It is published in full...

Today, ANZAC Day, we meet, not to celebrate or glorify war, but to remember those who have fought for our country. 

Also importantly we remember those who served on the home front, as this was no lesser in importance to Australia.

Today, as we do every year on this day, we acknowledge the spirit of the ANZACs, and take the opportunity to commit ourselves to strive to make our country a better, safer place, just as the ANZACs were doing for Australia and for the Empire. 

We strive to walk in their footsteps and uphold their fine qualities of endurance, commitment, courage, and, of course, mateship. 

Today all over Australia we come together to remember and give our thanks to the men and women who fought and to those who gave their lives so that we could continue to freely live ours in peace.

The very first ANZACs were generally young Australians and New Zealanders. 

Most just like myself and my peers, many not even legally able to drink, had never left their homes or their families, but were willing and eager, with a sense of adventure, to go and fight for the Empire and our young country. 

I cannot even begin to understand how they might have felt.

In today’s society there are different expectations placed on young people.

 As a society, young people do not have the selfless devotion now that the ANZACs had. 

It’s hard for me to imagine saying goodbye to my friends and family at the end of this year and preparing to leave home, whilst knowing that I’ll come back, unlike the young ANZACs who were setting off to distant lands, which many had never even heard of, and as we now know, many never returned again.  

For Australia, the First World War is a clear reminder of the cost of conflict. 

With a population of fewer than five million, over 400,000 men enlisted, of which 60, 000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.  

The battle at Gallipoli saw an estimated casualties list of ANZACs as 2000, dead, wounded or missing. 

On just the first day of landing more than 620 Australian’s had died. 

The Gallipoli campaign may have been the most ill fated military mission ever. 

Yet, the 25th of April, the anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps first landing at ANZAC cove on the Gallipoli peninsula, still draws our nation together. 

The country pauses, early morning alarms ring, poppies and rosemary are fastened firmly, medals are worn with pride, as we take time to honor all our soldiers. 

It’s strange that whilst Australia and New Zealand place such high importance on this day and it’s shaping of our nations’ identify, other countries involved in the very same campaign do not. 

And whilst we place this importance on the campaign, we can never truly understand their bravery. 

Adventure might have called those young boys to sail miles away from their home, but at what point did adventurous boys turn to brave men?

Was it in the selfless act of boarding a ship that would take them to fight distant enemies for the empire?

Was it when they first had to choose to take another man’s life to save their own or their mate’s? 

Was it when they marched on and in the face of certain death continued to fight on regardless? 

Or was it when they returned home to their families changed and had difficulty dealing with the mental and physical scarring of war that they became brave?

And what about the families that were left unable to welcome their loved ones home? 

As such a young nation, the Great War left a huge hole in our developing communities. However, from the Great War, and particularly from the Gallipoli Campaign we learnt the true value of international mateship. 

As Ataturk, who was a General at Gallipoli, and became the father of modern Turkey said:

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace. 

There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... 

You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. 

After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well. ”

Turkey continues to show us friendship and of course their hospitality when we travel in droves to Gallipoli each year to remember those who have lost their lives.

In this modern era of consumerism, material values, and technology overload, ANZAC Day is remembering war is not a game on our computers, nor is it a fuzzy black and white photograph in our history books.

This is a day that has, and will forever stand for Australia. 

For the stories passed on from generation to generation. 

For the cold mornings braved to remember the fallen. 

For the men and women still serving to this day. 

It’s about you standing here today tall and proud. 

Proud of those men and women who volunteered and fought for our country, and those that paid the ultimate sacrifice. 

And proud to call ourselves Australian, just like them.

We have these men to thank for giving us a national identity, a proud unity for defining what it means to be an Australian. 

We will never forget them.

The past shows us that cruelty can inspire cruelty, hatred can inspire hatred, and inhumanity can inspire inhumanity. 

But it has also shown us that hope can inspire hope, courage can inspire courage, peace can inspire peace… and inspiration can transcend through generations. 

ANZAC Day is not a day to glorify war. 

Rather a day when we should reflect on the awfulness, the death, destruction, futility and horror that it brings. 

As we remember those killed and injured, we should vow, that if possible, we will work towards finding alternatives to war, so as to make our world a more peaceful place.

Lest we forget.