Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight and over many days in this parliament and across Australia and New Zealand in 2015 we are commemorating one of the most significant events in our nation's history. Like I believe every other member of this parliament, I too want to add my voice to commemorate, to remember and to ensure that the legacy of our great Anzacs is never forgotten.

On 25 April 1915, 100 years ago, Australia and New Zealand soldiers landed on a small beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey—that is well known. Many of these personnel were only teenagers at the time, some as young as 16 years of age and I understand there were even a few that were younger still. They were not professional soldiers nor a battle-hardened army. Many of them were volunteers willing to take great risks and for many pay the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom and quality of life we value so much today. Like the soldiers, our nation was also young. There is no doubt that the experience of Gallipoli has shaped our national character through the decades since and is still influencing the idea we hold of ourselves in 2015.

If I look back over just the last decade at events that have affected my electorate of Oxley, such as the 2011 floods that devastated so many of my local communities, it is clear that the Australian way is to stick together in hardship and to support each other. Australians have earned a reputation for courage, self-reliance and mateship, and these characteristics have been derived from our nation's history and will forever remain in our heritage.

Tonight I would like to acknowledge all current and former members of our Defence forces for being the brave and resilient representatives of our country—those currently serving, those lost in training and on operation, the wounded, the injured and the ill. It is important to acknowledge each and every one of the members regardless of the time they served as war does not discriminate on time served but on price paid. Today I also want to acknowledge that it is Vietnam Veterans' Day and honour all veterans who served during the Vietnam conflict.

In commemorating 100 years since our nation's involvement in the First World War I am not going to recount the statistics of those who served, were wound or killed at Gallipoli—those facts and figures are well known and I know they have been recounted many times in this place. Tonight I would like to make special mention of the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander soldiers who have served in Australia's armed forces. The soldiers on the front line during the First World War included Indigenous Australian personnel who managed to get their way through the recruitment process during a time when they had few rights, low wages and poor living conditions at home. Many of these personnel could not vote and none were counted in the census. The men who enlisting risked arrest and those who managed to sneak through were passed as Italian or Maori or knew the local recruiters. Sadly in many respects, it was the first time these men experienced anything approaching equal treatment in their lives and many saw this as their chance to gain education and employment opportunities previously denied to them. They also saw it as a chance to prove themselves as equal with other Australians and to campaign for better treatment after the war. In commemorating the Centenary of Anzac, we must continue to recognise the Indigenous Australians who served. Their service significantly shaped the development of Indigenous families and communities and likewise contributed to the development of the modern Australian Defence Force.

Wars are won or lost by nations but they are fought by individuals. Tonight I wanted to recount the extraordinary story of an ordinary Queensland soldier, so I went to the Australian War Memorial website and came across the story of Billy Sing, who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front. I know Billy Sing will be familiar to many Queenslanders, and I believe he has been mentioned by others in this place. William 'Billy' Sing was born in 1886 to an English mother and Chinese father. He and his two sisters were raised in rural Queensland. Billy grew up helping his parents with their market garden and he became skilled at shooting. Billy enlisted in 1914 and he was accepted into the 5th Light Horse Regiment. The Australian War Memorial website reports that as one of the first to sign-up Billy was not subject to some of the resistance towards non-white soldiers that came about later in the war. He was sent to Egypt in December 1914 and onto Gallipoli in May 1915.

On Gallipoli, Billy developed a fearsome reputation as a sniper, earning the nickname 'The Murderer' or 'The Assassin'. I want to relate to the House the kind of bravery and dedication to duty that Billy went through in his daily service. The Australian War Memorial describes it:

Every morning in the darkness before dawn Billy would find a place to hide and watch over the Turkish soldiers in their trenches. Waiting patiently with a "spotter", usually Tom Sheehan, or lon ldriess, he would wait for an enemy soldier to come into view. To avoid becoming a target of the Turkish snipers, the Australians would stay in their position until nightfall. The ANZAC war diary for 23 October 1915 states:

Our premier sniper, Trooper Sing, 2nd L.H., yesterday accounted for his 199th Turk. Every one of this record is vouched for by an independent observer, frequently an officer who observes through a telescope.

So famous did Billy become that the Turkish Army brought up their own elite sniper to try and kill him. And it is believed they nearly did. No-one can be sure who fired the shot but Billy was wounded by a single bullet fired from the Turkish side. However, the records show that in the end it was Billy who shot and killed the Turkish sniper. For his efforts at Gallipoli, Billy was Mentioned in Despatches by General Sir Ian Hamilton and awarded the British Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1916.

After the Australian soldiers were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, Billy was sent to fight in France as part of the 31st Battalion. On the Western Front, Billy continued to serve with distinction. In 1917, he was recommended for but not awarded the Military Medal for his actions leading an anti-sniper fighting patrol at Polygon Wood, in Belgium. He was again Mentioned in Dispatches for gallantry, by General Birdwood, and in 1918 he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Like so many soldiers, Billy's heath suffered and he returned to Australia in July 1918 and shortly afterwards he was permanently discharged as a result of being unfit for duty due to ongoing chest problems. He returned to Proserpine as a war hero.

But Billy's story does not end at the end of his war service. He took up a soldier settlement farm a few years after his return. This venture unfortunately failed, as did an attempt to strike it lucky in the goldfields near his property in Clermont. In 1942 Billy moved to Brisbane, and sadly a year later Billy Sing was dead. He died of heart failure at the age of 57, living in relative poverty. When he died he owned a miner's hut, worth around 20 pounds and five shillings, found in his room in a boarding house. There was no sign of his medals or awards from the war. Billy Sing's story is like the stories of so many other ordinary Australians, ordinary Queenslanders, who showed amazing bravery in achieving extraordinary feats during the Great War.

We look back on the First World War with pride and honour. As a nation we come together to remember the Anzacs and their achievements and losses, and not to glorify war or to praise victory but to appreciate how our history was derived from their sacrifice and derived from the sacrifices of men like Billy Sing, of our Indigenous soldiers and of the thousands upon thousands of ordinary Australians, from all backgrounds, who have served to protect our freedoms.

The spirit of Anzac is as relevant to us all today as it was 100 years ago, as it was being created. May the Defence Force personnel who have served this country and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice rest in peace while the spirit of Anzac continues to live in each and every one of us. Lest we forget.

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