Anzac Day 2022 National Address

The Governor-General’s Anzac Day National Address was broadcast on the ABC at 6:55 pm AEST on 25 April.

Walk through any town or city in Australia and you will find a war memorial. 

You might walk past one every day.

On Anzac Day, we don’t walk past.

It is a day when we stop. It is a day when we WANT to stop.

To reflect. To remember. And to recognise that memorials both honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice AND remind us of who we are. 

Lest We Forget. 

We hear and say those powerful, emotive words on Anzac Day. 

But does just saying them make them true?

A recent study by Deakin University found that a quarter of people aged under 18 have little to no knowledge of the Holocaust.

This should worry all of us.

It is really dangerous if we don't remember our history – what has shaped us, what drives us, what gives us character.

That is why on Anzac Day and perhaps on other days we shouldn’t walk past memorials.

We pause and reflect for different reasons. 

Some are personal. Growing up in Port Kembla the war memorial and Anzac Day meant learning about my relatives who had served.  

At Duntroon, and throughout my time serving in the Australian Army, they represented those who had come before, those I was serving with, those that didn’t return and the families they left behind.

Memorials also tell the story of who we were in our darkest hours. The story of who we still are when our backs are against the wall. The story of a people committed to service and putting others before self.

Earlier this year I spoke at the dedication of a memorial to the 22 Australian nurses massacred on Bangka Island in 1942. 

The memorial immortalises the words of the Commanding Officer, Major Irene Drummond, to the nurses as they faced certain death at the hands of the enemy:

“Chin up, girls. I’m proud of you and I love you.”

Beyond her remarkable bravery, Major Drummond’s words speak to who we are, our values and who we can be.

Committed to service, putting others before self, compassionate and, always, in the face of adversity, a gritty determination to get through.

As Linda and I travel around Australia we see living examples of these characteristics.

Major Drummond’s words live on.

The response to the recent floods in New South Wales and Queensland is a living embodiment of her sentiment and to the Anzac legacy writ large in our day-to-day life.

So, too, is the service of ADF personnel on deployment and operations here and overseas.

They live on in the work of veterans who, after their time in uniform, continue to serve and help others.

They live on all around us.

In the countless examples in communities of selflessness, of service, of determination to getting the job done, and of compassion for others.

Anzac Day, and the memorials that exist all around Australia, are reminders of these characteristics.

In honouring the service of our forebears, our modern veterans and those who continue to serve, we recognise that they embody the characteristics that define us as a nation.

Being a veteran is not an identity in and of itself.

Veterans are not superheroes. In fact, they are – and I mean this as a compliment – ordinary.

They are our daughters and sons, our husbands and wives, loved ones, our parents, our mates and our colleagues. 

In the sum of their stories, we see loyalty, compassion, mateship – characteristics that have shaped and are part of who we are as a nation. Characteristics that we see displayed day in, day out, in myriad ways in every part of Australia.

A single name on a wall of a memorial cannot tell that full story. A single day on the calendar cannot ensure we remember.

But they can remind us.

Who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be.

We must remember.

Lest We Forget.

[Ends]