Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to rise tonight in this chamber to mark the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. On 25 April 1915 thousands of young Australians made landfall on a distant beach. They were cast into instant hellfire, but their bravery, their commitment and mateship saw them dig in. In the face of extraordinary hardship across a campaign that would last eight long months, up to 60,000 Australians served on the Gallipoli Peninsula—8709 of them were either killed in action or died of their wounds. A total of 61,522 Australians lost their lives in the First World War. Among this scale of tragedy, if not because of it, a young nation's identity coalesced and emerged. Those troops on the beaches at Gallipoli not only defended the values and ideas of our nation they helped to define what it means to be Australian. Those eternal Australian values of mateship and courage in the face of adversity.

This is a tradition that is surviving generations of Australians and, I am confident, will survive for generations to come. As I made my way around local Anzac services on Anzac Day, the thing that inspired me was the future generations of Australians picking up the baton handed to them from former generations, keeping that flame of the Anzac tradition burning strong. It was incredibly moving to see young Australians maintaining that tradition—something that all Australians should be proud of. This is a tradition I have seen continued in new battlefields. I have had the great honour of travelling to Afghanistan and Iraq twice to see a new generation of Australian diggers once again displaying courage in the face of adversity and upholding that ultimate Australian tradition of mateship. We should all be incredibly proud of the sacrifice made by Australians so that we can live in a free, fair, democratic society today. That is the legacy of our Anzacs and we all owe them a great debt of gratitude. To see tens of thousands of Australians in my own electorate come out to uphold that tradition is something I am incredibly proud of and all Australians should be proud of. May our diggers rest in peace.

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context