Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 15 August 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day (VP Day);

(b) VP Day marks the end of the Second World War in the Pacific, following Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945;

(c) victory in the Pacific marked the end of the biggest ever threat to Australian soil at the time;

(d) the formal surrender took place on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay;

(e) Australian forces were engaged in campaigns across the Pacific, in New Guinea, Bougainville, New Britain, Borneo, and in the Philippines, and Australian prisoners of the Japanese were spread throughout Asia; and

(f) over 200,000 Australian servicemen and women were involved in the war against Japan, and over 17,000 died; and

(2) acknowledges our:

(a) gratitude to those who served, and their families, for the sacrifices they made which secured the freedoms we enjoy today; and

(b) bipartisan ongoing commitment to remember their service and sacrifice.

It is an honour to move this motion in recognition of what I believe to be the greatest generation of Australians. The reason they are the greatest generation of Australians is they overcame incredible adversity and demonstrated the resilience that was needed to both survive and then to prosper. Keep in mind, this generation of Australians was born in the aftermath of World War I. They grew up in the Depression. They fought for our freedom in World War II. They lost many of their mates and then, after surviving that conflict, they went on to build the nation that we enjoy today.

Eighty years ago, on 15 August 1945, Japan's surrender marked the official end of World War II in the Pacific. For Australia, this meant the end of the direct threat to our shores and the conclusion of a conflict that profoundly shaped our nation. Victory in the Pacific Day is not just a celebration of a victory but a solemn remembrance of sacrifice, service and resilience.

We are so fortunate that some of the veterans from World War II still walk amongst us today. Undoubtedly, their ranks are thinning as each of them approaches or goes beyond their 100th birthday, but we are still honoured to have them with us today. Today, we remember them all, and we extend our gratitude to them and to the families that supported them in their service.

From the start of World War II, in 1939, over one million Australians served across the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the merchant navy. By early 1942 Australia was no longer a distant observer of the war. The danger was at our doorstep. The fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin and the Japanese submarines in Sydney Harbour all meant that our country was now at the forefront of the war.

On that note, Australian schoolchildren should learn more about the bombing of Darwin. It was the first time the Australian mainland had been attacked by a foreign power, and the attackers were led by the same commander who led the Pearl Harbor assault just 10 weeks earlier. The first two Japanese air raids were the largest, but a sustained campaign followed, and there were more than a hundred attacks on Darwin during 1942 and 1943. As someone who studied Australian history at high school, I found out more in one visit to Darwin than I found out in my whole six years of studying history in my school.

The war in the Pacific was very much at our doorstep. There were even maritime losses off the coast of East Gippsland in World War II. In response to those attacks, our country mobilised with determination and speed, and Australian forces were redeployed from the Middle East and North Africa to defend our near region. Australia's strategic position meant our forces fought in key theatres of the war—Malaya, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Borneo and the Pacific islands. Of course, the Battle of Kokoda became a symbol of Australian determination and endurance. At Milne Bay, Australian troops were the first to decisively defeat Japanese forces on land. In Borneo, New Guinea, Bougainville and beyond, Australians fought in long and costly campaigns to drive the enemy back.

The Navy played a role crucial role escorting convoys, landing troops and fighting in key battles, including the Battle of the Coral Sea, a turning point of the Pacific theatre. The Royal Australian Air Force flew countless missions, providing vital air support across the region. Many of our airmen also served with distinction in bomber command over Europe, highlighting the global nature of their contribution. It is sad to consider that almost 40,000 Australians died in World War II, and around 17,000 of those were in the Pacific. Thousands more were wounded and carried those injuries with them for the rest of their lives. Around 30,000 became prisoners of war, many in the most horrific conditions, including on the Thai-Burma Railway. Australia's involvement in the Pacific war helped forge a sense of national identity, one defined by courage, by mateship and by endurance. There is no question that this war reshaped Australia's international outlook, contributing to stronger ties with the United States and evolving the relationship with the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945 was met with celebration across Australia but also with solemn remembrance, remembering those who had fallen. The legacy of those who served is not only in the victories they achieved but in the peace they secured and the freedoms that endure today. Their story is one of endurance, mateship, loyalty and courage under fire—values that continue to shape our national identity.

As we mark this 80th anniversary, we remember not just a military victory but a national commitment that spanned across oceans and across generations. Let us continue to honour to fallen, support the living and ensure their stories are passed on for future generations to understand that the freedoms we enjoy came at a very heavy price.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder to the motion?

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Gippsland and shadow minister for veterans affairs for bringing this very important motion forward today to mark Victory in the Pacific Day, a solemn but proud day in Australia's national story.

On 15 August 1945, guns fell silent across our vast Pacific, and the war came to an end. It was the conclusion of a brutal chapter, one that profoundly shaped Australia's national identity into the future. For Australia, victory in the Pacific was not merely an end to conflict. It was the culmination of years of hardship, sacrifice and unwavering resolve by the Australian people. Nearly a million Australians served in the Second World War—our Army, our Navy, our Air Force and our merchant navy. Tens of thousands never returned home from the Pacific theatre. Many were sons, daughters, friends and family—ordinary Australians who answered an extraordinary call. It has been one of the greatest honours of my life to care for those in our hospitals who were and are a part of what is the greatest generation.

The war came dangerously close to our shores. The bombing of Darwin in 1942 and the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour reminded every Australian that this was not a distant conflict but one that was ever present. It was a war that redefined our national security. It was a conflict that reshaped our foreign policy, forging a closer alliance with the United States and deepening our own sense of independence and responsibility in the Asia-Pacific region. Victory in the Pacific was not achieved by military force alone. It was underpinned by the courage of the home front—by the factory workers, nurses, farmers and volunteers who sustained our nation in what was indeed a time of crisis and a nation under duress. It was also achieved with the support of our regional neighbours and allies, many of whom suffered enormously under Japanese occupation, especially—and I want to make special mention here—those in Papua New Guinea who fought beside us and often suffered far more than what history has recorded. Let us not forget their struggles and their sacrifices. Their contributions must be honoured, and they must be acknowledged now and into the future.

As Australians, we remember victory in the Pacific not to glorify war but to honour peace. We recall the past not to dwell in conflict but to learn from it, to safeguard democracy, to champion diplomacy and to ensure that never again will we allow tyranny to cast its shadow across our region. On this day, let us recommit to those ideals. Let us honour the fallen, support the living and remain ever vigilant in the defence of peace, the defence of freedom and the defence of justice. Lest we forget.

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by acknowledging all those that continue to wear the uniform, our veterans and their families. The freedoms that we enjoy today are on the back of hard-fought battles, wars and the sacrifice that you have made. On Anzac Day we say 'lest we forget' and we reaffirm our commitment to always remember those who have been killed in battle, have died in training or have succumbed to their war within back here on home soil. On Remembrance Day, we say the guns fell silent, but the guns haven't fallen silent since. From natural disasters, peacekeeping missions, combat operations and world wars to Afghanistan, our brave men and women are there. When we say words like 'lest we forget', they must be more than merely words that we mutter on significant days. They are a commitment—a commitment to our veterans and their families. The significant events that follow around the country are on anniversaries, on days of remembrance and reflection, like Victory in the Pacific Day for World War II.

It is something that—I agree with most people in this place—needs to be highlighted and spoken more about in our schooling system, because more than a million people served in World War II and more than 39,000 people paid the ultimate sacrifice. Families were left with loved ones being killed overseas, a lifetime of growing up without their parent or their spouse, and there were the invisible wounds that follow. So highlighting the victory in the Pacific is also about reaffirming our position and support for those families.

Now, in Townsville, the largest garrison city in the country, we have specific events, like VP50 and VP80, where more than 3,200 soldiers, veterans and their families travel. VP80 will be a massive event. It's 80 years since the victory in the Pacific and the end of World War II, and people will travel from around the world. World War II veterans will make their way to Townsville. We'll have soldiers, veterans and their families from around the country, including the Ambassador to France, who contacted me and said he was coming to Townsville as well. It will be a massive event, and we know it's so important. It's important to the veterans, but it's also important to the younger generation to hear and learn, to hear about a million people deployed on an operation and 39,000 paying the ultimate sacrifice, to hear from their families, to hear from our veterans that are still with us.

It was great to see that the Townsville City Council came out in support of VP80 with funding and a commitment. The state Crisafulli government came out and supported VP80 in Townsville. It's a shame that today we don't have the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in this place, in this chamber, and it is the same with the assistant minister. I know the special envoy would be here. But VP80 sits with the federal Australian government to support such events. It took a long time—until only about a week ago—to have the Minister for Veterans' Affairs actually acknowledge the event and now say that there'll be some support. I don't think it's good enough to have something of such significance—one of the biggest celebrations for the end of World War II and victory in the Pacific, which will be in Townsville—not supported by the Labor federal government. I'd like to see the Prime Minister attend this event. I'd like to see the Minister for Veterans' Affairs attend this event, because Jeff Jimmieson and Johnny Bearne on the committee have done an amazing amount of work to get veterans and their families from all around the world to Townsville. Victory in the Pacific is significant for this nation but also for the largest garrison city. We will have tens of thousands of people involved. It is something that should be celebrated and highlighted, and VP80 is something that shouldn't be missed.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too want to start by thanking every veteran and all our current serving personnel of the Australian Defence Force for their service. I also want to acknowledge the previous speaker, the member for Herbert, for his service to this great country as well. I say these things not only as a veteran myself but also as the Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans, a role in which I am proud to be able to serve once again this parliament. It's a role I will continue to fulfil with a great sense of pride and humility.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my good friend, the former member for Menzies, Keith Wolahan, for his service as my co-chair to the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans in the 47th Parliament. I'm exceptionally grateful for your friendship, assistance and guidance over the last term, and I wish you and your family all the best with your future endeavours. I also wish to thank Senator the Hon. Andrew McLachlan for agreeing to be my new co-chair—I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing—in the 48th Parliament. I look forward to working with you over to coming term.

The 80th anniversary of victory in the Pacific is one that holds special significance to me. Like many people, I am proud to say that my grandparents served in the Second World War. On my mother's side, my pa, Federal Stokie Rodda, served as a gunner in the Australian 2nd Field Regiment 3rd Division in Papua New Guinea. My great uncle, Noel George Burnell, was a flying officer with No. 235 Squadron. He made the ultimate sacrifice serving country, killed in action flying his Vultee Vengeance aircraft, which was shot down over PNG in 1944. He is remembered at the Lae Memorial, which commemorates more than 300 officers and men of the Australian Army, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in these operations and have no known grave.

The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Pacific is one of incredible significance to Australia. Between 1939 and 1945, Australia fought two world wars, one in Europe and, for the first time in a global conflict, one on our own doorstep in the Pacific theatre of war. With the threat of the Japanese empire slowly marching through South-East Asia, nearly one million Australians answered the call to fight or work, or perish. This was a time when our nation came face to face with the real possibility of invasion. Cities were bombed—Darwin, Broome, Townsville. Sydney Harbour was attacked by submarines. However, we stood resolute. Our spirit did not waver. The soldiers on the front line fought valiantly to protect their families and their country while the home front stood firm in unprecedented conditions.

In the face of war, the country kept going. In factories, on farms and in hospitals, millions more Australians kept the country running and the war effort alive. They were all undeniably important to our victory. Enlistments across the country continued in droves. First Nations servicemen and women, despite facing discrimination at home, volunteered in large numbers and served with distinction.

Australians served at the Kokoda Track in the defence of Milne Bay and various battles across New Guinea, Borneo and the Solomon Islands. These sites all became defining moments of Australian endurance and resolve. These battles are now carved permanently into the mythology of our great country. Stories of sacrifice, courage, losses and success are now taught in schools across Australia. Victory in the Pacific on 15 August 1945 marked the end of the Second World War and the return of peace, but it came at a staggering cost. More than 27,000 Australians were killed in World War II. Additionally, approximately 23,000 more were wounded or traumatised in service of their country. These troops faced not only Japanese bullets, bayonets and grenades but tropical disease, hunger and conditions of captivity, which were also significant threats daily.

Back home, every town, suburb and street corner was touched by the absence of a son, a daughter, a father or a mother who never returned home. On the 80th anniversary of VP Day, we remember their courage, their service and their sacrifice, and we honour the families who bore the burden of their loss. Lest we forget.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's role in the Pacific war is not as well known as it should be. While the education system focuses on World War I and the horrors of the Holocaust in the second war, it was the Pacific that most impacted Australia. During the last decade, more and more World War II veterans have passed, and now there are very few left. Over 200,000 Australian service men and women served in the Pacific. Over 17,000 died, and 22,000 were taken prisoner.

In my own electorate, there are many who served, including 101-year-old John McAuley. John joined the RAAF and was trained as a radar operator at RAAF Base Richmond. During World War II, he served at Merauke in New Guinea. Despite his very great age, John continues to march, on his own two legs, the full length of the Sydney Anzac Day March every year. John returned home and became an economist, rising to become the chief economist of the state bank. Every year, we collect a set of budget papers for him, and I'm the beneficiary of his wisdom and observations into economic policy. John's the head of a very significant family in the electorate, with three children, nine grandchildren and over 30 great-grandchildren, and I had the privilege of speaking at his 100th birthday last year.

The Pacific war brought World War II home, with the bombing of Darwin and the arrival of Japanese midget subs in Sydney Harbour. In the Berowra electorate, the threat of Japanese invasion led to the formation of what is now the Rural Fire Service. The Hawkesbury River became a place of shipbuilding, and there were antisubmarine nets installed on the railway bridge between Brooklyn and Dangar Island and Little Wobby. To make the Hawkesbury more impassable, the naval control board impounded small boats. In Operation Berowra Boat Guard, over 2,000 boats were gathered at Crosslands Reserve. The task of keeping them away from Japanese hands became much easier when there was a major storm and flash flood which caused those boats to be stacked on the river flats.

Although there were no air raids in Sydney, blackouts were practiced and brownout shields were placed on all streetlights. There were regular air raid drills, and all schools were provided with trenches. Hornsby Shire acted as a training ground for Australian troops—the Army used the old Thornleigh Quarry as a shooting range, and the crew of the Krait trained in Cowan Creek before their daring commando raid in Singapore harbour in September 1943.

Singapore's a good segue to speak about my own family's involvement in the Pacific war. Singapore was meant to be an impregnable fortress, yet Singapore fell to the Japanese forces in only a week, with 80,000 troops taken as prisoners of war, including 15,000 Australians. My grandfather Sam Goldman served in the 2nd/26th Battalion of the ill-fated 8th Division and was there at the fall of Singapore. After the fall, he was taken prisoner in Changi and he was kept in brutal conditions, forced to survive on a cup of rice a day. He talked of being starved and trying to work while watching his mates die all around him. He survived the horrors of the Burma railway, where the Japanese guards would beat prisoners to death leaving them to die on the side of the road. If their mates tried to help them, they too would be beaten. Disease was rife. Malaria was bad, and cholera was worse.

My grandfather told to his children the story of holding a mate who had developed gangrene while the doctor sawed off his leg, and the image of that occasion never left him. People who have seen the gruesome dramatisation of The Narrow Road to the Deep North will have a sense of how bad those conditions were. My grandfather was badly burnt by a guard who threw a pot of boiling water over his legs. He spent days lying in the hard stone floor in the makeshift hospital, and, when he could get up, he virtually had to teach himself to walk again. The burns on his legs were so bad that he was scarred for life and the hair never grew back on them.

The Japanese were absolutely brutal, and they were just as brutal to the local Singaporean Chinese population and the Malay Chinese population as they were to the Allies. The Chinese were a completely different story. They often smuggled food and other supplies to the prisoners, but the Japanese always took revenge on them. Once, my grandfather was marched into a village and saw Chinese men had been executed, with their heads placed on spikes to demonstrate to the local population not to fight the Japanese.

The Australians and other prisoners of war survived because they could dream of a life beyond captivity. For my grandfather, it was his love of his family and the prospect of opening a hardware store when he returned. He successfully did that, opening what was at one point the largest hardware store in the Southern Hemisphere, in Merrylands. He employed many of his former POWs there, too.

In the years following World War II, the Germans have done a very good job educating the next generations about the atrocities committed by Germany during the Second World War. Sadly, I don't think the Japanese actually understand enough about the atrocities that were committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during that war. I believe this should be a matter that is raised and taken up as part of our general foreign relations with Japan, who is a very friendly country and whose future is dependent on us as much as our future is dependent on them.

In conclusion, on this very good motion, can I say to all those who served in the Pacific: we salute your service. Lest we forget.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend this motion moved by the member for Gippsland, who is himself a former minister for veterans' affairs and who, I know, was very well regarded in the veterans community during his time as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. I thank him for this motion today.

When I think of VP Day, or the 80th anniversary, I think those of us who were born after World War II. We can only imagine the range of emotions felt by millions of people around the world on Victory in the Pacific, or VP, Day in 1945. I take this opportunity to thank the veterans who have played a role in the history of defending our nation but also in recent years, in Vietnam, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq and East Timor, and all those who have served at the UN, who are there protecting us and ensuring that we have a safe nation to live in.

Almost a million Australians served in the war in the Army, Air Force, Navy and the Merchant Navy, with half serving overseas and others serving in key roles on the home front. Approximately 40,000 Australians would die serving in this war. Their graves and memorials to the missing are located right around the world. Fighting in the Middle East and in Europe, Australians helped to defeat the Nazi German regime that was responsible for the war in Europe and for terrible atrocities, including the horrendous Holocaust. They fought in the deserts of North Africa, the mountains and valleys of Greece and Syria, the seas of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and the dangerous skies over Europe.

When the war expanded to Asia and the Asia-Pacific in December 1941, Australians faced the possibility that Australia itself could be attacked—and attacked it was. We'd been through World War I in Gallipoli and the beginning of World War II in Europe, where there was a perceived threat to our nation. But this was a real threat. All of a sudden, the enemy was on our doorstep and the next step would be to invade Australia. In fact, following the fall of Singapore on 14 February 1942 Prime Minister John Curtin famously declared that it opened the battle for Australia. Just three days after Curtin's declaration, Darwin was bombed—as the member for Solomon has described to us many times in this place—causing trauma for the people of the Northern Territory and all of Australia to this day.

We mark VP Day on 15 August to remember the war, to pay our gratitude to those who served but also to remember that these people, these veterans, were the pillars of our democracy. They were there fighting for our democracy. If we can just think about what it would be like if we hadn't had victory; what sort of Australia would we be living in today? Not only Australia; what would the world be like? We have a lot of gratitude to pay to those veterans who defended our nation, and the best we can do to honour them is to defend the democracy they fought for and defended in World War II, in the Pacific, under atrocious circumstances. We've heard stories of prisoners of war in Singapore, of the prisons all over the Asia-Pacific region—horror stories of people who were tortured and were kept in isolation et cetera. A few of them made it to this wonderful Chamber, this House, to be representatives of their communities when they came back to Australia. Like I said, I think we have a lot of gratitude to pay to those people, to thank them for everything they've done.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the RSLs in my electorate in South Australia—the state branch of the RSL, the Kilburn, Unley, Prospect, Hilton, Enfield, Walkerville, West Croydon and Kilkenny RSLs, and the other ex-services associations in South Australia and all of Australia for the work they do to make sure that we never, ever forget. When we forget, we don't know where we're heading. You need to know where you have come from to have a direction and a focus on where we're going. We should never forget these conflicts because they are what have made us the nation that we are today, they are what have given us our freedoms—our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion—and they have made us one of the best democracies in the world. That's all due to those veterans that fought for those pillars of our democracy and our system here in Australia.

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for the debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.