Tuesday, 18 June 2024

World War I commemoration

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (14:45): Surrounded by thousands of pristine white identical headstones in immaculately tended war grave cemeteries, I was struck by the tragic loss of life that was the Western Front in World War I – so many lives marked as ‘Unknown soldier’, so many more still lying beneath the cultivated fields, entire villages completely obliterated, young lives never realised. The world was changed forever. But to the eternal credit of former Prime Minister the Honourable Tony Abbott and his chief of staff Peta Credlin, an incredible interactive monument, the Sir John Monash Centre, has emerged and now provides an invaluable reminder of the unbearable battlefield existence.

I was privileged to travel recently with Tony and Peta and other passionate war history afficionados to the French and Belgian battlegrounds. Tony, as former PM, and my husband Stewart, whose father, a former President of this chamber, lost his leg at Menin Road, were both given the honour of laying a wreath at Menin Gate in the moving Last Post ceremony, held daily for the last 70 years. The respect shown by French and Belgian locals was notable, especially to Australian soldiers who gave their lives – that freedom and democracy could prevail over dictatorship and tyranny. Lest we forget.