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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-29 Daily Xml
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ANZAC DAY

Ms PORTOLESI (Hartley) (14:28): Can the Minister for Multicultural Affairs inform the house about his attendance at the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli last Friday and its relevance to South Australia?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:30): I did have the privilege at being at Anzac Cove for the dawn service last Friday morning. It was a moving event attended by thousands of Australians, and I was certainly pleased to be there. I must acknowledge the courtesy and hospitality extended to me and all Australians who attended the service, including the member for Norwood and the Hon. Dennis Hood. The location means that the preparations are challenging and the efforts made by our Turkish hosts and members of the Australian Embassy were exceptional.

Attendance at the dawn service on the Gallipoli Peninsula was very large indeed, and I think this was because 2008 was the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The Great War was known as the war to end all wars, but, sadly, that was not so. Although many later battles on the Western Front in Europe were more savage and accounted for many more Australian casualties, the Gallipoli campaign has been burnt into the consciousness of Australians. For Australia, it is considered to mark the birth of our national consciousness as the first time that we entered a conflict with all the Australians colonies united together as Australian armed forces. In my opinion, it is our most significant national day of commemoration.

What impressed me most about the ceremony at Gallipoli were the numbers of young people and the genuine interest and respect that they paid to those who lost their life. Indeed, it is truly a pilgrimage because the young people travel from Istanbul for four or five hours to the Gallipoli Peninsula. They then camp out overnight in what is at that time of the year a cold and windy location. After the dawn service, they begin the trek up the mountainside to Lone Pine for the specifically Australian commemoration and then they trek onwards and upwards past the Turkish commemoration to the New Zealand commemoration at Chunuk Bair, the highest point that the ANZAC forces reached during the campaign.

One of the plays that pupils were required to read in my time at school and university was Alan Seymour's One Day of the Year. I think the message of One Day of the Year was that the ANZAC commemoration, in Alan Seymour's view, was becoming a shambles as the diggers aged and there were fewer of them, and that somehow the ANZAC commemoration would fade out. That was clearly the message of Alan Seymour's play.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: The member for Heysen confirms that that was happening as the baby boomer generation, whose fathers fought in the Second World War, came to positions of authority in our society as they marched through the institutions. But the following generation decided that it was very interested in what their grandfathers and great-grandfathers did, and it is the generation after the baby boomers that revived ANZAC Day—and it is a very lovely thing to have happened—and it is that generation that is now attending at the Gallipoli Peninsula.

As I stood at Anzac Cove at dawn, I could not help but recall a similar sense of respect and remembrance that I saw displayed by our own young South Australians. I refer to the ANZAC eve youth vigils that occur around Adelaide each year. I went to the first ANZAC Eve Youth Vigil held at the state national War Memorial on North Terrace in 2000 and, since then, these vigils have been established at other locations in the suburbs. They involve hundreds of young South Australians from a wide variety of youth and community groups gathering to remember those who died in the service of our nation. Our young people stand guard around the state national War Memorial for 12 hours before the dawn service.

They change guard every half hour, and look most impressive in their different uniforms. I have seen representatives from the Australian Army Cadets, Guides SA, SA Police Rangers, Scouts Australia, St John Ambulance, the Legion of Frontiersmen, Surf Life Saving South Australia, Australian Air Force Cadets, Australian Navy Cadets, and the Boys and Girls Brigades of South Australia. Indeed, my own father left the Boys Brigade in Ireland in 1941 to join the Royal Navy. This represents 13 different youth groups, and I do not recall that number ever parading before together. Such is the power of ANZAC.

Other than the main vigil at the War Memorial in the city, we had vigils at Morphett Vale and Blackwood, and I think there might even be one held at Tennant Creek. I understand that this year for the first time there was a youth vigil at Marion, and I congratulate those young people who volunteered to conduct it.

What I find fascinating about our vigils is the wisdom shown by our young people. I know they were the first to invite the Turkish community to join in a ceremony of remembrance in South Australia. I am also impressed at the multicultural flavour. There is no monopoly on remembrance, and I recall last year that the youth who planned these vigils invited representatives from a range of countries to join them. I saw representatives from Greece, Holland, Malta, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Serbia and the United States of America, all of them in national dress and joined together in a common desire to remember.

Last year, I am told, they were joined by the representatives of our Cook Island, Filipino, Somali and Ukrainian communities. It is splendid to see the young of our society remembering in this way, and I am sure that I acknowledged by my presence on the Gallipoli Peninsula this new generation.

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