion. Even to this day you see images of Australian military personnel with their weapons upturned; they are leaning on the butt of their firearm in a moment of reflection—it is not a moment of triumph; it is one of lost mates and compassion. It says a lot about our engagement in military activities when we ask for no more land than enough to bury our dead. It is an interesting part of our history.

We have Simpson and his donkey—Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 2015 as a field ambulance stretcher-bearer. He previously had been shovelling coal in merchant ships, and he remade himself after making some probably less than spectacular choices earlier in his life. For 20 days he did nothing other than show care and compassion to wounded Australian soldiers before he himself was struck down. We think about John Monash, another great Victorian and a great Australian. His wisdom, his civil engineering background and his understanding of tactics and technology brought what could have been long and bloody battles to a very quick end. The genius of Monash was confirmed on the Western Front on 4 July 1918 in the Battle for Le Hamel. As the Minister for Veterans' Affairs I think I was the first Commonwealth minister to put finances in behind the Anzac Day commemorations on the Western Front, understanding its importance. Boy, hasn't that taken off, with the participation and commitment of this government to create a John Monash interpretive centre. He said the battle would take 90 minutes, and it took 93 minutes, bringing to an end what could have been a horrible conflict. Again, compassion was the story of 'Weary' Dunlop.

This was part of what we commemorated in the Dunkley community on that 100th anniversary—not just what happened at Gallipoli but the characteristics and the statement of who we are that emerged from that contact, and then we reminded ourselves of our commitment to all those who have served and our desire to celebrate them for their care and compassion, making sure that what they gifted to us we do not give away.

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