Remembrance Day Speech

REMEMBRANCE DAY Friday 11 November 2016 The Honourable Daniel Andrews MP, Premier of Victoria The Honourable John Eren MP, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs The Honourable Ted Baillieu, former Premier of Victoria and Chair of the Victorian ANZAC Centenary Committee The Honourable Matthew Guy MP, Leader of the Victorian Opposition Members of State and Federal Parliament The Right Hon the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle Major General David McLachlan AO (Ret’d), State President of the Returned and Services League Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence AO, Chair, Shrine of Remembrance Trustees Distinguished Servicemen and Women Members of the Consular Corps Other Distinguished Guests, Boys and Girls, Ladies and Gentlemen First, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are gathering and pay my respects to their elders past and present and to any elders here with us this morning. Today, as we have done for almost 100 years on the 11th day of the 11th month, we paused at 11am, recognising the moment in 1918, after four years of bitter fighting, when the Armistice took effect and the First Word war ended. We pause to remember the more than 100,000 Australians who have lost their lives in the service of their country, and the very many thousands more who have been injured. Why do we need to pause at just this moment? Why do we need to do it together? We could do it anytime, on any day, in any month. 1 Duty Aide: Katie van den Bos 14/11/2016 2:51 PM We could pause individually, just whenever or wherever it suited or pleased us. You might argue that it would not make the remembrance any less poignant or less important. You might argue that we could remember without deliberately pausing at all. I can admit that, although it is something I have done willingly all of my conscious life, it was only particularly recently that I came to understand fully why we do deliberately pause, at a set time and, importantly, why we gather together to do it. On 13 September this year, I paused. It wasn’t at 11am, and it clearly wasn’t on the 11th day of the 11th month. It was at 8pm. And it was in Belgium, in Ieper, at the Menin Gate, the memorial dedicated to the Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War 1 and whose graves are unknown. Uppermost in my mind that evening were the more than 400,000 Australian soldiers who had enlisted in that war, almost 40% of our nation’s young men at the time, young men who travelled around the world, so far from home, to fulfil a duty to serve. Uppermost in my mind was that more than 60,000 of them were killed, (45,000 of them on the Western Front), and that more than 150,000 were wounded. Gathering in Ieper on a soft summer evening, with a large crowd of people, some of whom gather each night of each day of each year, (as they have down since the Memorial’s completion in 1928), and others whom, like us, were just visiting that day to pay their respects, I realised that deliberately pausing from everyday life, and that reflecting on what others had given to ensure our safe future and freedom, was something best done together. Today, we gather together at our own Shrine of Remembrance. We gather to pause and reflect. Although the intent when this Shrine was in planning in the late 1920’s was to ensure that future generations would commemorate the services of its soldiers in the Great War, sadly, another generation soon enough knew of war for themselves. This Shrine is now the place for Victorians to gather together to remember the services of all of its military men and women, just as this day, the 11th day of November, has become a day of remembrance to honour more broadly all those who have fallen in war. 2 Duty Aide: Katie van den Bos 14/11/2016 2:51 PM And so, we gather today to pause and reflect on the past. But we do so with an eye to the present and future. When it comes to the present, our thoughts and our prayers are with all those currently on active service. They must know that we think of them, that we thank them and that we wish for their safe return and healthy reintegration into their lives here at home. In the meantime, we send our support to their loved ones who also give up so much, and who long to have them back home again. When it comes to the future, we can only wish that we and our leaders will be guided by the eight enduring human qualities that were embraced as a part of the original design of this Shrine: ‘love, peace, courage, integrity, strength, faith, honour and brotherhood. Lest we forget. 3 Duty Aide: Katie van den Bos 14/11/2016 2:51 PM .

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