Anzac Day 2020 National Address
The Governor-General’s Anzac Day National Address was broadcast on the ABC at 6:55 pm AEST on 25 April.
On Anzac Day we remember and honour the service and sacrifice of those who have served our nation.
We do this for a number of reasons:
- to acknowledge those who have died in service to our nation
- to reflect on how that service and sacrifice has contributed to what and who we are as a nation today — that is, to understand its impact
- to understand what our response should be to that legacy.
Today, on an Anzac Day that is so different to what we are used to, this last point is particularly important.
We are proud of the ANZAC legacy. We celebrate it and we identify with it.
Now, as our generation faces its greatest test, is the time to demonstrate that that legacy is a true representation of who we are.
On 25 April 1915 the world changed.
As young men and women of that generation joined the Services in increasingly large numbers, our nation experienced loss at a disproportionately larger rate than other countries. Australia suffered the highest death and wounding rate per capita.
This loss devastated our cities and towns. It disrupted the social fabric of Australia.
But from that devastation grew an Australian identity that has guided and, in many respects, defined our national character.
We are reminded today as we commemorate our losses in World War 2 — a war that ended 75 years ago — that that national character was evident again when Australia responded to the threat of totalitarianism and fascism.
And in more recent decades our service and sacrifice has continued in operations around the globe. Each has had its impact on our returned servicemen and servicewomen and reminds us that our duty to our veterans never ceases.
We now talk of the ANZAC legacy as having four characteristics that define Australia: mateship, endurance, courage, sacrifice.
In essence, these characteristics say that we are a people who, in adverse situations, are strong, look out for each other, and are prepared to put others before self.
A fine example of this was the action of the crew of HMAS Encounter during the RAN's first overseas humanitarian mission to Tonga and Samoa in 1919.
The response to the captain’s request for volunteers to provide assistance ashore to treat those suffering the Spanish Flu was overwhelmingly positive. It would be difficult to find a more telling example of the Australian Navy's tradition of 'service before self'.
Today the ANZAC legacy should serve three purposes:
- to call on us to thank those earlier generations for their sacrifice
- to energise us in looking after our more recent veterans
- to inform us of what those earlier generations would expect of us today as we face our own generational test.
We remember on Anzac Day for a reason.
We are proud of our ANZAC forebears.
Let us make them proud of us.
Lest We Forget.
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