Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Wide Bay for his question, because he understands—indeed, I believe all members understand— the importance of commemorating the centenary of the Armistice to end the Great War. Remembrance Day is about respect and recognition. We wear our red poppies and we pause to remember the fallen. I urge all Australians to attend a local service, to wear a red poppy and to pause for one minute at 11.00 am on 11 November. In that minute's silence, we remember the service and sacrifice of the 416,000 Australians who enlisted; the 62,000 who never made it home; and the thousands more who returned, carrying the scars with them for the rest of their lives. We thank them for their service. We thank their families and their loved ones for their service, too. I've said before in this place that in many ways the home front has been as important as the front line, throughout our history, in caring for our Defence Force personnel.

On Remembrance Day, the commemorations will be supported by our government both here and abroad. Right here in this place, Mr Speaker, you and I viewed earlier today 30,000 poppies which are on display above the Marble Foyer—each poppy handcrafted with love, in remembrance. I thank members opposite who I know have visited the War Memorial as well to see the 62,000 poppies on its grounds, each of which represents one person killed in the Great War. Each poppy is unique and individual in its own way—part of the more than one million poppies that have been made inspired by Lynn Berry and Margaret Knight, who first set out to crochet just 120 poppies for the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

These individual poppies are a reminder to us all. We often think of our ADF members as some sort of homogeneous group. We tend to see only the uniform and think that perhaps they're all the same, but they're not. They're all individuals—someone's brother, someone's sister, someone's husband, someone's wife, someone's son, someone's daughter, someone's best mate. To our current members of the Australian Defence Force, I simply say: on behalf of all members in this place, thank you for your service; you help keep us safe in an often challenging world. On Remembrance Day, as we pause to remember the fallen, we should also pay our respects, I think, to the current serving men and women of the Defence Force, and their families.

It was former Prime Minister Billy Hughes who made our obligations clear at the end of World War I, when he said:

Our heritage, our free institutions of government—all that we hold dear—are handed back into our keeping stained with the blood of sacrifice.

Surely not only we, their fellow citizens, but Australians throughout the ages, will treasure for ever the memories of those glorious men to whom the Commonwealth owes so much, and will guard with resolute determination the privileges for which they fought and suffered.

We honour the fallen of 1918 by the way we choose to live our lives in 2018. For a century, we have kept our promise and we have remembered them. Lest we forget.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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