Battle for Australia commemoration
John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (09:53): I rise today to speak on two different matters. On the first Wednesday of September every year we commemorate the Battle for Australia, remembering the sacrifices made by those who fought for our country during the Second World War. For this year’s Battle for Australia day, I had the opportunity to represent the Minister for Veterans in the other place by laying a wreath by the eternal flame at the Shrine of Remembrance on behalf of the Victorian government. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, John Curtin declared that the battle for Australia had begun, the moment when the war turned into an existential battle for Australia’s survival. Eighty years on from the end of the war, it is a sombre reminder that the peace and freedom we enjoy today in this country did not come easily.