Mr BRIGGS (Mayo—Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) (10:18): I rise in support of the statement given to this House by the Prime Minister in respect of the centenary of the Anzac landings on 25 April 1915. Of course, we are now in August and it is an appropriate time to remember the August Offensive and the Lone Pine battle. This is a vital part of Australia's cultural history. We commemorate Anzac Day on 25 April each year, not specifically about the Gallipoli landings but about all service that people give in the name of Australia.

It was the first significant contribution that we made as a country. I think the reason it is so significant to our culture is that we were not forged in fire like so many other democracies—the Americans, who often celebrate the American Revolution and the Civil War and, of course, the United Kingdom had similar experiences. But Australia negotiated through argument and debate for our Constitution. When we formed our nation, it was not actually formed through a battle. I think this is why this contribution in 1915 was so significant to our cultural history, why it is so significant going forward and why it is so important to recognise what was then done in Europe, what was done in the Second World War, what was done in Vietnam and what was done in so many other contributions that we have made. Obviously, we continue to make them today in Iraq, where servicemen and women are giving their lives for our freedom.

The statement that the Prime Minister gave to this House and the bipartisan nature of the fact that we are commemorating this occasion is very significant. I think the government did a good thing with the local grants program that each electorate oversaw. In my own electorate we had a Mr Jock Statton AM, who was formerly the president of the South Australian RSL branch, chair that committee to ensure that the funding was appropriately handed out right across the electorate. He did an outstanding job with his committee, made up of Kym McHugh, Christine Bell, Ann Herraman, Julie Reece and Mike McRae, in ensuring that RSLs particularly received money to help ensure that the legacy, and that the contribution that was made all those years ago continues to be commemorated each year, and that we continue to focus on 25 April on the sacrifices made by those people at that time, all others since then and all those in the future that will continue to serve our great country.

This has been a very important year for us to remember that. We will continue to remember the many battles that Australian troops fought in, particularly in Europe in the latter part of the First World War, where the sacrifice was immense and the legacy substantial. This has been a terrific opportunity for us to remember all that sacrifice from so many who have made our country so great.

Mr ALEXANDER (Bennelong) (10:22): I rise to join my colleagues in discussing the most important part of heritage that is occupied by the Anzac legacy and to inform the House about events in Bennelong in commemoration of this centenary year. The nation paused on 25 April 2015 to remember the bravery and selflessness shown by Australian and New Zealand soldiers at the Gallipoli landings 100 years ago. And just last week we again paused to remember the 100th anniversary of the battles of Lone Pine and the Nek and the bravery and selflessness shown by Australian and New Zealand soldiers all those years ago.

These moments were not lost in Bennelong, which saw thousands of residents turn out on Anzac Day to commemorate those who served at a number of local memorials. I am immensely proud of the efforts made by our local RSLs and the dedication of the public who turned out to these events. Over 3,000 people attended Epping RSL's dawn service and a further 2,000 were at the dawn march held by North Ryde RSL. In addition, the weeks preceding saw thousands more people attending a number of Anzac services at Ryde Ex-Servicemens Club, Gladesville RSL and the Epping cenotaph. All the local RSLs held beautifully moving commemorations and our history, character and heritage were confirmed by so many people attending.

I would like to mention the hard work of the many people involved in organising these events. There are too many individuals to name them all, but I would like to thank in particular the President of Ryde District Sub Branch, Mr Bernie Cox; the Gladesville RSL Club Vice-President, Mr Peter Astridge; the Epping Sub Branch President, John Curdie; and the Epping Sub Branch Secretary, John Prestige. These men and their respective RSL clubs put in the same dedication to service as they had done during the conflicts. I congratulate them all.

Bennelong has a close connection to the Anzac legend. Between 1914 and 1918, 2,000 men volunteered from the area that is now covered by Bennelong. At the time, there were a mere 3,500 dwellings in that same region. This level of volunteering was almost unprecedented across the country. Remarkably, these volunteers came in a steady stream throughout the war, barely dipping after the retreat from Gallipoli or during the defeat and stagnation of the Western Front in 1916. This patriotism and bravery is incredible and it is worthy of the huge turnout seen across Bennelong last month.

There is also a proud tradition of commemorating Anzac Day in Bennelong, which I would like to briefly explore. The President of the Ryde District Sub Branch, Bernie Cox, has researched the history of the Anzac service itself and made some very interesting discoveries. The Anzac legacy tells us tales of the diggers commemorating the first few anniversaries of the Gallipoli landings from the trenches of the Western Front, but less is less remembered about the origins of the early Anzac services held on Australian soil. It is believed that these first services were held in Martin Place before the Hyde Park Cenotaph was completed in 1936. These initial ceremonies were not full of the military regalia that we see now; they were more modest affairs and were led by just four Sydney ex-servicemens clubs. One was from Lane Cove and another was a now defunct factory in Concord populated largely by demobbed veterans. However, the bulk of the veterans apparently came from two branches local to Bennelong—the Ryde and Eastwood branches. It is believed that Ryde RSL is descended from this group of ex-servicemen who forged the tradition of commemoration that we have recently taken part in.

Of course, it is not just our excellent local RSL clubs that have been remembering our veterans this Anzac Day. Thanks to the federal government's Anzac Community Grants local schools, charities and other organisations have been able to share in over $100,000 to assist with their commemorations. These grants have gone to a wide range of groups and allowed them to remember the Anzacs in a variety of ways. Indeed, I spoke about one particularly memorable effort—namely, the 'Ryde Goes to War' book compiled by the Ryde District Historical Society—in this place recently. This is an amazing resource for future generations and I again commend its dedicated authors for their incredible work.

In addition a number of schools, including Ryde, Gladesville, Denistone East and Epping public schools, have used the funds to build commemorative gardens or improve existing memorials. Epping RSL Sub-Branch has used their grant to collect together their WW1 memorabilia and display it for the public. And St Albans Parish in Epping has used their grant to restore their memorial to the local soldiers who fought in the First World War. I recently attended the re-opening of the Anzac memorial garden at Gladesville Public School. This garden has been in place for many years to remind students of their forebears who went to both world wars. However, it was overdue for refurbishment and needed some TLC. Last year they applied to my office for an Anzac Centenary Grant and were successful in receiving $18,000 towards their garden. I was honoured to represent the Minister for Veterans' Affairs at the event to open the new garden, and the students performed beautifully. An incredible job has been done to create a moving yet practical garden and I congratulate the school and all involved for their excellent work.

The Centenary of Anzac events will be remembered for decades, particularly with the help of the Abbott government's Centenary Grants. I have visited many of these projects and I look forward to seeing more and congratulating their recipients in the coming weeks and months. Last Sunday I attended a poignant memorial to the soldiers who served in the Battle of Lone Pine 100 years ago. This memorial was held at the Epping RSL and was very well attended. It was especially wonderful to see younger generations in attendance and learning about this pivotal battle in our history. I again commend the Epping club for their special work.

This is a significant year for all Australians. It has been important that we honour our service men and women at an Anzac Day ceremony. I am incredibly proud of the many groups across Bennelong that have pulled out all stops to commemorate Anzac and of the thousands of people who have turned up to take part in the commemorations and remember our brave veterans, and I thank the organisers of these many fantastic initiatives. This year's commemorations have been incredibly special, and I thank everybody who has been involved in making them so. This 100th Anniversary of Anzac is more than just the commemoration of a battle; it celebrates the birth of a legend and the formalisation of our unique Australian identity. Our great sense of mateship, egalitarianism, ingenuity and larrikinism was formed on those battlefields 100 years ago. Mateship is that rare blend of caring, fun loving, freedom, the gentle nature, the devout, the irreverent, the strong and the heroic.

The Bennelong Cup this year has invited two more countries to participate. Along with Korea, China and Japan, Malaysia will also play. To commemorate Anzac, we have invited New Zealand to join us and play as Australasia. It may surprise you that, in the Davis Cup competition at the beginning of the previous century, Australasia competed together—the great Norman Brookes teaming with Anthony Wilding, taking on the world, beating the world and bringing the cup to our shores. In this year of commemorating 100 years of Anzac, it is so appropriate that Australia and New Zealand again team together to play our neighbours and our friends in this region. The motivation behind the Olympic Games was to seek, through engagement in sport, to bring peace between warring groups. The effort of New Zealand and Australia teaming together to engage in sport in our region will seek to do the same. It is interesting to note that the games of tennis and table tennis start at 'love all'.

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina—Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) (10:32): Gallipoli is not just a place but also now very much a condition in the human spirit so profound it empowers Australians to be their best selves—brave and patriotic with a sense of the importance of mateship burning deeply within. Although by military standards the 1915 Anzac campaign was a disaster—and an epic one at that—the symbolism of Gallipoli and what those hearty and heroic diggers achieved truly united Australia and Australians like nothing else could have possibly done at the time. Looking back now, we should be not only proud but also thankful—eternally thankful—for the deeds that established the ethos which is held so dear by all who wear a military uniform of our country today.

Many, if not most, people—certainly generational Australians—have a relative who fought in and possibly never returned from the First World War. The 1914-18 conflict touched so many families, robbing us of a generation of men and forever changing our nation. An ancestor of mine, Maurice Joseph Curran, was one of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In the words of St John:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

On 14 October 1922 Maurice's mother, Jane, of Coolamon, signed for his memorial plaque—this memorial plaque—the war medal no-one wanted to receive. Marrar-born farmer Maurice enlisted with his younger brother Jack on 27 March 1916. They, like many others across the Riverina and throughout Australia, no doubt felt a deep sense of obligation to join the war effort after what happened at Gallipoli. News from the Dardanelles over those eight fateful months told the grim tale of the hardship endured, service contributed and loss suffered by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps following those original landings in the predawn darkness on that momentous day forever burnt into the consciences of bereaved yet grateful nations on either side of the Tasman—25 April 1915.

Maurice, of the 36th Battalion, fell during the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium on 12 October 1917, killed in action with three other digger mates when a shell landed amongst them just as they were about to 'hop over'. He was aged just 30. His lifeless body fell against or past his brother Jack, later awarded a Military Medal for bravery as a stretcher bearer. He buried his poor brother and then had the awful duty of writing to his mother in Coolamon and telling her what had happened.

Another brother, Leslie William Curran, was recruited during Australia's longest recruiting march—350 miles, from Wagga Wagga to Sydney—in 1915-16. This epic walk will be re-enacted a century on thanks to the efforts of an energetic Southern Highlands group led by Graham Brown, Rhondda Vanzella and OJ Rushton, setting off from Wagga Wagga on 5 September en route to Campbelltown. Les Curran was also awarded a Military Medal, for gallantry at Whiz Farm east of Wytschaete—known to the troops as 'Whitesheet'—on the night of 3 March 1918. They were brave diggers those Currans. Fortunately Les made it home, albeit as an invalid, in 1919 but was well enough to serve in World War II and died aged 64 in Mooroopna, Victoria in 1958.

A memorial plaque was issued after the First World War to the next of kin of all British and Empire service personnel killed. The plaques were made of bronze, and were often referred to as the 'Dead Man's Penny' or 'Widow's Penny' because of their resemblance to the significantly smaller penny coin. There were 1,355,000 plaques issued and 450 tonnes of bronze were used in their production. How very sad! A total of 8,709 plaques went to Australians lost as a result of the Gallipoli campaign. The long casualty list included many Riverina boys—from the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in the east to the red soil plains in the west and everywhere in between—who, in the immortal words of Laurence Binyon:

… went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

On the centenary of Anzac Day, they remembered those hardy heroes at Wagga Wagga and West Wyalong, at Griffith and Gundagai, at Tallimba and Tumut, and Adelong and Ariah Park. The Centenary of Anzac was commemorated enthusiastically throughout the Riverina.

Springdale, a tiny village just outside Temora, sent 34 young men to World War I. Ten never returned. As a percentage of fallen, this sadly ranks Springdale amongst the highest of any community in the Commonwealth. Another such unfortunate community is Tumbarumba. On Anzac night, Springdale paid tribute to those brave forefathers who served. Beautiful silver pin badges were presented to descendants, many of whom still live in the area. Nearly 250 people came from near and far, cramming inside the small memorial hall, to dine on a sumptuous Springdale roast and have Anzac pudding for dessert. The fare corresponded with that provided in the three farewell functions and the three welcome home dinners held in the very same hall between 1915 and 1920. What a truly memorable evening it was! It was country hospitality at its very best. Vietnam veteran retired Colonel Pat Thorne AM did a splendid job with all the arrangements. The entertainment was simply magnificent—Lachlan Reichstein singing It's a long way to Tipperary, Jenny Kotzur reciting a beautiful French poem and Stephanie Elliott doing a wonderful job with Joan of Arc.

More than 15,000—a record turnout—attended Wagga Wagga's Anzac Centenary commemorations along Baylis Street. What a remarkable parade it was! Kapooka commandant Colonel Steve Jobson gave an inspiring address. I intend to table that address at the end of this speech. The RSL Rural Commemorative Youth Choir sang beautifully, and personnel from our city's three defence bases did themselves proud.

I am very fortunate to live in a free and democratic country, as we all are. This is thanks to the Anzacs, those who fought at Gallipoli and those who followed—that long line of khaki who have done our country proud. I am proud to Kapooka represent in this place, the home of the soldier, where, as I say, Colonel Steve Jobson is now the commandant. What a fine speech he gave on Anzac Day. It was one of the finest addresses I have ever heard.

Lessons learned from our involvement in conflict the world over and which first came to light during that ill-fated Dardanelles foray are that the pursuit of peace often comes at a terrible cost. As a nation, we must always stand ready to protect ourselves and those who rely on us. In commemorating the Centenary of Anzac, Australians and those across the Tasman, our everlasting New Zealand friends, share a unique bond which will forever remain unbroken. People from all countries know, admire and respect the enduring qualities of the Anzacs, the core values of courage, initiative, respect and teamwork.

Over the years Australian service men and women have always put the interests of maintaining and at times restoring freedom and the inherent risks associated with going on active duty above their own personal safety. You and I, Deputy Speaker Mitchell, saw that firsthand when last year we took part in the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program and went to Afghanistan. We saw that firsthand. We saw how brave those men and women are and will always continue to be.

Long lines of crosses, some marked, others not, in military cemeteries and row upon row of names on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra and on monuments right across the Riverina are grim reminders that our nation and region have paid a heavy price for upholding our ideals, our gallantry and our willingness to help others. In keeping the peace, our Air Force, Army and Navy personnel, as well as those wonderful nurses and medical staff, have done us proud. This is why we should always honour their memory on Anzac Day and, indeed, every day, for our way of life has been made possible only because of their sacrifices on our behalf.

With a little indulgence, I will read a poem which was published in The Anzacs march again and other verse by Cecil S. Watts in 1944. It brings home just how important Anzac Day in the Riverina is.

We are at a battle-station, where the

restless tropic sea

Thunders on the reefs of coral a threat of

storms to be,

With the jungle close behind us we are

resting by our guns,

And I'm thinking it is Springtime on

the Riverina runs.

They'll be busy now, lamb-marking,

clipping ears and snipping tales

Till the tar-splashed wood is polished

along the holding rails,

And I'm wishing I could saddle up, to

ride the plains and sing

All my praise of Riverina, Riverina in

the Spring.

There's a group of wooden crosses where

the shore and jungle meet,

From village to inland village the

primitive war-drums beat,

And I'm thinking of a Southland

guarded by this aerodrome

… Of the green and gold of

Springtime round my Riverina home.

There'll be blossom on the wattle,

the old pepperina tree

Will be shading Bluey's kennel—

wish that dog was here with me!

And the bush birds in the timber

will make the echoes ring

With their songs of Riverina,

Riverina in the Spring.

We have heard before the message

carried to us by the drums,

And we're ready for the foemen—no

matter how he comes:

We have held his southward sally, and

those of us who died

Are buried 'neath those crosses by the

restless tropic tide.

It is not for martial glory that those

hearts are sleeping there,

They also loved their homeland:

Australia, free and fair!

And I fancy

They are sharing

the joy that

memory

brings,

As I think

of Riverina,

Riverina in

the Spring.

Lest we forget. I seek leave to table Colonel Steve Jobson's speech from the Anzac Day ceremony at Wagga Wagga this year.

Leave granted.

Ms LANDRY (Capricornia) (10:43): In the past few weeks we have heard a lot about the special events that have been held to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. It is 100 years since brave soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps went ashore at Gallipoli, Turkey, in 1915. In the lead-up to this important centenary, I met many people around the electorate of Capricornia who had their own personal connection to the story of the Anzacs.

One of them was Rockhampton's Ron 'Tiny' Clark from the Capricornia RSL sub-branch. Tiny showed me his father's medals from World War I. His father, William Malcolm Clark, served in Gallipoli in 1915. According to a commanding officer's diary, it appears William Clark may have been the last or second last wounded soldier to be carried to safety by John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his famous donkey, just before Simpson was killed. Simpson and his donkey became an iconic and heroic symbol of Gallipoli.

During this centenary year, I have also learnt about other local soldiers who played a role in the Gallipoli conflict. Among them was a bloke called Albert Tiegs. Private Tiegs enlisted for World War I from Rockhampton. He found himself having a 'good last meal' on board an Australian ship, before climbing into a small boat heading for the beach at Gallipoli. Private Tiegs managed to keep a detailed and fascinating war diary, with a blow-by-blow account of his days spent amid the action as an Anzac.

I am pleased to inform the Australian parliament that Private Tiegs's war diary has been brought to life in audio and visual form in a new display at the Central Queensland military museum in Rockhampton. Titled The Gallipoli Experience, this project was supported by a federal government grant to mark 100 years since Gallipoli. Recently, I had the privilege to officially open the project. And I can honestly declare that this display is one of the most moving local tributes to mark the Centenary of Anzac that I have seen. When you enter this display, you take a seat in a small boat and watch a film on a huge screen displaying re-enactments of extracts of Private Tiegs's Gallipoli diary. While sitting in the boat watching the film, you get a heightened sense of what it was like to make your way onto the Gallipoli beach.

The Central Queensland military museum sits in a historic building that once served as the original Rockhampton military barracks. I commend the work of museum volunteers for their contribution in preserving local war history. Like many non-profit organisations, the volunteers here carry out an important task. Without their enthusiasm, this history and the stories that go with it would be lost. The Central Queensland military museum project was one of 15 projects in Capricornia funded by the federal government to respectfully mark 100 years since Anzac. The projects range from the re-enactment of a troop train journey through Central Queensland, the publication of local history books, the re-enactment of a famous 100-year-old war recruitment photograph, new memorials and the restoration of World War I artillery guns for public display.

One of the most significant events to recognise the Centenary of Anzac was the re-enactment of a troop train journey that took place 100 years ago. The original 1915 steam locomotive embarked from Winton in outback Queensland en route to Brisbane via Longreach, Emerald, Blackwater, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Maryborough. Estimates suggest up to 1,000 people turned out to greet the re-enactment train, which stopped in Rockhampton a few days before Anzac Day this year.

Other key Capricornia projects marking 100 years since Anzac include local history books. In Sarina, the RSL sub-branch received a federal grant of just over $21,000 to publish a local history book about World War I. I have opened a new office to service Sarina, and I was delighted recently to meet Sarina RSL sub-branch Anzac book committee members Gail and Brendan Maguire and Sharon Price. The book they are working on is titled More Than Just a Name and depicts the lives and service history of men and women who served in World War I from the Sarina region. The names were taken from the town cenotaph.

In Rockhampton a $9,268 federal grant went to the Central Queensland Family History Association towards the publication of a local history book titled The Great War—Stories from Home and Abroad. The book provided an opportunity for families in the Rockhampton district to tell the stories of their loved ones who contributed to the war effort. I was fortunate enough, just before Anzac Day, to officially launch this book at a family history open day. In other Centenary of Anzac projects in my region, nearly $15,000 was given to the Livingstone Shire Council to install plaques at both the Emu Park and Yeppoon Centenary of Anzac commemorative precincts. St Joseph's School, Park Avenue, used a $2,500 grant to create an Anzac memorial at the front of the school.

The sum of $1,211 went to the Keppel Sands State School P&C to establish a Centenary of Anzac Memorial at the school. St Joseph's School at Clermont received $7,624 for a Centenary of Anzac commemorative walkway. The sum of $16,124 went to restoring and relocating two World War I German artillery guns to the site of the John Leak VC memorial on Rockhampton's riverbank, sited under the Rockhampton Regional Council. The Nebo RSL Citizens Auxiliary received $3,167 towards the restoration of existing honour boards and memorabilia at the Nebo Memorial Hall. The Nasho Combined Central RSL Sub-Branch received $6,050 towards the refurbishment of a World War I German Howitzer artillery gun, held by the Rockhampton Regional Council at the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens. The Capricornia RSL and Rockhampton sub-branch received $6,050 for re-enacting original local World War I recruitment activities. This included re-staging an historic photograph with members of the local community and Capricornia Living History Unit. The sum of $5,631 went to replica uniforms for the Capricornia Living History Unit for Centenary of Anzac commemoration services. There was $3,112 used for a Clermont Historical Centre display relating to an Anzac heroes and heroines exhibition in the Isaac Regional Council. These projects all marked a respectful way to honour the tradition and Centenary of Anzac in Capricornia. Lest we forget.

Mr BROAD (Mallee) (10:50): It is with a lot of reverence that I speak about this very, very important commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. Over the Christmas break, for the first time not having to sit on a harvester, I was able to go for a little bit of a holiday with my wife—self-funded, I might add, just to clarify. My wife and I visited Turkey, including Anzac Cove. Rather than talk about things that I could pull out of an encyclopedia, I thought I might reflect a bit about what it was like to be there, to actually see things that we had only seen pictures of before—to see the Sphinx and to see how daunting it must have been for those who landed on that day.

It was a very cold winter's day. We walked around the battle site of Lone Pine, which was surprisingly peaceful. We were fortunate, as we had taken the time to print out a list of things that happened on particular battle sites, which is available online from the Australian War Memorial. We read from the list while we were at particular battle sites. When we were at Lone Pine, I read that you could not actually walk from one side to the other—which is roughly the size of two tennis courts—after the battle without stepping on the bones or the bodies of the dead. Just reflect on that. In this area the size of two tennis courts—a little bit bigger than this chamber—thousands of Australians and thousands of Turks died.

That had an impact on me, as I thought about the futility of war. We as legislators ultimately have the great and humbling responsibility of committing Australians to battle. Do we do it too hastily? If you think about the enthusiasm of those young men, who thought that they were going off on an adventure, it is important for us now not only to commemorate their service but also to think about how that makes us feel as legislators. I found myself having to pay due respect to every grave as I walked around the battle sites of Gallipoli.

My wife had made the comment that she thought we would tire of it, but in fact we did not. It seemed that every grave needed to be recognised as a person, and as a proud Australian myself but also as a legislator I felt that I owed it to them to read each name, to understand the person.

Most of the graves did not say where they were from. They simply had a rank, a name, a battalion and perhaps a date. Some of them had a message. Obviously the families had had a chance to put a message on those graves. There were messages such as 'a dinkum Aussie', 'he died for the flag' and this one, which I thought was very insightful: 'Someday we will understand.' Another said 'answered the call, a cable tells a son was killed at the Dardanelles'.

One particular grave that we came across was that of AWA Barber, of the 8th Australian Light Horse, killed on 22 June 1915. What struck us was that it said 'born at Laen, Victoria'. Now, most people do not know where Laen is. In fact, Laen is not really a town anymore; it is more of a district in rural Victoria. It is rural Australia. That was back in the era when people did not have big harvesters; people were farming the country with horses and ploughs. So the population base was rural Australia. The average farm size was 200 acres. It was not 1,000 acres or 25,000 acres, as we see now. Therefore, many of the young men who fought came from those regions. It is quite fitting that, even in the movie that highlighted this for Australians this year, The Water Diviner, the men came from Rainbow, which is in the heart of my electorate of Mallee. But AWA Barber, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber, nicknamed 'Watt', was born in Laen on Christmas Day in 1891—so a very young man—and there I was, a legislator from the Mallee, standing in Gallipoli and looking at the grave of a young man from the Mallee who had ultimately given his life in the cause of freedom but in an immensely futile battle.

Barber joined up in Warracknabeal as part of the 8th Light Horse Regiment and left Victoria on the ship Star of Victoria. He was fighting in the battle of Walker's Ridge when he sustained extensive injuries as a result of a grenade explosion. There is nothing glorious about the way he died. The way he died was painful. The way he died was tragic. But he did die serving Australia. He was taken down to the hospital area, where he passed away. He was then buried.

We put out his story, just before the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, in a newsletter that goes right across the Mallee. It is a great thing for members of parliament to have communication with the people they represent, and I often go out and meet people in coffee shops right across the electorate. It costs me a few dollars; I shout people a few coffees. But we do do a good coffee in the Mallee. So, if you are there, by all means come and have one. In one of these coffee shops, a guy came and saw me. He said, 'I'm not really politically motivated. I don't even usually read your newsletter. But I happened to read it a couple of days after I found this,' and he presented to me AWA Barber's matchbox and a letter from AWA Barber that was written the day before he died. This man said that he was astounded that he had recently found all this memorabilia of his great-uncle. To then read about his great-uncle in the newsletter was very moving for him, and it said to him that we have not forgotten.

I suppose I want to make the point that 100 years later, in 2015, Alexander 'Watt' Andrew Barber of Laen is still talked about as an example of sacrifice, in a chamber of the Australian parliament. It is right that we commemorate the tragic battle of Anzac Cove. It is right that we walk around graves and pay tribute to every one—not just one but every one—of those who fought in that battle and in subsequent battles. Tragically, over 100,000 Australians, in battles right across the world, have now given their lives in the cause of freedom.

In Anzac commemorations, we always say, 'Lest we forget.' 'Lest' is not a word that we use very much anymore. What does 'lest' mean? I put it to you that 'lest' means 'that we shall not'. It is 'that we shall not forget'. Why? What should we not forget? AWA Barber and the 102,000 Australians who have died right across the world for our freedom are testimony that war is a very blunt instrument for resolving human conflict. It is lest we forget—that we shall not forget—that we as legislators must not rush to war, that we as Australians must not rush to war, and that we should work for peace. Lest we forget. We want a peaceful world, not a world of war and conflict. And the testimony of the 100,000 or more Australians should remind us that our role in parliament is to work towards peace and ensure that their sacrifice is remembered.

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (11:00): It is a privilege to rise to speak on this commemorative motion about the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli Cove, the Centenary of the Anzac tradition. Anzac Day, April 2015 is one of the most important commemorative events that has occurred in our nation's history and appropriately so. It was the Anzac legend that shaped our nation like no other event before it or since, and 100 years later it is extremely pleasing to see millions of Australians across our nation turn out in such large numbers to remember the sacrifice of an entirely different generation from so long ago.

It is important that the Anzac and Gallipoli landings be remembered in context. It is an example of epic military failure. It is an example of epic disaster—unquestioned casual treatment of human life by military commanders. It is important that Australians understand, in the modern context, that never again should we treat human life so casually, either in a conflict zone or in our endeavours as a nation more generally. I think people are right to question 100 years later: 'Is this a relevant event?' I think people are right to say: 'What does it mean? What is the sacrifice for? Why did it happen?' These are the questions that are asked by millions of people, as they commemorate that important sacrifice of young men and their families and their women. And I think they are right to answer it and say: 'This was one of the most significant events in Australian military history.' This was one of the most significant events in a young nation's history, because almost an entire generation of people were lost in what ultimately was a fruitless and pointless endeavour. Out of that, of course, came so much courage, so much sacrifice, so much mateship, and so much of the legend that we understand modern Australia to be was forged and born—out of that great adversity and that great disaster that Gallipoli was.

Locally, I was so proud of my own community, who turned out in such significant numbers. Outside of the Sydney Basin, I believe it was probably the biggest single event—there were almost 25,000 or 30,000 people at the commemorative service in my electorate. I was very proud of the Centenary of Anzac committee that I put together. It was chaired by Colonel Don Tait, who worked tirelessly and in fact put in one of the first applications in the nation to put together a program of significant events that would ensure the whole community shared in the story and learned from the experience and benefited. Twenty-one events were conducted in the Centenary of Anzac program. They honoured the 22 Anzac veterans from my district who went to Gallipoli as well as the 539 veterans from the Hills district who went to World War I more generally.

The logistical management was expertly coordinated. It was extremely well received. There was a Centenary of Anzac children's tour launch. There was a film displayed at the events cinema. There was a Lego display which was actually really profound. There was a recruiting centre. The launch in our district was officially done by the New South Wales Governor, the Hon. David Hurley, and we thank him for attending. There were over 7,000 people at the launch. There was the Centenary of Anzac stage play. We had a Sunday commemoration service, with thousands of people attending, and the stage show and dawn service were attended by about 30,000 district people. It was a major program, expertly managed by Colonel Don Tait, who has his own very proud record of military service.

I also want to thank the many people who worked tirelessly who never did get thanked, especially from the Castle Hill RSL sub-branch, including David Hand, Barry Newman, John Payne, Sjouke Havenaar, David Cronan, Mike Yeo, Des Brady, Brian Walters, Graham Handley, Chas Naylor, Jeff Lowe, Peter Westwood, Allan Roderick, Ron Smith, Mike Lee, Claude Zavattaro, Barry Russ, Phil Evenden, Robbie Duncan, Bill Dokter and Eva Want. All of these people made great contributions and worked around the clock for the better part of a year to 18 months, giving up their time selflessly. And almost all of those people are veterans of conflicts.

I also want to take some time to pay great tribute to some particular people from the Hills district who served during the First World War. Septimus James Lewis, of Castle Hill, was a farmhand before enlisting on 16 September 1914, aged just 19, in the Australian Imperial Force, where he served with the 13th Infantry Battalion and was part of the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. On 30 March 1917 he was wounded in the chest, and he was returned to Sydney on 19 September 1917.

George Sidney Cook, of Baulkham Hills, enlisted in the AIF in August 1914. He joined 2nd Battalion, H Company and embarked for war on 18 October 1914. In his military career he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In addition, Cook was the son of Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook, an interesting bit of local history that many locals know.

Keith Wemyss MacKenzie, of Rouse Hill, was an accountant before enlisting in the AIF in January 2015 and joining 17th Battalion, B Company. By February 1917 he had been promoted to captain. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

We remembered not just those significant veterans but all of the veterans—including the 22 Gallipoli veterans, only eight of whom survived—from the Hills district. We remembered all of those who served in World War I. In the commemoration of Anzac, we also recognised the service and the sacrifice of all the brave men and women who serve our nation. Military service is unique and it is a great service to our nation.

This is perhaps one of the most important commemorations in our nation's history, and it is vital that we continue the trend that we have in Australia of encouraging our future generations to continue to remember important matters like this that have shaped and guided our nation's development. I know those 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds—even younger in many cases, where they forged their ages—who went to war would be so grateful to us today, 100 years later, for the fact that we did stop, pause and remember their service and their sacrifice and that we did say to our future generations that we need to continue remember the bravery, the courage and the sacrifice of so many people. It is not because we glorify war, not because we think that Gallipoli was a great success—we remember it was a great disaster; we remember it was a great military disaster; we remember it was a great spectacle of human misery and chaos—but because out of it was forged the great tradition of mateship and courage, of people working for their mates and for each other, of people who were prepared to give up their lives for one another in that great tradition of Australian mateship, where we look out for each other, even under the worst, the most difficult of circumstances. That is something worth remembering for another 100 years.

Mr WHITELEY (Braddon) (11:08): It is an honour to speak today on behalf of the people of Braddon in support of the Prime Minister's motion of remembrance and commemoration of the Centenary of Anzac. As a parliament we are acknowledging that 25 April 2015 marked 100 long years since Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli, and we do pay our respects to the 60,000 Aussies who fought in the Gallipoli campaign, including the nearly 9,000 who died, the 20,000 who were wounded and the thousands more who carried the unseen scars for the rest of their lives. We do remember the brave soldiers of Great Britain, France, India and Newfoundland who fought alongside the Anzacs 100 years ago. We do note that on 25 April solemn services of remembrance were conducted at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine in Turkey, and they were attended by some 8,000 Australians, including the widows of Australian veterans. We extend our thanks today to the people and the government of Turkey for their support of the centenary commemorations and their ongoing faithful care of the battlefields of Gallipoli. We do note today that on Anzac Day millions and millions of our fellow Australians in each one of our electorates gathered to remember the Anzacs and all those who have worn our uniform and served in the name of Australia. The people of every electorate are represented in this parliament and they honour this milestone of the centenary of the landings at Gallipoli. I have previously in this parliament echoed the words of the Prime Minister. I have recalled the valour, the heroism, the horror, the pain and the sacrifice of all those who have served this nation in peacetime and in war, and I have focused particularly on the conflict at Gallipoli.

In 1916 an 18-year-old young Methodist farmhand from Longford enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. His name was William Henry Mason. Whilst Longford is in the electorate of Lyons—the electorate of my colleague Mr Hutchinson—William Henry Mason was in fact my grandfather. It is wonderful how over many years all of us, all Australians, have had access to the phenomenal support services of the Australian War Memorial. With the technology available, each and every one of us is capable of discovering little bit by little bit the minutiae of the details of our relatives and friends and neighbours and leaders—where they served, on what days, when they went into hospital, why they went into hospital, whether they were seriously ill. My own grandfather, as I read the records I have here in front of me, certainly had his ups and downs as a member of the Australian Imperial Force. He was in and out of hospital, convalescing in England and then in France—it went on and on. Thankfully my grandfather quite obviously survived. I am sure that each of my colleagues across the parliament can sell stories of their own relatives and friends and neighbours. That is what makes this opportunity to speak so very special for us all—we are all linked not that far back to the story of Anzac. A hundred years may seem a long time, but really it is only three generations for many of us. This is an exceptional opportunity for us to speak not only about our own family lineage and its connection to either World War I or any other war but also in an honourable way on behalf of our electorate.

Today, following the Centenary of Anzac that we celebrated just a few months ago, I want to direct my few remaining remarks to the many ex-service men and women throughout the north-west of Tasmania, the west coast and King Island who worked tirelessly for a year or more to ensure that the many thousands of people who turned out on Anzac Day 2015 to commemorate the centenary could do so in a respectful manner that was worthy of the remembrance our forefathers deserved. Like all other members of this parliament and all other community leaders, I attended multiple services. I suspect that all of us as local members wished we had cardboard cut-outs of ourselves or genetically modified replicas so that we could have been in every spot in every electorate—that might not be the case in some of the inner suburbs, but in rural and remote areas where we had 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 Anzac Day services it was physically impossible to be at them all. But I attended a number, commencing of course with the dawn service and moving through the day right through into the afternoon. What a tremendous opportunity to fellowship with all the people of Braddon as we came together for an hour or so on one day of a given year to be on the same page—across party lines, across political lines, across religious or cultural lines—to remember together those who have served.

I did especially enjoy my time at the Devonport service, the Somerset civic service, the Burnie service and the North Motton service. Each of the services were unique, yet similarly moving. The older generation remembered their own service in some of the wars that we are aware of. They remembered the sacrifice of their mates. Many of them are now physically struggling to even attend the services, but they are both stubborn and courageous and wanted to be there no matter what the sacrifice or the pain. Middle-aged men and women thought of their parents. Young children, schoolchildren, proudly took part in the services through speech, song, poem and readings—and they rose to the occasion.

It has been an honour, since my election, to work with many of the local RSLs, in particular, and some other community groups to utilise the Anzac Centenary grants to upgrade existing memorials and, in some cases, to erect the first and only memorial in an area; to assist schoolchildren in their remembrance of this great anniversary; and to see taxpayer money well and truly spent in honour of those that have gone before us—some of the best taxpayer money that I suspect has ever been spent.

One of the special aspects of the new memorials is that while they may not be on the grand scale that you would expect to see in a capital city or a major regional town, they are no less meaningful—and they came about using local creativity and input. In finishing, I want to give a couple of examples. There was the small community of Tullah on the west coast—the mining area—of Tasmania, which placed a very small but memorable memorial using large boulders around a flagpole, with plaques commemorating local servicemen and servicewomen. And there was the Gunns Plains community, which repaired honour boards and also built a chair—a seat—in a beautiful setting, which can be used by anyone to take a moment to reflect on the sacrifice of others.

I thank the House for the opportunity to pause in the robustness of this place to remember the courageous service of those that have gone before us.

Mr BURKE (Watson—Manager of Opposition Business) (11:17): I seek leave to move the following motion:

(1) The House notes that:

(a) the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC, QC has agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 at Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney;

(b) the invitation to the Liberal Party fundraiser states that 'cheques should be made payable to the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales division'; and

(c) the invitation also states 'all proceeds from this event will be applied to state election campaigning'.

(2) Accordingly, this House declares that by his own action, the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC QC has disqualified himself from conducting the Prime Minister's royal commission into trade unions.

Mr PYNE (Sturt—Leader of the House and Minister for Education and Training) (11:18): Given that we are debating the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli in this chamber, there are appropriate times to move such a motion or seek leave. Twenty past 11 on Thursday is not the appropriate time.

Dr Chalmers: You are such a grub!

Mr PYNE: You will withdraw that!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Mitchell ): I ask the member for Rankin to withdraw that comment.

Dr Chalmers: I withdraw.

Mr PYNE: I am making the point that there are appropriate times to move such a resolution and to seek leave to move such a resolution. Now is not the time to do it—in a debate about the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli—and, therefore, leave is not granted. I would recommend to the Manager of Opposition Business that he perhaps come back later in the day and move a motion, if he wishes to do so. But leave will not be granted at this point in time.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is not granted. Under standing order 47, you cannot seek leave to move a suspension of standing orders when there is business before the House. It must be relevant to any business under discussion in the House, so leave is not granted.

Leave not granted.

Mr BURKE (Watson—Manager of Opposition Business) (11:20): I move:

That standing order 47(c)(i) and so much of other standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Manager of Opposition Business from moving the following motion forthwith:

(1) The House notes that

(a) the Hon. Dyson Heydon AC QC has agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 at Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney;

(b) the invitation to the Liberal Party fundraiser states that 'cheques should be made payable to the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales division'; and

(c) the invitation also states 'all proceeds from this event will be applied to state election campaigning'.

(2) Accordingly, the House declares that, by his own actions, Dyson Heydon has disqualified himself from conducting the Prime Minister's royal commission into trade unions.

He is conflicted! He is biased! The royal commission is a farce!

Dyson Heydon is in a position now where he cannot remain in that role, and the sham, which we have said for so long that this royal commission was, has now been found out and exposed. To have somebody who the Prime Minister held up as allegedly being impartial and now to have a situation where he is promoting the Liberal Party, being the guest, the drawcard, for a Liberal Party fundraiser is an absolute disgrace. Those opposite are afraid of this debate. Those opposite want to shut this debate down. But the people know bias when they see it, and the Australian people will understand exactly what is going on—a royal commission reeked in bias, a royal commission completely conflicted.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not think we need advice from you on how to do the chair. I will give you the call now.

Mr PYNE (Sturt—Leader of the House and Minister for Education and Training) (11:21): The procedural motion has been moved. The speaker moving it should be given the call. I also note that you have now given me the call. I move:

That the member be no longer heard.

I also notice you defied the Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the member no longer be heard. I will disregard that last remark. You should be very careful.

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not need any comments from you either, because you would know that I am in the chair. I have the ruling. I have not moved over for the Speaker, who is now here. The question is that the member no longer be heard. All those of that opinion say aye.

Government members: Aye.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: To the contrary no.

Opposition members: No.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the ayes have it? The noes have it? Division required? The clerks have indicated correctly that suspension of standing orders cannot be done at this stage, in this way. Therefore, we have got to rule it out of order and return to the business.

Mr Albanese: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order. The motion moved by the Manager of Opposition Business seeks to suspend the standing order that is relevant to that ruling. It is perfectly within order for the Manager of Opposition Business to put before the House the motion that he has. What is before the chair is that the Leader of the House has moved that the Manager of Opposition Business be no longer heard. You actually put that to the House and had a vote on it, and I believe we are about to call for a division on that, and that is what should occur before the House right now; otherwise, it is subverting the will of the House. It is perfectly in order at any time for the House to control its own destiny, which is why we have moved, through the Manager of Opposition Business, a suspension of standing orders, including that suspension of standing order 47(c).

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I thank the member for Grayndler, but I think I will stick with the ruling that you cannot suspend standing orders at this time, in the middle of business before the House. So we will return to the business before the chair, which is that the motion be agreed to.

Mr Albanese: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order. Perhaps it would be in order in terms of the decorum of the House that the Speaker resume the chair.

Mr Pyne: You just want to attack the Speaker.

Mr Albanese: No, I don't. I want to assert the primacy of members of this parliament over the conduct of this parliament. That is what I want to assert. It is a very important principle. In practice, the clock is ticking on the 25-minute time limit for the suspension that has been moved by the Manager of Opposition Business, but it is a very important principle that at any time people are allowed to take actions in accordance with the procedures that are allowed for in this House. What would not be appropriate now and in the past would be if a member were interrupted while they were speaking to move a suspension, but it is perfectly in order to interrupt in between speakers to move a suspension, including a suspension of the standing order that provides for the suspensions of standing orders to be ordinarily conducted at a change of business. That is the normal procedure. But given that there is no change of business envisaged before the parliament with the current item that is before the parliament until it concludes at 5 pm is why the opposition have taken this decision.

Mr Pyne: Mr Second Deputy Speaker, I think, for the elucidation of the opposition and for the House, the reason why oppositions routinely move such suspensions at nine o'clock, straight after prayers, for example, is that it is before the business of the day has begun. That is the reason why members of the opposition have done that. As a Manager of Opposition Business in the House myself in the past and as a member of the opposition, it was always my understanding that if there was to be a suspension of standing orders moved it needed to be between two items of government business, and nine o'clock was the usual time. The fact is that it was not done when a speaker sat down and before the next speaker got up in the middle of an item of business. I am sure the opposition want to fulminate about this matter. My suggestion is that they do so at the appropriate time, and that is when there is a change-over of items of business. I think you have made the right call, Mr Second Deputy Speaker, and the government supports you in it.

Mr Burke: Mr Deputy Speaker, to the point of order, if I can make a further submission in light of what the Leader of the House has just said. The Leader of the House has just referred to ordinary routine. There is nothing routine about what the House is dealing with right now. Nobody had any way of predicting that the commissioner would engage himself in Liberal Party fundraising, and the House has to have the right to be able to debate that issue. This is completely without precedent and the House must be allowed to suspend the relevant standing order to have that debate. As we are told a free and open flowing debate is what is meant to happen, it should be happening right now. This is the one way for it to occur. We moved the suspension of that very standing order and the House must be allowed to have this debate. It must not be used by the Leader of the House to cover up the head of a royal commission engaging in Liberal Party fundraising.

Mr Pyne: Mr Deputy Speaker, the truth is that you have made a ruling. If the opposition want to disagree with your ruling, they need to move a motion dissenting from your ruling. I think that that would be unwise. My suggestion to them is that, if they wish to pursue this, they should do so at the next changeover of business, which I assume is two o'clock. If they wish to do it at question time, we can have the debate then, entirely as they wish to do so.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Mr PYNE: You can ask a few questions too, Deputy Leader; that is the greatness of this democracy. But we cannot go on with endless discussions about this point of order. Either they move a dissent from your ruling, or we have to move on.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Mitchell ): In light of the debate, I will stick with my ruling. It stands that the suspension of standing and sessional orders cannot be moved at this point in time, under standing order 47(c)(i). We will return to the business before the chair.

Mr TEHAN (Wannon) (11:30): On Saturday afternoon, I went to a small rural community in my electorate called The Sisters. There, there was an incredibly moving commemoration to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine. As most in this chamber and in the general community will know, the Lone Pine battle was an incredibly important battle in the history of the Anzac conflict. In total, 2,277 Australians lost their lives in the Battle of Lone Pine. The total Ottoman death toll was between 5,000 and 7,000. The Lone Pine battlefield was named for a solitary Turkish pine that stood there at the start of the fighting. The tree was situated near the centre of the eastern line of the Australian and New Zealand trenches around Anzac Cove.

An hour-long bombardment of the Turkish trenches at 4.30 pm on 6 August 1915 preceded the main charge. Packs had been dumped to the rear and each man wore a white armband or a piece of white material attached to his back. This was to help tell friend from foe in the close fighting that would soon be upon them in the Turkish trenches. Attacking battalions—the 2nd, 3rd and 4th battalions, all from New South Wales—packed into the Anzac forward positions. At 5.30 pm, the whistles blew and, as the rays of the evening sun shone into the eyes of the Turkish defenders, the Australians rose and charged. The Turks were taken by surprise—Australian forces against formidable entrenched Turkish positions, sections of which were securely roofed over with pine logs. In some instances, the attackers had to break in through the roofs of the trench systems in order to engage the defenders. The main Turkish trench was taken within 20 minutes of the initial charge, but this was the prelude to four days of intense hand-to-hand fighting, resulting in 2,277 Australian casualties.

The fighting at Lone Pine for both sides during these Turkish counterattacks was all about throwing bombs across hastily erected barriers, dashing around corners in trenches, and getting off a few rounds at the shapes of advancing men, slipping over the dead and avoiding the dying and wounded. General Birdwood later reported:

The boys went right through these Turkish works, and had regular hand to hand fights every yard. To show you the nature of the fighting I may mention that in one corner we came across eight Turks and six Australians, all dead, who had evidently fought it out man to man to the last.

One of the important things which occurred after the Battle of Lone Pine was that soldiers grabbed pine cones from that last lone pine, which was destroyed in the battle. It is quite extraordinary that, from the pine cones which were returned from that lone pine in Gallipoli, two direct descendants of that tree stand in the electorate of Wannon. One stands in the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens and the other stands at The Sisters, this small rural community in Western Victoria.

On Saturday, the community from The Sisters gathered to mark the 100th anniversary. They did so under the direct descendant of that lone pine. As the sun went down, the community commemorated. It was incredibly moving. Archie was there. From the time it was planted, Archie watered the lone pine seedling with his brother. Archie told me that he remembered ensuring every day after school that the seedling was properly nourished so that it could grow into the tree that it is today. He stood proudly as a contributor to the commemoration not only as someone who ensured that that lone pine continues to signify what occurred in Gallipoli 100 years ago but as someone who fought in the Second World War. He fought for us to defend our way of life.

Eric Bogle came along and played a song. Before he played the song, he talked about how he came to write it. He came to write it because he wanted to commemorate what had happened at Lone Pine 100 years ago, but he did not quite know how to do it. The words came to him after he attended the funeral of a veteran who fought in the Second World War. When he went to that funeral, the children of the veteran spoke of the horrors of war that their father had been through. He had always said to them how fortunate he was to have survived when so many around them had lost their lives. They said that their father always said to them, 'Every day you wake up, be grateful for the fact that you are alive, still living and you have a day to live.'

That was the theme of the song that Eric Bogle sang on a Saturday afternoon at The Sisters with the sun going down, with 400 people gathered around the Lone Pine to commemorate not only what our soldiers did on that day at the Battle of Lone Pine but also what they did on the shores of Gallipoli to keep our nation safe and to ensure that the liberties that we hold so dear continue today. If we have any say in it, those liberties will continue for many days to come.

I think the commemoration of the 100th celebration of the Anzac campaign has been something that this nation can be truly proud of. Nothing has given me greater pleasure than to ensure, through the grant scream which the federal government put in place, that all the memorials that we have in the electorate of Wannon now stand as a proper tribute to the service that our Anzacs gave 100 years ago. Also, there are the additional commemorations which were able to occur as a result of what we did through providing that funding. Right across the electorate of Wannon, I have attended moving ceremonies and seen the local community ensure that the legend of the Anzacs will continue for another 100 years.

I think that is the true testament of what we are doing here in these speeches today and through the actions the government are taking to commemorate Anzac, the Anzac spirit and all that the Anzacs did. That is because if we do not continue to remember the sacrifices that have been made and the reasons as to why they were made, we are letting those people down who fought for us, who gave up their lives for us and who gave the most important sacrifice that anyone can give. They were prepared to lay down their life to defend our nation and our way of life. It has been an honour to speak on this motion.

Mr PASIN (Barker) (11:40): Before I speak on the Prime Minister's motion regarding 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, I congratulate my friend, colleague and electoral neighbour, the member for Wannon, for his fabulous contribution.

More than 60,000 Australians lost their lives during the First World War. The survivors met the war's end with a mixture of relief that the fighting was over and deep sorrow at the loss of so many friends and comrades. At the time, Australians celebrated; but in homes across the country people reflected on the terrible losses and mourned those who would not be returning. Today, I wish to highlight the contribution to that operation at Gallipoli of three individuals who came from my electorate of Barker.

Born in Mount Gambier, Frank Edmund Allchin worked as a clerk before enlisting on 21 August 1914, at the age of 20, in the Australian Imperial Force's 10th infantry battalion. Prior to leaving for the war, Allchin was sent off by the local community, including the local football club and boy's institute, which presented him with hairbrushes and a wallet. On 20 October 1914, he embarked from Adelaide aboard HMAT Ascanius as part of the first convoy to depart Australia for the war. He wrote home about his experience on the troopship and in Egypt prior to landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Allchin recounted the morning of the landing in a letter published in a local Mount Gambier newspaper. He wrote: 'You have no doubt heard all about our landing. It was early morning, and what a baptism of fire we had. All day long the battle raged, the din being awful. By nightfall, we had taken up a position which entitled us to say we had established a footing.' Just over a fortnight after the landing at Gallipoli, Allchin was promoted to sergeant. Later in the campaign, Allchin also wrote home in October to thank the Red Cross Society for parcels of socks sent to the troops. He added that: 'We here at the front are cheered and encouraged when we know you are all doing so much to help us, and so while everyone is doing their little bit there can be no doubt that the ultimate result will be victory for the Allies.' Allchin remained on the peninsula with the 10th Battalion until 22 November.

Having moved to the Western Front in early May 1917, Allchin was serving near Bullecourt in France and at great personal risk spent many hours under enemy fire repairing communication lines between the battalion and brigade headquarters. His commanding officer especially noted that: 'His courage and cheerful devotion to duty at all times was a splendid example to his men.' Accordingly, he recommended Allchin for the military medal, which was conferred on 17 July 1917. Thankfully, Allchin returned to Australia on 27 January 1919.

Born in Kersbrook on 26 March 1890, Avelyn Clarence Dunhill spent his early years in Orroroo before making his way to Renmark, where he was employed as a bookkeeper. Prior to the war, Dunhill was an active member of the community brass band and a competitive rifle shooter. Dunhill was reportedly one of the first recruits from Renmark in 1914 and formally enlisted on 26 August as part of the AIF's 10th infantry battalion. Less than two months later, he embarked aboard HMAT Ascanius and left Adelaide as part of the first convoy.

Dunhill wrote back to the local Renmark newspaper from the troopship describing the journey and then later from the AIF camp in Egypt, where he noted that: 'So far all the Renmark boys … are in very fair trim, and I think have managed to keep their end up pretty well.' Having landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, he was wounded by a bullet in the thigh less than two months later and was evacuated to Alexandria. Writing back home from hospital there, he noted that he had been looked after 'tiptop' and mentioned that the Sultan of Egypt had recently made an inspection tour of the hospital. Having rejoined his Battalion in mid-July, he remained on the peninsula until late December. While in the final months of the Gallipoli campaign, Dunhill reported back in a letter of the custom of distributing care packages among the platoon, including in one instance a pound of Australian butter that was described as 'luxury from the gods'.

In early 1916 Dunhill transferred to the 50th Battalion and commenced the rest of his campaign on the Western Front, having been promoted to lieutenant the previous November. In early July 1918 Dunhill was leading a patrol at Hamel which embarked on attacking an enemy post. Despite a failed first attempt Dunhill regrouped to lead a second charge, in which he himself was wounded. His commanding officer praised Dunhill's initiative, through which 'the success of the enterprise was entirely due to this officer's gallantry and tenacity'. For this action he was also awarded the Military Cross.

Having been transferred to hospital in England, Dunhill wrote letters of thanks for a care package received and especially recognised the role of Australia's women on the home front, stating that 'they are the ones who are having the greatest influence in this European show.' He acknowledged that:

The sitting still, waiting and wondering is considerably harder to stick than the life we lead with its constant change and excitement. Ours is really a poor part alongside of that borne by the women whose spirit is the thing which to a very good extent keeps all going with a good head.

Dunhill, thankfully, returned to Australia again in June 1919.

On 17 December 1915, the Southern Cross Adelaide newspaper reported the experience of military chaplain Reverend Daniel Francis McGrath while at Gallipoli. Born in Tipperary, Ireland, in February 1873, Reverend McGrath lived in Naracoorte, where he had been a member of the defence club since 1906. He embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Karroo on 20 October 1914 and served at Gallipoli attached to the AIF's 3rd Light Horse Brigade. Within the Southern Cross newspaper article, Reverend McGrath specifically describes his unique experience of celebrating mass in the Gallipoli trenches prior to departing to Alexandria for hospital duty.

The war correspondent and journalist, CW Bean, is credited with helping create the Anzac legend that has gone on to become the cornerstone of our national identity. His dispatches from Gallipoli gave vivid insight into the comradeship, tribulations and humour that pervaded the lines in this terrible battle, and allowed those mothers, fathers, sisters and younger brothers back home a window to view the character of the men who fought bravely on that thin strip of land in a faraway place. It is almost exclusively through his firsthand, eyewitness reporting that we know so much about the nature of the conflict we participated in.

That would have been an important legacy in its own right, but Charles Bean made another important contribution to Australia: he was a driving force behind the establishment and design of the Australian War Memorial and the deeply-held belief Australians have to this day that those who have made the supreme sacrifice in war should be honoured and remembered forever more.

Bean had hoped that there would never be another conflict of the order of the First World War. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Since the end of that war in 1918, Australians have time and again gone to faraway places to fight tyranny and oppression, and to protect our way of life. Instinctively, we are suspicious of grandiose schemes that seek to put our men and women in harm's way. This is a suspicion resulting largely from our searing experience on the Gallipoli Peninsula a hundred years ago, where our men made an enormous contribution for seemingly little gain.

Unlike some of the countries we have fought alongside, our nation is not one born of calamitous conflict but of peaceful democracy. If given our preference, the most intense of our clashes would occur on the sporting field rather than the battlefield; yet we have never failed to play our part to help defend the freedoms we enjoy, and which we hope to see others enjoy as well.

Regardless of our views on the merits of particular conflicts, the Australian community must always recognise that the soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and nurses who go forward to defend our nation do so because they earnestly believe it is in the best interests of our nation that they do so, and because they want to ensure that their families and the communities in which they live are safe from whatever peril may threaten our shores. By continuing to remember those who have served in the past and by honouring those who are serving today, we ensure that their legacy will live on forever.

Dr JENSEN (Tangney) (11:49): The Anzac story is the glue of our nation. A belief in mateship and rugged resourcefulness built this nation. At the 100-year mark, it is important to reflect upon the importance of that time and event then and now.

For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great enthusiasm. In response to the overwhelming number of volunteers, the authorities set exacting physical standards for recruits. Yet, most of the men accepted into the army in August 1914 were sent first to Egypt, not Europe, to meet the threat which a newly belligerent Ottoman Empire—now Turkey—posed to British interests in the Middle East and the Suez Canal.

The Australians landed at what has become known as Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and established a tenuous foothold on the steep slopes above the beach. During the early days of the campaign, the allies tried to break through Turkish lines, while the Turks tried to drive the allied troops off the peninsula. Attempts on both sides ended in failure and the ensuing stalemate continued for the remainder of 1915. As a result, the Turks were unable to inflict more than a very few casualties on the retreating forces.

In modern parlance, Gallipoli was a game changer. It changed the attitudes of the young men fighting and those at home. It consolidated a belief in the idea of a separate Australian identity. It showed how victory can be pyrrhic, and retreat a success. It demonstrated the changed and complex reality of war—quagmire, morale and operational factors were now in the minds of the millions. Every club, community and country, for it to be successful and enduring, needs a unifying foundational narrative, and 25 April 1915 marks a pivotal moment in Australian history. The Australian troops who stormed ashore as part of the allied landing force on the morning of 25 April were the newly-minted Anzacs, formed in Egypt only a few months before.

About 420,000 Australians enlisted for service in the war; almost 40 per cent of the eligible male population. This was the first time Australians had been exposed to the bloody horrors of 20th century trench warfare, and our young nation recoiled. Despite the savage introduction, something precious was salvaged from disaster. Gallipoli showed us what they were made of—and it is something to be proud of. It was because of the way in which the Australians performed, not their strategic achievements, that the Anzac legend was born. The Anzac Gallipoli legend says to us that such is our love of country and upright decency that we would literally go to the ends of the earth to defend our view of what is right and our way of life.

In Gallipoli the legacy of the campaign is clear. The landscape still bears the marks of trenches and artillery bombardments and there are 44 separate war cemeteries. The cemeteries honour the dead of all those nations that fought in Gallipoli but, due to the nature of the fighting and the complexity of recovering bodies during the campaign, the vast majority of soldiers who died have no known grave. While this ill-fated battle became a touchstone of Australian and New Zealand nationhood the British chose to forget the 'disgraceful disaster'. The war changed more than the hands that write history, but reality never does. And while it is right that we remember the valour and bravery of our Anzacs always, it is also right that we remember the context that drove them into war on foreign shores. Every little nation in the family of the British Empire sent its sons to help the then motherland. Our nation was no different. We were and are a part of a family of free countries. The war was about family—families suffering in sacrifice.

Although he never served in the Australian forces, I would like to honour my maternal grandfather, Bernard Bailey, who fought on the Western Front in World War I—one of the Allies. The attitude of service then was very strong. My grandfather was a bombardier in charge of a howitzer. In those days they had no hearing protection—so he went deaf in one ear as a result of the continual noise. He was medically released from service due to injuries that he sustained during the war. I recall watching him shave in the morning. He was wearing a singlet. He had a huge chunk out of his arm, and I asked him about it. A piece of shrapnel had gone through his arm. It is interesting some of the things they did in those days. Of course, they did not have skin grafts the. He told me what they did to try to prevent infection. They used the skin from hard boiled eggs to form a protective layer to prevent infection.

My grandfather was an interesting character. He was one of the early motorcyclists in the world. He was checking out a nurse when he was on a motorcycle and he crashed. The nurse he was checking out ended up being my grandmother. I was talking about the whole issue of service and the attitudes that people had then. My grandfather was not a large man. He was only five foot six inches tall. My uncle, during World War II, was not particularly interested in serving. My grandfather was really ashamed of this. So imagine this: here was a man who was around 50. At that stage he was blind in one eye because of a lazy eye and he was deaf in one ear. And he had a big chunk out of his arm due to war injuries. And he went to try and enlist! Of course, they did not accept him, but it had the desired effect: my uncle did then enlist. However, my uncle, different from my grandfather, never spoke about his experience in World War II in North Africa.

I really regret the fact that my grandfather died when I was only 14 years old. I would have liked to have him around a lot longer. The stories that he told were quite chilling but also very memorable. For example, he told stories of the trenches—and I imagine the same thing would have happened in Gallipoli. He said the rat infestation in the trenches was terrible and they used to have competitions to see who could kill the most rats. That was one of the ways the comraderie built up in awful circumstances. It makes me think back to those men on the Gallipoli shore and the terrible conditions they had. There was a great probability of them dying of injuries the majority of which today would not be a death sentence but were then because of inadequate drugs and inadequate medical treatment. The courage of those men in facing that persistent and consistent danger day after day beggars belief. In a lot of battles since, there is what is called manoeuvre warfare: you have a battle but, after that, things do not move; you have large periods where essentially nothing happens. But at Gallipoli and on the Western front it was just day after day after day. So I salute all of those Anzacs who served not only at Gallipoli but throughout World War I. I thank them for their sacrifice and the soul they brought to this nation called Australia.

Mr COLEMAN (Banks) (11:59): I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak in this House on the sacrifices of the greatest Australians and on the events in my electorate to commemorate them. Before discussing the local commemorations on Anzac Day in my electorate, it is important to reflect on why those commemorations took place. I was born in the 1970s. To be born in the 1970s in Australia is to draw a tremendous hand from fate: our lives have been free and secure. Fascists have not murdered us. Communists have not enslaved us. Tyrants have not set one group of us against another. Criminals have not locked us up. We have not been killed because of our race. We have not been imprisoned because of something we wrote. We have not had to risk our lives to practice our faith. We have not had to meet in secret to talk about what we believe. We have not had to pay a corrupt official to get a job. We have not had break the law to provide for our family. We have been allowed to be our true and best selves. These things are true in our nation for two reasons: firstly, we have had the wisdom to know that there is nothing more important than freedom; and, secondly, we have had the courage to fight for it. That courage has been shown by generations of Australians, but nowhere more than at Gallipoli.

In our area, we commemorated the extraordinary events of Gallipoli through many local functions. On behalf of our community, I would like to thank the hundreds of people who were directly involved in organising these events, and the many thousands who attended. The largest commemoration in my community was held at Oatley, with at least 5,000 people in attendance for the dawn service. It was organised jointly by the RSL sub-branches of Oatley, Penshurst and Mortdale.

The day commenced with a performance by the St George group of Sing Australia in advance of the dawn ceremony. Though there were thousands of people in attendance, the atmosphere was one of quiet reflection. During the service, Sing Australia members gave a moving rendition of the national anthem. The group's conductor, Hayden Bowles, also sang a solo performance of the New Zealand national anthem, which was a moving and dignified tribute to the role of that great nation at Gallipoli. Thank you to everyone at Sing Australia for what you did on that day.

The service itself was extremely well organised by the local sub-branches, and I would like to pay tribute to them today. There were too many people involved to name them all but, in particular, I would like to pay tribute to the chairman of the organising committee, John Hoban; the President of Oatley RSL Sub-Branch, Mike Tiddy; and the President of the Mortdale RSL Sub-Branch, John Delaney. These gentlemen are all very well known in our community for their local service, and that commitment was to the benefit of all of us on Anzac Day.

I would like to thank the local community organisations that helped to make the Oatley services on Anzac Day so successful. My part of Sydney is very fortunate to have strong and active Lions clubs, and these clubs ran a very popular sausage sizzle after the dawn service concluded. Thank you to everyone from the Lions Club of Lugarno, the Oatley Lions Club, and the Georges River Lioness Club for making this happen.

At Riverwood, the Riverwood legion ex-services club and Club Rivers held a joint service later in the morning, which I was fortunate to attend. A moving video tribute to Australian soldiers was played, and the young men from the Riverwood Australian Air League band performed exceptionally well, as they always do. I would like to thank Dick Matthews, the president of Riverwood legion ex-services club, for all of his efforts in organising this event. In addition, President Michael Free and CEO Stuart Jamieson from Club Rivers deserve thanks for the substantial effort they put into organising this important event.

Several other events were held on this most important day. At St George Masonic Club, a service was held commemorating the service of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, which I attended in the afternoon. I thank the club for organising this event, and I also thank Mr Ron Haira, the honorary president of New Zealand Veterans in Australia, for attending this ceremony. Club Grandviews is an important part of our area, and serves as a hub for my community in the Peakhurst-Lugarno region. Although Club Grandviews is not a service club, it nonetheless pays tribute to our fallen soldiers through a service each year on Anzac Day. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this year, but I know from previous attendance that it is always a well-organised and well-attended event. Thank you to CEO Paul Nicholls and the club's board for their ongoing commitment to honouring our veterans.

I would also like to thank Padstow RSL sub-branch for the commemorations they held both on Anzac Day and on April 19, the preceding Sunday, which I attended. On April 19, a service was held at the war memorial on Cahors Road, followed by a march to Padstow RSL. At the RSL, a stirring service was held. Numerous local children performed, and the assembled crowd heard a powerful address on the nature of sacrifice. I would like to thank Padstow RSL Sub-Branch president, Bruce Knox, for organising these events, and for the ongoing leadership he provides to our community.

I would also like to acknowledge Bill Wright of Oatley RSL, who prepared a remarkable publication to commemorate the centenary of Anzac Day. Mr Wright, through research over a number of years, compiled a list of veterans from the Oatley area who had served in the First World War, and then he had the persistence and dedication to put that altogether in the form of a book. The book talks about the men who served in the First World War and it is an important commemoration to their extraordinary service.

Anzac Day is a very important event every year. This year was an extraordinarily important day. Those of us of our generation are extraordinarily fortunate to live in this country. The burdens and sacrifices that we have been asked of us are, frankly, negligible next to those of previous generations. We would not be here but for them. We must never forget that, and on the centenary of Anzac Day my community came together to remember that very important fact.

Ms O'DWYER (Higgins—Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) (12:06): In this year, the Centenary of Anzac, communities around Australia and indeed around the world have come together to mark and commemorate 100 years since the active involvement of Australia in the First World War.

The Great War, as World War 1 became known, was unlike any previous conflict known to man. On the battlefronts in both the East and West of Europe 19th century military strategy met 20th century technological advances with catastrophic consequences. Around the world more than 65 million marched to war with 8 million never to return home. As a young, small country, geographically isolated, and with very strong economic, diplomatic and cultural links to the British Isles, it was natural that Australians saw the defence of England—our greatest ally—as the defence of our own nation.

More than 416,000 Australians enlisted, including more than 5,000 men from those suburbs that now make up the electorate of Higgins. Overwhelmingly these men were not professional soldiers but volunteers with limited training. Many women also took an active part in the war, especially as nurses and in taking over jobs on the home front. In remembering the war we honour those people, their sacrifice and that of their families. We also reflect upon their extraordinary bravery, stoicism, fraternal loyalty and service to their country.

However, we also reflect upon the lasting effects the war had on entire communities and indeed Western society. However difficult to quantify, there can be no doubt that World War I irreversibly altered the course modern history; the geopolitical boundaries of Europe; the development of science, industry, medicine and psychiatry; our notions of nationality and patriotism; and indeed our very understanding of humanity itself.

Therefore, as is only appropriate, communities across Australia have been marking this moment in time and reflecting on what it means. In Higgins on the weekend before Anzac Day we held an extraordinary centenary march. The march was attended by·   His Excellency the Hon. Alex Chernov AC, QC, Governor of Victoria, accompanied by Mrs Elizabeth Chernov;·   the Stonnington mayor, Councillor Melina Sehr; the Chairman of the Victorian Anzac Centenary Committee, the Hon. Mr Ted Baillieu; the State President of the Victorian RSL, Major General David McLachlan; the Chairman of the Legacy Council of Australian, Mr Ian Harrison; the consuls general from the Turkish embassy and the British and New Zealand high commissions; and the magnificent Creswick Light Horse. Just as importantly, the march was also supported by thousands of individual community members and numerous local organisations including many schools; the Malvern East, Prahran, Toorak and Hellenic RSL sub-branches; and Stonnington City Brass. The weather was unfortunately inclement, but this only served to remind us of the unimaginable hardships borne 100 years ago. Once again I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to retired Lieutenant Colonel David Blackwell, chair of my Centenary of Anzac committee, for his extraordinary efforts in bringing this event to reality; and the members of my very hardworking Anzac centenary committee.

At the Higgins Centenary March I was pleased to announce that with the support of my Anzac centenary committee I was able to produce the Anzac Centenary Higgins Memorial Map. The map lists many existing World War I memorials in the Higgins electorate, together with new memorials which have been funded through the federal government's Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. The map has been available to schools and community groups throughout this year to promote those lasting memorials of great service in my electorate of Higgins.

I am also proud that in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the landing of Gallipoli, and in my capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, I was able to launch a new coloured coin, only the fourth in general circulation, as part of the Royal Australian Mint's Official Anzac Centenary Coin Program, where a collection of commemorative coins capture the history, service and sacrifice of Australians at war. This special coin depicts a centrally sculpted and emotive design. It features poppies, symbolic of remembrance, amongst crosses used to honour the fallen and mark the graves of the unknown heroes. Inspired by the poppy, the distinctive and powerful red coloured print encapsulates the solemn words, 'Lest we forget'.

Finally, as part of the commemorations of the Centenary of Anzac I recently held the Higgins Anzac Centenary School Poetry Competition. The theme of the poetry competition was, 'What does the Anzac Centenary mean to you?' and the panel of judges included Mr Michael Gleeson, editor of the Progress Leader and Stonnington Leader; representatives of local RSLs; and the Higgins Electorate Anzac Centenary Committee. There were four levels of entry: years 2 to 4, years 5 to 6, years 7 to 9 and years 10 to 12. I was delighted to announce that the winners were Ellie Martin from St Cecilia's Primary School, Narisha Ford from Black Rock Primary School, Gabby Tymms from St Catherine's School and Rafael Ungar from the King David School. This competition was open not only to local schools but to local residents—hence the winners. I am delighted that the competition was so well subscribed with so many beautiful entries. It clearly gave young people in my electorate an opportunity to focus on making personal connections with the momentous events of one century ago.

It is community events such as these that provide the opportunity for us to pause, recall, reflect and commemorate. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has said, 'Grief is the price we pay for love.' In coming together we remember the grief of family, friends, communities and nations, for lives irrevocably altered and lost and a world forever changed. However, we should also dwell upon love—love for our kin and for our mates and, importantly, our love of peace; not just love for our country and its freedoms, but also the love of a grateful nation. In this centenary year, I pay my respects today to all those who have served, and continue to serve, our nation both at home and overseas. I give thanks for their sacrifice while hoping for a more peaceful tomorrow.

Mr HOGAN (Page) (12:13): I rise very humbly to talk about and acknowledge the Centenary of Anzac and obviously the centenary of Gallipoli this year. Anzac Day every year is not just acknowledging people who served at Gallipoli but honouring all those who have served this country over many, many years. But obviously this year there was a focus on the centenary of Gallipoli.

I came across some statistics that I found very sobering. I had heard of both these places, as many of us have, but these statistics really reminded me of why most Australians have heard these two names. We have all heard of Lone Pine at Gallipoli. It is about the size of a football field. The number of men that were killed there—not just on our side—was 9,000 over the period of this battle, so 9,000 men were killed in an area the size of a football field. That in itself says a lot about why Lone Pine is very much remembered. Another area is the Nek. The Nek is the size of about three tennis courts, so again not a big area. Some 800 Australians attacked the Turkish trenches at the Nek. In one hour, 650 of those 800 men were killed or wounded. Again, we can see why the Nek and Lone Pine are very much remembered in our history.

In 1919, after the war, Australians were sent back to bury the fallen soldiers. One Australian looked over to the Nek from the ridge where he was and saw a large area of white. He did not know what it was as it was not there during the fighting in 1915. It was four years later. He scrambled through the scrub, went across from one ridge to the other, down through a gully, and came out at the Nek. The large area of white was the skeletons of the Australians who were killed in that hour four years earlier. That gives one the stark reality of exactly what we are talking about.

The first ashore at Gallipoli is a matter of conjecture. Through anecdotal stories, that role fell to Lismore's Joseph Stratford. On the morning of 25 April, eyewitness accounts describe Stratford plunging into waist-deep water from his landing boat and abandoning his pack to charge up the beach with rifle and bayonet. Less than an hour later, he was dead, having stormed a Turkish machine gun post single-handedly, only to fall riddled with bullets. Stratford's achievement has been eulogised locally and is mentioned in the Australian War Memorial archives but was never officially recognised. However, his memory was honoured with a plaque unveiled at the Lismore Uniting Church. Born at Coffee Camp near Nimbin in 1883, Joseph Henry Stratford was the fifth child in a family of 11. When 23, he left Lismore for the North Queensland cane fields and enlisted in the AIF in 1914. Promoted to sergeant, he was a natural leader and likely candidate to lead such a brave assault. Establishing an official record of exactly who was first ashore at Anzac Cove has always proved impossible. Many drowned or were shot before setting foot on the beach, while those who made it to shore were scattered and in disarray. But several eyewitness letters and verbal accounts mentioning Stratford as the first ashore made the case worthy of official consideration. His great-nephew Colin Stratford said 'it was only ever discussed in the family', but it was acknowledged all the same. He believed that there was enough evidence that Stratford should be recognised as the first man ashore. It is a number of years ago now that the Lismore Uniting Church officially recognised that.

The statistics have been mentioned before, but, however horrific they are, they are worth acknowledging. We know that around 60,000 men were killed or wounded during the First World War, and at Gallipoli itself there were many. Our current population would put the statistics at around 250,000 people, which again emphasises how horrific that battle was.

I thank the committee that helped me with the centenary of Anzac. There were lots of re-enactments, memorial plaques, displays et cetera through the Anzac grant program. I would like to mention a couple. I had the privilege of going to Copmanhurst two nights before Anzac Day where there was a re-enactment of the Light Horse Brigade. The day before Anzac Day, 150 men and women rode from Copmanhurst to Grafton to be there for the dawn service. It was very moving. When everyone was assembling at Copmanhurst two nights before, I am sure it was very similar to what happened 100 years ago. There was great energy, frivolity, laughter and what have you when everyone was assembling with their horses. While that was happening, we had to remember that people were going to an unknown, and how sad the results were for many of them. Also, I went to the unveiling of a memorial stained glass window at St Andrews Church in Lismore. There were also improvements around the Lismore baths. Some windows and glass doors were put in so that they could be observed all year around. That was particularly moving for my wife Karen, whose great-great-uncle, Alfred Webber, is listed on that memorial plaque as fallen.

There was also an interesting event at Ballina. There is going to be a planting of trees along the avenue and it will be called Waler's Way. As has been well documented, tens of thousands of horses from Australia went to the battle. It is called Waler's Way because the horses were predominantly from New South Wales. Only one returned. A lot of the young men took their horses with them, and not only did they not return but tens of thousands of horses were also involved in the battle. I went to many unveilings as well around the Kyogle-Woodenbong area. The day itself was very moving, as I am sure it was for all of us involved. I went to the dawn service in Ballina. The dawn service is always moving wherever you go and whatever type of day it is, but it was a particularly moving day with a particularly stunning sunrise. I acknowledge everyone involved in that. The service at Lismore later in the morning was also moving, as were those in Casino, Clovass and Coraki.

I would like to acknowledge everyone on the committee who helped me with those Anzac centenary grants. I obviously pay respect to everyone involved in the conflict. Over this year, because it is the centenary, we have all become more aware of what happened at Gallipoli and the statistics that were involved. As I mentioned at the start, I will never forget that 9,000 men were killed in the area the size of a football field and 650 of 800 Australians were killed or wounded in an area the size of three tennis courts in one hour. We should never forget that.

Mr MATHESON (Macarthur) (12:21): As the son of a Vietnam Veteran it is a great honour to rise in this House today to recognize the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli and pay tribute to those who fought in the First World War and those who have served our great nation in subsequent wars and battles. May I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the 2,000 Australian Defence Force personnel currently deployed overseas as well as the increasing number of recently returned veterans.

My father, Reg, was attached to 103 Field Battery during the Vietnam War, where he was involved in the Battle of Long Tan, one of the most significant and bloodiest battles Australia was involved in during the war, that saw 18 Australians lose their lives and 24 wounded. On that fateful night of 18 August 1966, the battery fired for more than five hours under extremely difficult climatic conditions, firing 1,078 rounds, the highest number of rounds fired by any battery during battle, in order to protect D Company, 6 Royal Australian Regiment, who were trapped in a rubber plantation near Long Tan in South Vietnam. My father has never really talked about the war, and he is by no means alone. Most of his mates refuse to talk about it as well, silently carrying the burden of their experiences without solace or support. And of course there are those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice: never returning home to their loved ones. The Centenary of Anzac is an opportunity for all Australians to show our deepest respect and gratitude for the sacrifices that have been made and are being made every day in various locations throughout the world by our service men and women and their families.

The Gallipoli landings and the establishment of the Australian Imperial Force represent the birth of the Australian military as it stands today—for instance, 103 Field Battery, my father's battery, first formed at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt on 6 March 1916 as part of the AIF's reorganisation following the Gallipoli campaign. Accordingly, the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli is perhaps the most significant commemorative occasion in our nation's history because of its vital role in establishing us as a nation and as a people. Thanks to the hard work of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon. Michael Ronaldson, the government has provided the perfect platform to help communities across Australia to reflect upon and venerate the lives and achievements of our Anzacs through the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program. I am proud to report that this program has played an integral role in Macarthur's Centenary of Anzac commemorations, providing more than $110,000 in funding to numerous schools and local organisations in my electorate. Rosemeadow Public School was able to build a memorial garden and learning centre thanks to this grant funding, providing the perfect environment for current and future generations of students to learn about the heroic deeds of our Anzacs. I was delighted to join Rod Armstrong, Secretary of the Campbelltown RSL Sub-Branch, at Rosemeadow's Anzac Day ceremony on 23 April to officially open the garden and learning centre. I would like to thank Principal Paul Hughes, Vice-Principal Michelle Lester, Karen Davies, Simon Greenshields and all the staff and students for what was a fantastic event.

Wollondilly Shire Council received Anzac Centenary grant funding to build a commemorative wall in Warragamba Civic Park, ensuring that residents in the Warragamba Silverdale area have a dedicated site to remember the fallen. The Warragamba and Silverdale region has a rich and proud Anzac history, with over 47 young men making the journey to Europe to fight in the First World War, including Patrick Sinclair Anderson, who was mortally wounded during the Gallipoli landings in 1915. I was delighted to join Jai Rowell, state member for Wollondilly, Councillor Hilton Gibbs and the Warragamba Anzac Committee in Warragamba Civic Park on 15 April for the official unveiling of this commemorative site. I would also like to give special thanks to Stonehill Stonemasons for their terrific work in creating this fitting tribute to the area's rich Anzac history.

The Veterans Recreation Centre in Campbelltown used funding to remove an existing Australian pine tree at Dredges Cottage and replace it with a certified lone pine that has been sourced by local horticulturalist and veteran John McDonald. The Veterans Recreation Centre is also preserving or replacing plaques on an existing memorial wall and restoring and reframing memorabilia photos and a painting dating back to World War I. I had the pleasure of visiting Dredges Cottage to have a look at these items on display and I am pleased to report that these historical artefacts make a significant contribution to Macarthur's historical record. The Veterans Recreation Centre has also assisted Lauren Hokin in receiving federal support to write a book detailing the sacrifices and experiences of locals who enlisted to fight in the Great War.

Camden Community Connections, a local not-for-profit organisation based in Narellan, hosted a picnic and poetry competition that involved schools across Macarthur. They also produced a DVD called Camden Anzacs: Our Stories that tells the stories of local Anzacs who served in World War I. The Anzac Centenary Community Picnic was a huge success, with hundreds of people flocking to Curry Reserve in Elderslie, where it was held on Sunday 26 April. I would like to congratulate the two poetry competition winners, Hermione Kiley, from Wollondilly Anglican College, and Taylor Skinner, from St Helen's Park School, for the moving recitals they made that day. I would also like to thank Sue Robinson and all her staff and volunteers for their hard work to make the picnic such an enjoyable and successful occasion.

Another benefactor of this fantastic program is the St Paul's Anglican Church at Cobbitty, which has received funding to restore a memorial plaque specific to World War I combat that was produced in memory of those who gave service and sacrificed their lives in the Great War between 1914 and 1919. This program also provided support for the Camden Show Society in conjunction with Camden RSL Sub-Branch to hold a military tattoo to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. Each year over 40,000 people from across the region attend the Camden Show, and this year was made even more special because of the way Camden's war history was commemorated through the production of the military tattoo.

The people of Macarthur are incredibly proud of the men and women from the region who served this country during World War I. This was demonstrated by the enormous crowds at Anzac services right across Macarthur this year. The official estimate for the Camden RSL Sub-Branch dawn service was 12,000 people, an unprecedented crowd.

A special highlight at Camden's dawn service was Vicki Katon's idea to make a poppy quilt. Sub-branch President Iain Richard-Evan put an advertisement in the local paper asking for interest in helping to make a quilt. Many individuals and organisations in the community helped out, with the residents of Camden Downs Retirement Village making a significant contribution to the quilt. Over 6,000 poppies were knitted, and the poppy quilt was presented at the Camden dawn service. I would like to pay tribute to Susan Young, from Camden Country Quilters Guild, who took a wreath over to Gallipoli to honour the Anzac Centenary. I would also like to thank Camden RSL President Iain Richard-Evan, Senior Vice-President Con Diomis, Andy Wright, Stephen Hunt, Len Carter and Major David Brown, with special thanks to Vicki Katon and Diane Richard-Evan, for the Camden Poppy Project, Emma Robilliard and Mayor Lara Symkowiak from Camden Council.

At the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch dawn service more than 5,000 people packed into the sub-branch's Memorial Garden and Sister Helen Haultain Memorial Park. Thirty-one schools were represented, along with four preschools, various church organisations, the scouts, military cadets, members of the Defence Force and local politicians and dignitaries. A good friend of mine, Pat McGeown, a well-known and respected radio announcer who also happens to be a member for the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch and ex Defence Force member, emceed the event. I would like to pay tribute to President Ray James, Vice-Presidents Patrick O'Grady and John Bow, Secretary John Lees, Honorary Treasurer John Beer and everyone involved with the Ingleburn RSL Sub-Branch for making this year's Anzac celebrations so successful.

The Picton Thirlmere Bargo RSL Sub Branch Anzac service and march, which took place as part of Wollondilly Remembers, was attended by the Thirlmere Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade; 237 Cadet Unit; Ingleburn RSL Pipes and Drums; the Campbelltown-Camden District Band; students from Thirlmere Public School, Wollondilly Anglican School and Picton High School, who marched alongside sub-branch members, veterans and their families; members of the public; and Tharawal Land Council elders and members, who marched with their banner in recognition of the Indigenous Australian Defence Force Service. I would like to thank President Tim Bennett-Smith, Anthony Stringer, Ossie Biele, Kerry Chisolm, Philip Brockett and all the friends and volunteers who helped make this event such a success.

Campbelltown RSL's Anzac Day dawn service and later march and main service saw record crowds packed into Mawson Park. They enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine, which only added to the magic of the occasion. I would like to thank President Dutchy Holland, Senior Vice-President Warren Browning, Secretary Rod Armstrong, Treasurer W.R. Robinson OAM, Welfare Officer Elwyn Spencer, and Ernie New for their contribution as well.

In many ways this outpouring of support for the Centenary of Anzac commemorations should be no surprise, as Macarthur has a rich and proud Anzac history. We can only imagine what it was like for our beloved ANZACs 100 years ago on the battlefields. Their actions set a standard for future generations, and I am extremely proud of my father and all the Defence personnel who have served this country. We thank and remember those who have sacrificed their lives for this nation. May the Anzac spirit live on in all our hearts forever. Lest we forget.

Mr LAUNDY (Reid) (12:31): I rise today to talk on the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC forces' landing at Gallipoli, one of the most important commemorative events in our nation's history. Like many of us in this House, I have had the honour this year of being involved in a range of community events, commemorations and school projects throughout Reid to mark the Centenary of Anzac. It has given me and many others in my electorate an opportunity to reflect on the great sacrifices that the men and women of our armed services have made and continue to make for all of us so that we can live in our wonderful, free and tolerant society.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 Australians served at Gallipoli. More than 19,000 were wounded and 8,709 were killed in action. There were also 11,000 New Zealanders at Gallipoli: 2,721 were killed in action and 4,752 were wounded. Of course, on the Centenary of Anzac we reflect not just on the Gallipoli campaign but on the entire First World War and the century of service which has flowed from it. Australia's involvement in the First World War came at a great cost to our nation. Out of a population of just five million in 1914 more than 417,000 Australians volunteered to serve in the First World War. Some 332,000 served overseas. Australia suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the allied forces: more than 61,000 made the supreme sacrifice and some 152,000, just fewer than one in every two, were listed as casualties by the time of the armistice in November 1918. The sheer number of memorials to the fallen across our country demonstrates how widely these losses were felt and perhaps goes some way to explain why the Anzac legend has lived on through generations since. One of the great things I have taken away from all the Anzac ceremonies and events that I have been to this year is that I have no doubt that the memory of those servicemen and women will continue to live for the next 100 years and well beyond. The reverence and solemn understanding that I have seen in Reid schoolchildren has assured me of that—that future generations will continue to respect the sacrifice that those men and women made for our country.

I congratulate the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Senator the Hon. Michael Robinson, for the excellent and heartfelt work that he and his office have undertaken in engaging with schools in our local communities in the lead up to the Centenary. I am also confident that the Anzac story will live on in the families of our newest Australians, as I have seen migrant communities from a broad range of backgrounds paying their respects to our Anzacs. I will talk more specifically about the Australian Turkish community in Auburn in a moment.

Amongst the many events that I was invited to attend this year, I would like to mention a few in particular. The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway dawn service in Concord was held the weekend before Anzac Day. It was a very special occasion, including an original piece of classical music, Meeting the Sun, composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and performed by the Australian Royal Navy Band and the Sydney Children's Choir, featuring lyrics taken from the poems of Australian diggers. This was followed by an address by His Excellency General the Hon. David Hurley AC DSC (Retired), Governor of New South Wales. Congratulations to John Haines, chairman of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway, and Alice Kang from Concord Hospital. Our local RSL subbranches performed their duty proudly, as always, and held services across the electorate. I would like to thank the RSL subbranches of Auburn, Burwood, Concord, Drummoyne, Five Dock and Lidcombe for their efforts in putting on their services for local communities.

I would like to thank the Reid Anzac Centenary Committee for assisting me in finding and selecting a range of projects for the Anzac Centenary Local Grants funding: Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu, the president of the Gallipoli Mosque, Greg Blundell from Homebush Public School, Allan Chapple from Homebush RSL, Marlene Doran from Homebush RSL, Colin Hodges from Burwood RSL, Alice Kang from Concord Hospital or, as we know it, 'the Repat', Robert Ridge from Five Dock RSL, Bob Turner from Concord RSL and Harry Withers from Homebush RSL. The projects we funded focused on the restoration of memorials in the community, including $36,707 for the restoration of the Davey Square Memorial; $21,550 for the construction of the Davey Square Reserve Memorial Wall to display the wall plaques from the former Homebush-Strathfield RSL subbranch; $38,600 for the restoration of the Concord War Memorial precinct in Queen Elizabeth Park; and $3,913 for the restoration and relocation of the Concord Public School honour board and stone memorial to former students who fought in World War I.

The many schools across Reid have all participated in the centenary with their own services, class projects and memorials—unfortunately, too many to name in the limited time that I have here today. But I would like to pay a special thanks to the students who have put in so much work to research and learn about the servicemen and women from World War I and the campaigns and battles they took part in. Of course, the teachers who have guided them through that process also deserve praise for the important work that they do in helping our future generations develop and grow into tomorrow's leaders.

I would like to mention a number of events undertaken by the Turkish Australian community in my electorate. In Reid I am fortunate to represent the Western Sydney suburb of Auburn, which, in amongst the united nations of new and future Australians, is home to a strong Turkish Australian community. The 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli was a commemoration of special importance for Australians from a Turkish background. While our two countries are close friends today, in the first world war we both paid dearly with the blood of our young men. With our history inescapably linked through conflict, the famous words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk echo through the years as a symbol of the healing that has occurred in the decades since:

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.

With such an intertwined history between Turkey and Australia, it is perhaps no surprise to hear that this centenary commemoration was held in special reverence amongst Australians with Turkish heritage. The CEO of Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance, Ertunc Ozen, and executive secretary, Gunes Gungordu, travelled to the centenary commemorations in Gallipoli to pay their respects to fallen Anzacs on behalf of the Turkish community in Australia. Auburn Gallipoli Mosque held a moving Lone Pine memorial service to commemorate both the ANZAC and Turkish fallen. The Wall of Friendship was unveiled in Auburn Memorial Park, with the inscription of the same words from Ataturk on that memorial.

The Auburn RSL sub-branch president, Mr Ron Inglis, provided a fitting summary when he said:

I think it's excellent, I think it's a fine thing that while we certainly remember the sacrifices of soldiers on both sides and the terrible conditions that they faced, and we certainly honour them for their bravery and sacrifice, but at the same time it's really wonderful to come together in a community event.

I will finish with a personal story of two celebrations within the one day in my electorate in Reid. At Rosebank College in Five Dock I listened to students talk about their great-grandfathers and their service at Gallipoli. I hopped in the car at one o'clock, and at two o'clock I hopped out and we started a celebration at Amity College, an Islamic Turkish school in Auburn. An hour before I had been listening to Australian kids talk about their great-grandfathers who were Australian soldiers at Gallipoli. An hour later I had the honour and joy of hearing Turkish-Australian children talk about the service of their great-grandfathers on the Turkish side. Some 100 years ago their great-grandparents fought half a world away, 10 feet from each other in hand-to-hand combat on a daily basis. Today you travel an hour down Parramatta Road and you move from one service celebrating the Australian sacrifice to another celebrating the Turkish sacrifice. I think that is one of the joys of serving in my local electorate of Reid.

We acknowledge the legacy the Anzacs forged for the servicemen and servicewomen who have followed in their footsteps and we pay tribute to those who continue to uphold the Anzac tradition to this day. We will remember them. Lest we forget.

Mr TURNBULL (Wentworth—Minister for Communications) (12:40): I compliment the member for Reid on his contribution to this debate reminding us of the extraordinary significance of the Gallipoli campaign, a campaign which is part of the foundation story of three young nations: Australia, Turkey and New Zealand. Gallipoli is in a very historic part of the world filled with legends and stories of battles and heroism going back thousands of years. In many ways the myth, the life force, of three nations was founded there on those bloody cliffs and hills.

Why would a nation, any nation, commemorate a terrible defeat? It was a defeat that was not the consequence of the enemy's overwhelming force or superior strategy, a defeat that was utterly mismanaged by our side—the British side—from the conception to the execution. The only flawless part of the Gallipoli campaign was the withdrawal, and there probably is not a lot of glory in that. What is the answer? Why ANZAC Day?

A peaceful and peace-loving people laments war's folly and catastrophe, grieves for the dead, thanks them for their sacrifice but, above all, honours the inspiring courage, love, mateship and selfless heroism of the Anzacs. It is as though our nation, Australia, unlike any other, has cut through the gold braid, the medals, the great guns and ships and planes, has cut through all of that military grandeur, and reached down into the mud of the trenches and found what was really important: a human love, a yearning for peace, but preparedness to die in order to defend it.

It is the humanity of the Anzac story that is timeless and appealing. It is the love of country, the love of comrades and the mateship—that sheer humanity that was the one thing that could not be ground down by the folly of the generals and the horror of the war itself. That is what inspires Australians, and that is why every year more and more people, especially young people, attend the dawn services.

And so it was that this Anzac Day dawn found us among a very young crowd of 10,000 at North Bondi in my electorate for the service at the cenotaph. The North Bondi RSL sub-branch has a heavy concentration of young veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and those still serving. Their service was in line with their mission of supporting the diggers and veterans of 2015, not just honouring the diggers of 1915. Our modern army's sacrifice in Afghanistan was keenly recalled as the families of Sergeant Brett Till, Sapper Rowan Robinson and Corporal Scott Smith joined the service, three of the 41 Australian soldiers killed in that long war. We heard from the child of a veteran, the partner of a veteran and the parent of a veteran to put the emphasis, in the words of RSL trustee David Sims, on 'those who stay behind and those who serve Australia in a different, intimate, and important way'. I was pleased that we were able to support that North Bondi service and others throughout the electorate through our Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program.

The sub-branch general manager of operations, Kate Cass, who has served in Afghanistan, reflected on finally understanding the trials of her father's service through her own experience. This is part of what she said:

On my most recent deployment to Afghanistan, thinking of him, I pictured two young people from two different eras in conflict overseas looking through the same eyes at the same devastation at our feet and asking the same question: Should we be here?.....but knowing that service to this great country is so very necessary.

It a calling that stirs deep in the soul. It means military people have to, need to, and always will do put service first. I now know that if they don't, who actually will?

I now know now how capable the human mind and body are of adapting to adversity, and how capable the heart is of numbing itself against grief and fear. ANZAC Day for me is now no longer a retrospective concept.

Later in the morning the veterans of the Bondi Junction RSL marched to the Waverley Cenotaph, led by their president, Bill Harrigan. They were an older group, one or two from the Second World War, many from Vietnam and a few from wars of our own time as well. Reminding us that we did not fight Hitler alone, one of our Russian veterans attended, as he always does, in his magnificently medalled Red Navy uniform. He is always complimented by the old Australian diggers, who note that they could not fit into their old uniforms and they are very impressed that he is able to. The boys from Waverley College formed the catafalque party. As I sat there together with the community, I think all of us looked at the boys from Waverley College and looked at the names on the cenotaph and reflected that the names on the cenotaph were of young men who were not much older than the schoolboys at the service.

But perhaps the most idiosyncratically Australian Anzac Day service this year, as every year, was that held down the hill at the Bronte Surf Club. The veterans, their friends and supporters from the local RSL marched along the promenade to the surf club, where a surf reel serves as a cenotaph, and the link of selfless service between the soldiers and the example of Anzac and the surf lifesavers—many of whom served and died in Australia's wars—is remembered and renewed.

Like many of his generation, my grandfather Fred Bligh Turnbull did not talk about the war much. He had been wounded several times and gassed, which left him very short of breath all his life, but that did not stop him serving in the Second World War as well. They were a remarkable generation. Fred enlisted in 1915, a 22-year-old schoolteacher born on his parent's farm on the Macleay River near Euroka. He served in the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion for the last two years of the war, returning home in 1919. I remember Fred as an old man, me as a little boy. He had a sword from the time when he was promoted to an officer in the Second World War, and I always tried to get him to tell me stories about the war. You can imagine—little boys love that kind of thing. Fred did not want to talk about it. It was too horrible, too filled with needless death and mismanagement and poor leadership. Whenever we reflect on the First World War, we are reminded of the follies of war and we are reminded again and again that those Australian soldiers, whether they were at Gallipoli or elsewhere, were lions led by donkeys, until some lions in the form of Australian generals emerged—above all, of course, Sir John Monash.

We have a very strong military history in my electorate. My electorate is a very old electorate. It is the inner city suburbs of Sydney. We have Victoria Barracks, one of the oldest military establishments in Australia. It was a major recruiting centre throughout the First World War and still is a military headquarters. We have two important naval establishments, at HMAS Watson and Garden Island. We have six RSLs. There are constant reminders in my community of our great military tradition. But it is not those landmarks that link the tradition of Anzac to our community; it is, as I said at the outset, the example of love and of mateship and of sacrifice.

We can be proud of so many things as Australians but there is nothing of which we can be more proud than the Anzac tradition and the way in which we have taken a dreadful catastrophe, a shocking defeat, and made it a moment of celebration, of commemoration, of love, of sacrifice, of the most human values. This is really a peace-loving nation and one that respects the humanity that is not lost in the midst of war.

Mr BRUCE SCOTT (Maranoa—Deputy Speaker) (12:51): I have great pleasure and a deep sense of pride to speak to this ministerial statement on the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and join with others who have spoken in this chamber about our involvement and what it means to us to commemorate that landing at Gallipoli and what it has given to our nation.

On 25 April 1915, young Australians from all walks of life rushed ashore at Gallipoli in the early dawn. They created, unknowingly at the time, a legend that would endure for more than 100 years. I believe from what we have seen throughout this 100th anniversary commemoration this year that it is in good hands in the hands of the next generation of Australians, who are taking up what is their possession forever, a priceless gift—the spirit of the Anzacs, the legend that in so many ways defines the values of our nation. I think so many Australians want to have attached to their own identity the enduring qualities that I believe describe what the Anzacs created that day—courage, determination and mateship.

Above all, as they rushed ashore that morning in the early dawn, the Anzacs had the courage to do what they had to do, regardless of the dangers. They were young, enthusiastic and eager, like so many young people. We have all gone through it ourselves. We feel at that age a sense of indestructibility. They were determined, because they were representing Australia. They were serving under the Australian flag. They were proud. They had been trained. They had been recruited. There was in many ways the sense that it would be an adventure for them. They were determined that they would carry out their duty in the name of Australia as they went ashore at Gallipoli 100 years ago.

The enduring quality of mateship and identifying with your mates is something that lives with us all today. We will talk loosely sometimes about a mate we have. But, for them, as they went ashore, they knew they had a mate beside them who would not let them down, that they would not be abandoned if they got in trouble because their mate was there with them. That is another one of those enduring values that I believe describes in many ways what it is to be Australian.

There is a wonderful site on the Gallipoli Peninsula. I had the great privilege as the Minister for Veterans' Affairs at the time to be able to establish that new site where we commemorate Anzac Day. I remember going there on a cold day in November, wondering whether we could move our commemoration out of a Commonwealth war cemetery to Ariburnu, right on the beach between Anzac Cove and North Beach. I thought to myself, 'How could you have lived in the open on these rugged hills above where I'm standing, day after day, night after night, with the real threat that you might lose your life but determined to survive there?' I knew I had a huge responsibility to make sure that, whatever we did, it was going to be a site where we would go in the future to commemorate Anzac Day.

It was with the cooperation of the local farmers in the area and the local Canakkle council that the Turkish government assisted in the process of having land allocated right on the beach where in fact the Anzacs first landed at North Beach on the Gallipoli Peninsula. So it had historical significance. It was the site that we all know now is where we commemorate Anzac Day.

I want to touch on the fact that, as we were commemorating the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli this year, no matter where you looked, from the smallest country towns to the biggest cities, from the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra to places where Australians meet all around the world, on 25 April this year, Australians young and old were there because they were proud. But they were also there to remember those who lost their lives not only on that fateful day at Gallipoli but throughout the last 100 years—including, prior to Federation, in the Boer War. They remembered those who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and the way of life that we have but that sometimes I feel is taken for granted in this wonderful nation of Australia.

I am also proud of my own constituency. Even the smallest communities in the last 10 to 15 years have refurbished the war memorials that were erected in good faith sometimes 80 or 90 years ago. In some places, the community has diminished in population numbers. But the residents and councils still there have kept faith with the ideals of those who established a memorial in their town.

One of those places, just west of my own home town where I grew up, is Muckadilla. I remember as a small child on Anzac Day seeing diminishing numbers year after year attending Anzac services there. Mainly they were those who had served. It got down to two or three people attending that service on Anzac Day. This year, there were over 300 who made a pilgrimage, honouring those from the area around Muckadilla who have served. In many ways, the centenary of the Gallipoli landings has ignited something in all Australians to want to know more about it. They stepped forward in their thousands and thousands all around Australia and many other parts of the world.

In a remote community out on the edge of the Simpson Desert at Bedourie, they had about 100 horsemen on horseback at a dawn service on a lonely hill to the north of the town—a place they call the Vaughan Johnson Lookout. In the early dawn it was very cold, but they were there. They made a very special effort, some bringing their horses over 300, 400 or 500 kilometres to participate in that dawn service on horseback, which reminds us all of the Light Horse and those who served in the Light Horse in the First World War and still serve in the Light Horse regiments today. I also want to acknowledge that in towns like Goondiwindi people gathered together the history of those from the area who had served and their families—their names, their records—and compiled the most wonderful collection of the service records of over 500 men and women. They established a record that could have been lost in time were it not for people stepping forward. I commend the people who have done this in so many towns like Goondiwindi, as in Wallumbilla, to the east of my home town of Roma. So many communities did likewise. They collected the history of those from their community who served; they produced books, established little memorials and made collections of memorabilia, which, throughout time, may have been lost were not for the commitment of people wanting to participate in this year's Centenary of the landing at Gallipoli.

In conclusion, I have been invigorated and in many ways stimulated to see so many young people taking hold of a possession that they will have for their lives—the possession of the legacy of the Anzacs, the spirit of the Anzacs, that lives on 100 years since that landing at Gallipoli. I am sure they will pass it on to their children and their grandchildren. I know that our Anzac Day commemoration, the spirit of the Anzacs, is in great hands in the next generation of Australians, as it is likewise with the generations today. I thank the House.

Mr ROBERT (Fadden—Assistant Minister for Defence) (13:02): This morning I had the distinct pleasure of joining one of my primary schools, Pacific Pines State School, as their senior class, year 6, gathered at the War Memorial. There is something poignantly wonderful about seeing the next generation, on a cold Canberra morning, rugged up, come to the very soul of Australia to learn, to pause and to reflect. We conducted a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and paused for a minute's silence. When I left them, I left them in the good hands of a digger, a veteran of Vietnam, to talk about his service.

On this 100th year since we stormed the beaches of Gallipoli, I was able to stand there with the next generation and point them towards the bronze panels in the halls of the War Memorial, to talk to them about what it meant for two million Australians to have worn the uniform of our nation, to speak to them about freedom never being free—a price is paid by a few for many, ultimately by those over 102,000 names on those bronze panels—to talk through the loss of some 60,000 in World War I, including the loss of some 2,200 sets of brothers who fell in that conflict, and the 154 mothers who gave three sons in that conflict and, incredibly, the five mothers who gave four sons. It is always wonderful to spend time with the next generation, explaining what those that have gone before have done for those that live now.

It is an extraordinary commemoration we have this year and then, rolling through to 2018, as we reflect on deeds done in the past, great men and women who have served and the nation they have left behind. The Prime Minister quite rightly represented the nation at Gallipoli; other senior colleagues were across parts of Europe. As the Prime Minister and I talked about where we should go, the Prime Minister, to his enduring credit and leadership, agreed that the minister needed to be with the current fight. So I spent the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day at the only service that was not televised, with the special forces troops in the middle of Iraq.

Nestled between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers at the special forces compound, I, with over 100 Australian special forces, including our colleagues from other nations and from the CTS of Iraq, which is the Iraq special forces, gathered on the dawn of 25 April this year. I also spent time at our operating base at Al Minhad, as well as two other locations—one in downtown Baghdad with our embassy, and with our aircraft force in the UAE to conduct similar services.

There is something extraordinary about watching the dawn rise over Iraq with our fighting men and women. The commanding officer of the Special Operations Group there had found a bugler from US special forces, he had found a piper from US special forces and he had put a young lady photographer on top of one of the shipping containers to take appropriate photographs. There we celebrated, commemorated and remembered the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day—me, the commander of the joint task force in theatre, the Australian Ambassador to Iraq and the fighting men and women we have deployed. It was an extraordinary moment in an extraordinary dawn as those who still continue to fight remembered those who had fought so long ago.

I made the point, not just to the Australian special forces there but also to our air component out of UAE as well as to our embassy staff, that, as we stood there, it was hard not to be drawn into the fact that men and women not only fought on the ground but also fought in the air. On that day, 25 April 1915, the fledgling Australian Flying Corps had already embarked on ships bound for Iraq. Indeed, we were the only British dominion to establish a flying corps for service during the First World War, and by war's end the Australian Flying Corps consisted of four complete operational squadrons. Australia sent one squadron to the Middle East—No. 1 Squadron. By the way, when Australia sent Super Hornets back into Iraq last year, it was 1 Squadron that led the way, the same squadron that was formed and sent 100 years earlier. Of the 800 officers and 2,840 men who flew in the Australian Flying Corps, 175 were killed.

In Iraq in 1915, the Mesopotamian Half Flight was established at the request of the British government of India and operated out of southern Iraq. Australia only had enough personnel for a half-flight, so that is what was dispatched: four officers, 41 other ranks and 18 mechanics. The Half Flight's aircraft were provided by the Royal Flying Corps. Initially, they were obsolete designs that were also unarmed—Maurice Farman Shorthorn and Longhorn aircraft. With a top speed of 50 miles per hour where desert winds got up to 80 miles per hour, you literally flew backwards. The aircrew were for a time forced to use pistols and drop two-pound infantry hand-held bombs. They arrived too late to help secure the Shatt-el-Arab and the oil pipeline, but they joined the British advance on Baghdad.

There I was, in 2015, with Australian special forces on the outskirts of Baghdad, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, talking about the Australian airmen who had been there 100 years before, supporting the advance on Baghdad.

In fact, on 4 July 2015, a Half Flight Cauldron G3 aircraft crewed by lieutenants George Pinnock Merz and William Burn were forced to land in enemy territory due to mechanical difficulties and were killed by armed civilians after a running gun battle over several miles. Our first casualties in the first air campaign in Australia's history were casualties on the ground in a land battle. The G3 had no machine guns that could be used to defend the aircraft. Ultimately, that attempt to reach Baghdad, supported by the Mesopotamian Half Flight, failed, with the tragic defeat at the Tigris marking the end of Australia's first experience of military aviation.

It was an extraordinary time for me in the Middle East. It is fitting and to the great credit of the Prime Minister that he ensured that a minister was with the men and women who are in the fight now, as he joined other great alliance partners in Gallipoli and other ministers across the world as we all remembered those who had gone before us and who had led the way in acknowledging that axiom that freedom is not free; it is paid by a few for the benefit of the many.

It was wonderful, at the same time, to see my own community on the Gold Coast come out in even greater numbers than before to reflect on what 100 years since the Gallipoli landings meant. The North Gold Coast RSL presented their new cenotaph—behind the Helensvale Bowls Club—which was ready in time for a fabulous service run by the RSL, which does so much for the community. Funds out of Anzac Centenary grants from the federal government were used by the majority of the schools in the electorate to run services to put in place rocks or cenotaphs of remembrance and to pay for wreaths.

As we commemorate the Centenary of Anzac, I thank the Australian service men and women, some 2,000, who are on 14 operational service missions across the world right now, eight of them in the Middle East. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you are doing. Thank you for your service to our country. This place recognises the sacrifices that you make and the sacrifices your families make. We recognise spouses at home and kids at home. We recognise the hard work and the seriously hard yards you do, with our flag on your shoulders and our country's name on your chests, for freedom's sake.

It will be an extraordinary few years as we continue this commemoration, but it is important that this parliament recognises, reflects on and remembers that over two million Australians have served, 2,000 continue to serve overseas and, in the years to come, thousands will serve under our flag, in our name. We remember you. We thank you. We are indebted to you.

Mrs ANDREWS (McPherson—Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science) (13:12): This year, 2015, marks the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. This is a significant year of commemoration as we remember the fallen and all who have served and continue to serve our nation. It is a time to take stock of where we come from and what we want to be. This year, we are reminded of what we have gained as a nation in the debt of gratitude we all owe.

The Gallipoli operation caused 26,111 Australian casualties, including 8,141 deaths. While this loss of life is difficult to comprehend today, we must put it into the context of a new and growing nation to truly appreciate its impact. Australia's total population at the time was less than five million, around the population of Sydney today, of which 417,000 enlisted, many falsifying their age so that they enlist and fight for their country. When the first ships carrying thousands of those brave young man approached the higher coastline of the Gallipoli peninsula 100 years ago, Australia had been a federation for just 15 years. Our soldiers stood on that foreign soil not as Queenslanders or as New South Welshmen but, for the first time, as Australians.

The first wave of men to arrive ashore was composed of the units of the 3rd Australian Brigade—three infantry battalions of men from Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. On 25 April, as dawn approached, they were tasked with storming the beach and pushing inland as fast as possible. But, even before they reached the beach, the bullets began. Still, they bravely pushed forward, taking on the steep peninsula in a hail of bullets. More than 620 Australians lost their lives on that first day. After nine days of continuous fighting, the battalion, which had landed with more than 1,000 men, had been reduced to just 309.

Yet it was in these dark times that the world was introduced to the Australian larrikin through the soldiers who maintained that recognisable sense of humour under the most trying of circumstances. Private Roy Denning of the 1st Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, wrote:

In spite of the dirty and in some cases ragged uniform covering tired bodies the men were cheerful and laughed at their plight …

…   …   …

… my heart swelled with admiration … I thought I was justified in being proud of being an Australian … Give me Australians as comrades and I will go anywhere duty calls …

New chapters to our national history were written and characteristics that have come to define us were born—endurance, determination, courage and mateship. We proudly embrace them to this day. As Australians, we have a responsibility to ensure that the sacrifice and service of those who fought in the First World War will be remembered by future generations. We are inspired to live up to the values that our service men and women displayed and which have served our nation well—values like mateship, courage, duty, sacrifice and dedication.

In my electorate of McPherson we are fortunate to have an extremely strong, tight-knit ex-service community. Our local RSL sub-branches play an integral role in keeping the Anzac spirit alive, and I would like to take a moment now to thank each of them for their tireless work: Currumbin Palm Beach RSL Sub Branch and President Ron Workman OAM; Mudgeeraba Robina RSL Sub Branch and President James McCann; Burleigh Heads RSL Sub Branch and President Chris Keating OAM; and Tweed Heads and Coolangatta RSL and President Joe Russell.

I would also like to make special mention of the RSL services held in my electorate. The Currumbin RSL dawn service was one of a number of Anzac services that I attended on 25 April. This incredibly moving service was broadcast live on both television and radio. The service attracted over 25,000 attendees and quite possibly over 30,000. I was humbled by the incredible community engagement on such a significant day. I was also very proud of our southern Gold Coast community for hosting this national event.

I also had the honour of attending the march and mid-morning service at Burleigh Heads and the unique sunset service at Mudgeeraba. Both of these events were very fitting tributes to all our service men and women, past and present. Many people attended the services held at Tweed Services by the Tweed Heads Coolangatta RSL Sub Branch, and I thank that sub-branch for its commitment to the veteran and the wider community.

Across my electorate, record numbers attended Anzac services in this centenary year, to remember and commemorate the service and sacrifice of those who served and continue to serve. It was my privilege to join with the southern Gold Coast community in these commemorations and I congratulate and thank all involved for making these services so successful.

The McPherson electorate was also able to access $125,000 for projects commemorating the First World War. The Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program assists and encourages all communities to undertake projects to commemorate the service and sacrifice of our service men and women in the First World War. Once again, our southern Gold Coast community rose to the task, and I am pleased to be able to advise the House of the following projects currently underway or completed in McPherson: a flagpole and memorial plaque at Hillcrest Christian College; a memorial at the Australian Industry Trade College; commemorative gardens at King's Christian College; support to the Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum to run the 'Telling the Anzac story' educational program; a memorial garden near the Great Hall at Somerset College; support to the Lions Club of Robina to assist in the construction of an Anzac memorial at the Robina Library and to deliver an educational program to schools; support to the Service Personnel Anglican Help Society for the construction of a First World War memorial garden; support to Currumbin Palm Beach RSL to preserve and display precious First World War memorabilia; money to the Mudgeeraba Robina RSL for the construction of a new memorial wall and First World War entry feature at the Mudgeeraba cenotaph; and a significant contribution to the Burleigh Heads RSL to install a new First World War memorial at the Burleigh Heads cenotaph. At four metres tall, 'The Anzac', as it is titled, depicts a soldier in the reverse-arms position and is composed of 100 individual layers of stainless steel—a striking tribute to our fallen soldiers. I encourage all visitors to the Gold Coast and all residents to go to Burleigh Heads and have a look at that memorial. It is absolutely outstanding and it looks quite different depending on where you are standing. I was delighted that, on the day of the dedication, Senator the Hon. Michael Ronaldson was able to be with us to be part of what was a very special event.

I would like to acknowledge the McPherson Anzac Centenary Grants Committee, who worked to select these special projects for our community. The committee comprised Phil Roberts, Bren Milsom, Janelle Manders and Councillor Daphne McDonald, and I thank them for their efforts.

Gallipoli was a defining moment in our national history. I am proud of our continued commitment to honour the memory of those men and women who laid down their lives for Australia. Lest we forget.

Mr DANBY (Melbourne Ports) (13:20): Nothing compares to standing on the beach at Gallipoli. When you see the gravestones just by the water's edge, it really communicates itself to you—the sacrifice that Australians made in the pursuit of our national identity and in those terrible battles where 8,000 Australians died, in that salient that could not be penetrated in all of those months of 1915.

I toured Gallipoli with the great Turkish historian from Canakkale university, Kenan Celik, who the previous day had taken me to the nearby site of Troy. Professor Celik's lifelong support for all Australians who visit that part of the world is truly appreciated and is emblematic of the kind of friendship that has grown up between Turks and Australians. We ended the day at Cape Helles. Standing underneath the colossal statue that the Turks have erected at the point of Cape Helles, he gave me some long historical perspective of the events at Gallipoli. He said, 'Michael, close your eyes and think that 80 years ago there were boats full of Australians rowing their way slowly towards Anzac Cove; close your eyes and imagine, thousands of years ago, Greeks rowing their way from the other side of Cape Helles into the Bosphorus towards Troy.' That part of the world has been the scene of great historical drama, including for Australia. The Turks, rightly, venerate Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was under explicit orders of the Germans, who commanded the Turks in the field, not to do anything unless he received direct German military orders. Kemal Ataturk knew better the great military dictum that Marshal Grouchy should have listened to at the Battle of Waterloo: march to the sound of the guns. As soon as he heard reports of the Australians landing, the Turkish division that he commanded ran to the heights of Chunuk Bair. There are many tales of Australians on the second ridge who actually saw the officer commanding—the later President of Turkey. Had he been shot or had we got to the third ridge, the entire history of the First World War might have been different. I know these stories because my lifelong friend the President of the Turkish RSL in Melbourne, Ramazan Altintas, and I often reprise what might have been and I have certainly discussed with him my visit to Gallipoli.

My personal odyssey with the First World War begins with my grandfather many years before that. As a little boy I remember him marching to the St Kilda Army and Navy Club outside Luna Park, up that scary European-style grill elevator up to where we used to have the Christmas party for kids at the St Kilda RSL. Representing the opposition, my odyssey took me to the First World War battlefield at Villers-Bretonneux, and I remember walking up the hill and seeing a sandstone wall in which the names of 10,000 Australians who were killed in the First World War and who had no known grave were engraved. There is a big sandstone monument in the middle which is pockmarked, and I was shocked to see that. I said to the Australian ambassador, 'Mate, you ought to be sharper in your job and have that fixed up.' He said, 'You don't understand, Michael—in the Second World War all of the Australian statues that surrounded this monument were blown up by the Germans, and they used this one for target practice by the Messerschmitt's from the local airfield. We did find on that wall the name of my grandmother's brother, David Swan, who was one of the thousands of Australians butchered in the British-led military operations after the Battle of Pozieres—probably the most disastrous event for the Australian nation in the First World War.

Of course we have had many activities in my electorate to remember these events. With due respect to Fremantle, the largest troopships—and in fact all the troopships—left from Port Melbourne. The Orvieto left on 19 October 1914 to take troops to fight and train in Egypt and Lemnos and then land at Gallipoli. We are all very proud of the centenary grants, which we have dispensed with due care and solemnity to various worthy groups in all of our electorates to remember these events, and I think that has been a very good program. We have done projects with the Australian Turkish community and with the Australian Greek community, and for the nurses, which the member for Lalor and I attended on the weekend. I will return to that in a second. The departure from Port Melbourne is very iconic because you see in every RSL around the country pictures on the walls of the Australians leaving there, with all of the streamers being thrown at them and very big crowds on the dock down below. Port Melbourne in those days was pivotal to the war effort. Melbourne was then the capital of Australia, and war materials were shipped from Port Melbourne to the far side of the world. Around 126,000 servicemen embarked from Port Melbourne, and more than 19,000 of the 60,000 who died in the First World War were from Victoria. My grandfather John Peek, later commissioned lieutenant, left for training in Egypt and landed in the first reinforcement at Gallipoli. To the great pride of generations of our family, his commission—proudly framed at home on our wall—was received on the battlefield in France, just as General Sir John Monash received his. My daughter found a wonderful picture of him with the officers of the 11th Brigade in the photo archive at the War Memorial—again an institution which honours the sacrifices of Australians through conflict. It is improving all the time and I pay tribute to Brendan Nelson for all of the work that he does the there.

Gallipoli continues to impact on Australia—especially on how Australians see themselves. The Water Diviner is Russell Crowe's directorial debut, and it shows us to the world. Crowe's film is particularly sensitive and particularly typical of modern Australia, and a greater understanding of our Turkish friends is emblematic in the film. If I may say so, I believe the great Turkish actor Yilmaz Erdogan stole the show. He was by far the best actor—better than Crowe—in this wonderful production, which I urge people to go and see. The evocation of life in Turkey and the post-war difficulties are very important for Australians to understand.

Just this weekend we have commissioned a brilliant sculpture by Peter Corlett of Matron Grace Wilson and a recuperating digger. Of course ANZAC girls made Matron Wilson famous, and we now remember properly the role of Australian nurses stationed on the Greek island of Lemnos. It was wonderful to have my colleague the member for Lalor there with her two sisters, all three of whom were granddaughters of one of the great heroic nurses and one of the first Australian women to serve in a battlefield situation, on Lemnos. This project was the largest grant for the Port Melbourne Centenary of Anzac fund and the launch was attended by the Greek consul general and hundreds of other people. I think the program has been a worthwhile way of remembering those events that have forged our great country. I am very supportive of the War Memorial and Brendan Nelson's continuing work.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. BC Scott ): Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43, and the debate may be resumed at a later hour.

Ms PARKE (Fremantle) (13:30): There is a story unfolding in my electorate that would be a comedy if it were not potentially so horrific in its outcomes. The Western Australian government, in thrall to the monomaniacal road-building fetish of the Abbott government, is ploughing ahead with its intention to build the state's most expensive road—the state's first toll road—a truck freeway, through fragile wetlands, Indigenous heritage and local residential communities, with no regard for proper planning, cost-benefit ratio analysis or long-term freight solutions.

The WA Minister for Transport, Mr Nalder, who is notionally in charge of the project, appears to have no idea about the processes involved. Yesterday morning he told a group of concerned residents that all the environmental approvals had been given. By the time he returned to parliament he was forced to admit that this was not the case.

Smashing a six-lane freeway through the middle of the Beeliar wetlands will cause environmental damage on a scale that was previously judged unacceptable by WA's Environmental Protection Authority in 2003, and I expect the EPBC assessment will confirm that judgement. I do hope someone in Minister Hunt's office makes a special effort to call Mr Nalder.

In May it emerged that the WA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs had given consent for the road, notwithstanding the unanimous rejection of its impact on registered Aboriginal heritage sites by the traditional owners through the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. Bizarrely, the media statement from Main Roads Western Australia thanked the traditional owners for their support.

Roe 8, as part of the Perth Freight Link, is a disaster—a massive waste of time and money, and a mammoth dereliction of proper process and responsible government. (Time expired)

Mr PITT (Hinkler) (13:32): During the winter recess, Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, Senator the Hon. George Brandis QC, visited my electorate to announce $35,000 for the Hinkler House Memorial Museum and Research Association to restore the Armstrong Siddeley of the great aviator, Bert Hinkler—the very man my electorate is named after.

We had the absolute pleasure of meeting some of the very passionate people who have made this project possible, including members of the Bundaberg Vintage Vehicle Club who are meticulously restoring the car. Tom Smethurst, who generously donated the vehicle, also gifted me an original Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Mark I handbook. He had done his research and knew that I too own an Armstrong Siddeley.

Senator Brandis and I also hosted a community forum on national security at the Bundaberg RSL. A recent survey of the Hinkler electorate found national security and border control is the No. 1ne issue of concern in my electorate. This may have something to do with the fact we have a larger-than-average veteran community and that the number of young Hinkler residents applying to join the Defence Force has increased significantly in recent years.

Senator Brandis was very generous with his time. He had lunch with members of the Bundaberg Law Association and attended a cocktail function with the Bundaberg Art Society. I was very grateful to the Bundaberg Art Society for hosting the event, and I am delighted to have been recently announced as their patron.

It was a very worthwhile ministerial visit, which gave Hinkler residents an opportunity to discuss a diverse range of issues directly with a senior member of the coalition cabinet.

In the brief time I have left: best of luck to the Australian Diamonds. I hope they win the Netball World Cup. I look forward to seeing them hold it up!

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well led by a girl from Allora, Laura Geitz!

Ms McGOWAN (Indi) (13:33): It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome to parliament today 24 students and teachers from Wahgunyah Primary School. Wahgunyah is one of the jewels in the crown that is Indi—on the banks of the Murray, across the river from Corowa and up the road from Rutherglen.

The school was first established in 1857. Wahgunyah is also home to the famous Uncle Tobys cereal factory, many famous wineries, a terrific local post office and, most importantly, Craig and Margaret's servo!

The students today told me that they love their school. They love their teachers, they love the sense of community and they love the sports and activities. They tell me that everybody is nice to each other and that it is a very special school because it small enough for them to know and look after each other.

One of the highlights of the school is their commitment to drama and filming. The students tell me that their absolute favourites—for the members of parliament, this can be found on their website—are the top-hitting Naughty Kids At School and the Saga of Ned Kelly. Activities from the school and the theatre that they are doing will be featured on the ABC program called Back Roads being run in October.

Special thanks to teachers Dave Sexton, Rebecca Low and parent Brian Eales, for supporting the students today and to principal, Brendan Hogan, and to all the families who make these trips to Canberra possible. Welcome to the people's house.

Ms PRICE (Durack) (13:29): The FeNaCING Festival was held in Karratha earlier this month and it was there that I met with members of the Pilbara Regiment, including Major Peter Southern, Officer Commanding 2nd Squadron; Corporal Gill; and Private Sycamore. The Pilbara Regiment is one of three Regional Force Surveillance Units employed in surveillance and reconnaissance of the remote areas of northern Australia and is responsible for an area of 1.3 million square kilometres.

Currently, there are nearly 250 members serving in the Pilbara Regiment; 29 of these members are women and five members identify as Indigenous. In fact, the longest-serving member of the regiment is female—Corporal Gill, who I mentioned earlier and had the pleasure of meeting. A number of the women in the regiment are qualified in the front line as 'patrolmen'. Maybe, there will be a time when we call them all 'patrollers'!

The key focus of the Pilbara Regiment's recruiting model is to be local and inclusive regardless of age, race, religion or gender. The Pilbara Regiment is unique, and troops have to be multiskilled, and self-sufficient, and need the ability to adapt to the unique environmental conditions. The motto of the Pilbara Regiment is 'Mintu wanta', which is from a Western Desert Aboriginal dialect and means 'Always alert'.

On behalf of the constituents of Durack and myself, I thank the Pilbara Regiment for the fantastic job they do in keeping our country and, more importantly, the northern part of Australia safe.

Ms BURKE (Chisholm) (13:36): From August of 2013 to April this year, the time spent in detention centres has risen dramatically from an average of 72 to 394 days. As of May 2015, there were 138 children held in immigration facilities on the Australian mainland and 81 children held in detention on Nauru. The rise in the amount of time spent in detention centres both in Australia and offshore is harming these children's physical and mental health. Late last year, detention centre medical staff confirmed that 34 percent of the children aged 5-12 years had mental health disorders comparable to children referred to hospital based child mental services for psychiatric treatment.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child highlights Australia's obligation to protect the mental health of children. It states that 'parties recognise the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health within Australia', yet we are keeping these children isolated within these camps. They are growing up filled with anxiety and apprehension, not knowing if or when they are finally going to be offered refuge. As one 13-year-old boy said: 'I left my country. I came to have a better future, not to sit in a prison.' We must ask ourselves: how long is long enough for a child to wait for their freedom?

The government promised that these children would be released. They have not been. So wrote Evangeline Stogiannou, from Glen Waverley Secondary College, who was a year 10 work experience student in my office. She was passionate about this. She asked to write about it. I want to thank Eva for her startling words.

Mrs PRENTICE (Ryan) (13:38): Refugees are the backbone of our country. Australia has a proud record over many decades of welcoming refugees who have fled disaster and conflict to seek safety and a new life in our country. Government provides substantial financial and social support for refugees once they arrive in Australia. However, we Australians are a generous people, and I am regularly contacted by constituents wanting to know what they can do personally to assist refugees in our community. In response, I was pleased to organise and facilitate a presentation by the Multicultural Development Association on how individuals can offer practical and social support and create a warm welcome for refugees.

I was delighted that more than one hundred local people turned up for the presentation to understand what they can do to contribute. There are things such as the family match program, the job club and little things like helping new refugees go to official appointments, explaining the local facilities to them, providing extra English classes, helping prepare them for business and work or perhaps volunteering to pay public transport costs for them.

We also provide information on the many support services in the community like the Romero Centre, who also ask for food hampers. I was appalled to hear from a support worker who went to help one group that they did not know that they could freely access the green space opposite the local park. These are things where we can all help. I thank the Multicultural Development Association.

Dr CHALMERS (Rankin) (13:39): I want to tell the parliament about a terrific new program in my community called Logan Together. Among the many fantastic programs that operate in my community, I am particularly excited about the program Logan Together. The philosophy is: 'Every child, every opportunity'. It aims to pull together all the resources in our community—our tremendous support groups, our experienced leaders and our committed and devoted community workers—to improve the chances of Logan kids.

While it is true that thousands of kids grow up and thrive in my area, there are some children who start life with greater barriers to success than they should. As a consequence, we have a lot of work to do to improve our rates of in-home reading, attendance at preschool and NAPLAN results of kids so that they get up near the state and national averages. Getting this right is, of course, in the children's best interests but also in the long-term interests of our community.

The director, Matthew Cox, has been a great choice of leader for this project, and he will be well supported by his team and by all three levels of government. I want to take this opportunity to wish Matthew's team at Logan Together all the best. I think I can say on behalf of everyone in our community that we want their project to be successful, and when it does succeed it will be a model for effective social policy across the nation and it will show again that our community in Logan City is a place that looks out for each other and looks after each other.

Mr RAMSEY (Grey) (13:41): Last week in Ceduna, in the west of my electorate, we came to a very special place in time where the white community and the Indigenous community sat down together and signed a memorandum of understanding for the introduction of what Twiggy Forrest called the 'healthy welfare card' but what we are calling at the moment the 'cashless debit card'. It is a very special time, because there in Ceduna we have seen the leaders of every Indigenous organisation and the leaders of the local council take a stand together, to clasp hands across the table, and say collectively, 'We are going to take on the threats to our society.' With the cashless debit card, 80 per cent of people's income will go into this card. They will be able to spend it on anything they like, except alcohol and gambling services. They will not be able to get cash, so of course they will not be able to buy drugs.

I want to particularly identify Michael Haynes and Peter Miller from the Ceduna Aboriginal Corporation, Corey McLennan and Kevina Ware from Koonibba, Robert Larking and Bronwyn Scott from Scotdesco, Greg Franks and Maureen Smart from Yalata, Sharon Yendall and Roger Williams from Oak Valley, and the Mayor, Allan Suter, for their great support on this project. I am looking forward to the outcome. And go the Diamonds!

Ms RYAN (Lalor—Opposition Whip) (13:43): Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with Kade Ellis from the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT). I met with him in my office and we had a great chat, both having spent some time in Darwin—he living there most of his life and me having taught there in the past. We had a terrific chat about Indigenous life in this country. But the point of the visit was about the Custody Notification Service and preventing Aboriginal deaths in custody.

I am old enough to remember the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. I am old enough to remember the impact that had on my classroom when we studied newspaper articles related to the calling for the royal commission, to the findings of the royal commission and to the recommendations of the royal commission. I want to raise this issue today because I believe that this service needs continuous funding. It needs to be funded into the future. It needs $526,000 a year, every year. I call on this government to ensure that this service that saves lives, that saves Aboriginal lives, continues. It is more than a phone line; it is a lifeline. What price a life in this country? I call on the government to ensure its funding into the future and beyond the next six months.

WYATT ROY (Longman) (13:44): One of the great challenges for our community and for our society is how we tackle the rising instances of youth mental health issues. One in four young Australians aged between 16 and 24 have a mental health issue, and three-quarters of all mental health illness manifests before the age of 25. This is something that I have campaigned very hard on locally. I am very proud to say that the coalition government will be building a new Headspace facility in Caboolture. This will fundamentally change the lives of many locals, ensuring that they get the best possible care in the country and providing a preventive approach to youth mental health issues. Tragically, while it is very hard to measure these figures, local service providers tell me that our community has almost twice the national average youth suicide rate.

This new Headspace facility will make a fundamental difference in the lives of so many locals. The tender has been awarded in the last few weeks to an organisation called United Synergies. I have visited some of their Headspace facilities, and they provide that incredibly high level of care for the local regions that they service. One of the other things that this Headspace facility will do is bring together all of those service providers, to ensure that we are all working together locally to give those young locals the best possible opportunity.

Mr THISTLETHWAITE (Kingsford Smith) (13:46): Maroubra Beach is renowned for its powerful surf and for producing some of the world's best surfers and surf-lifesavers. This has been recognised in the fact that Maroubra Beach is the second national surfing reserve and the home of the Australian Surfing Walk of Fame. As a tribute to Australia's best surfers, plaques are embedded in the promenade, outlining the careers of the likes of Nat Young, Midget Farrelly, Snow McAlister, Grant Kenny, Karla Gilbert and Mark Scott. In July each year, our community comes together to celebrate our beach culture with the Beach Breaks festival and the unveiling of the latest inductees into the Australian Surfing Walk of Fame.

This year, four world-class surfers, who I am pleased to say are all Maroubra locals, were inducted: former world junior surfing champion Jessi Miley-Dyer, local surfing legend Steve 'Blackie' Wilson, and former Olympians and Australian champion surf lifesavers Wally Brown and Ron McKeon. On behalf of our community, I wish to congratulate these four great sportspeople and ambassadors for surfing and surf-lifesaving in Australia. You are very worthy of immortalisation in the Australian Surfing Walk of Fame. I also thank and congratulate Randwick City Council for organising and putting on this wonderful festival each year and for the wonderful sense of community that Randwick City Council has.

Mr RUDDOCK (Berowra) (13:47): As we reflect upon Gallipoli, let me just say that this Saturday, 15 August, is Victory in the Pacific Day. I use this opportunity to speak about this issue, because it involved many Australians treated appallingly—some 22,000 were captured in the Pacific campaign. Most of the Australians were moved to a prison in Singapore, Changi. Many were transferred to the Thai-Burma Railway. There were many members of parliament who served after the Second World War who came with that experience etched in their memory. One still alive—and a great Australian—is Sir John Carrick, somebody whom I admire enormously. Others were Tom Uren, whom we remembered as he passed away so recently, and Sir Kenneth Anderson, a government leader in the Senate, whose family I knew, and formerly the mayor of Ryde. They also included Sir Reginald Swartz, whom I had the pleasure of meeting. Can I say that amongst those that I did not were Charles Anderson MP; Adair Blain; George Branson; Sir Alexander Downer, Alex's father; Sir Wilfrid Kent Hughes; Thomas Pearsall; and Sir Winton Turnbull, I believe no relation. We ought to be very proud of what they were about to do and remember them on the 15th of this month.

Ms CHESTERS (Bendigo) (13:49): I am a proud member of a trade union, and I have been for a long time. Our country has a strong history of trade unions—people coming together in their workplaces to have a say and to have a working relationship with their employers. Over 100 years ago, those workers came together and said that they also wanted to have a political voice, and that was how the Labor Party was formed in this country. Today, the Labor Party continues to have a strong relationship with the trade union movement. In many ways, the Labor Party continues to be the political voice for the Labor movement, and I am really proud of that.

But, on the election of this government, we knew very quickly that this government would do whatever it could to take down its political opponents—to divide and try and conquer the labour movement. Over the last couple of months—in fact, since the election of this government—good union people, workers, have had their views and values challenged and thrown into question as we have seen union and Labor leaders dragged into royal commissions by this government. This government has tried to pull down its political opponents. This government has tried to politicise a forum which should be used for the most serious of grievances. Today, we have discovered how closely the person at the centre of that royal commission is linked to the Liberal Party. He is the keynote speaker at a Liberal Party fundraiser. This government and the way in which it is corrupting the union movement—(Time expired)

Ms SCOTT (Lindsay) (13:50): For way too long, the people of Lindsay and the people of Western Sydney have been forgotten about. For too long, we have had to endure substandard roads and not the right infrastructure for us to commute to the city and for us to have employment close to home. I am very proud to be part of a government that is investing $3.6 billion in the upgrade of key vital roads and arteries that will make our city move. This $3.6 billion worth of road infrastructure is already seeing investment like the Sydney Science Park, a 280-hectare site where 12,200 jobs in biotech innovation—STEM jobs—will be coming to the people of Western Sydney. This is very important; 80 per cent of this $3.6 billion is coming directly from the federal government.

I tell the people of Lindsay: that will mean upgrades like to the intersection of the Northern Road and the M4, to the intersection of Northern Road and Jamison road, and to Glenmore Parkway. How many people struggle with Glenmore Parkway every morning trying to get to work or get their kids to school? It will also mean an upgrade to Bradley Street. Bradley Street, along the Northern Road, is also a huge issue for so many constituents. I am excited that we are finally going to see movement on these things. We are going to see these roads upgraded and we are going to see better accessibility for all the people right across Lindsay.

Ms CLAYDON (Newcastle) (13:52): I rise today to recognise the community of Stockton for their determination to gain access to better broadband. Stockton is a community that was due to have access to the National Broadband Network in 2016, but then was wiped off the rollout map when this government was elected. I recently conducted a survey in Stockton, with 124 residents responding with shocking stories about their lack of access to the internet and the impact this is having on their lives. Fifty-one per cent of respondents cannot get access to any ADSL broadband at their home.

Last month, the Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications joined me at a community forum in Stockton to hear firsthand the frustration of residents. One story shared at the forum was from a video journalist. She previously worked in New York but had recently relocated to Stockton. When in the US, it would take her three minutes to upload a video story ready to publish; in Stockton, it takes her 13 hours.

Super-fast broadband is essential to harness the economic potential of Newcastle's budding entrepreneurs and businesses. That is why under Labor the entire electorate of Newcastle, including Stockton, was on the map for connection by 2016. While most of the electorate, including Stockton, has now been added back onto that rollout map, just a fraction will be connected to the NBN next year, creating a digital divide across the city. The Minister for Communications should start treating all Novocastrians with respect— (Time expired)

Mr SIMPKINS (Cowan) (13:53): I would like to raise the issue of aged care in Cowan, particularly the proposal for a care facility combined with independent living units at Paradise Quays in Ballajura within Cowan. This has been on the agenda for many years and there have been many complications based upon landownership and even the existence of the Water Corporation's chlorine facility in the nearby area. I myself have been involved since 2009. We are soon coming to the time for federal involvement.

I am nevertheless glad that the negotiations between the City of Swan and the state government have been successfully concluded regarding the ownership of the land so that facilities can be built. Now the negotiations continue regarding movement of the chlorine facility Koondoola so that the exclusion zone can also be moved and allow more a viable building program on the site. Several years ago, the Councillor Mel Congerton of the City of Swan and I met with the state minister to discuss the relocation of the chlorine facility. That cost has escalated since then and challenges for a viable project remain.

I hope that these negotiations will also be successful, but I want to say that I appreciate Senator the Hon. Mitch Fifield meeting with me in his capacity as the Assistant Minister for Social Services so that I can keep him informed of this important project. Once the infrastructure issues can be resolved and a provider identified, then it becomes increasingly a federal issue with the application for care places being made. I am determined to get this project built and deliver federal support for my constituents in Ballajura.

Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (13:55): The Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System, or ESCAS, was not only implemented in Indonesia but also implemented in the Middle East to prevent Australian sheep from being trussed and shoved into car boots in 50-degree-plus heat before being slaughtered by amateurs. Yet despite recurring ESCAS breaches in Kuwait, Israel, Gaza, Jordan and Vietnam, not one export company has been prosecuted or faced licence suspension. Australians have every right to question why.

Furthermore, Animals Australia's Lyn White has written to MPs to bring to our attention that a significant percentage of Australian sheep shipped to the major markets of Kuwait and Jordan are being killed and exported onwards to other countries as boxed Australian meat. This is ridiculous: contrary to both the interests of our animals, as well as our commercial interests. Australian animals are unnecessarily enduring a gruelling and distressing 25-day journey only to become a profitable meat export trade for another country.

As a matter of urgency, I join with Animals Australia in calling on the Department of Agriculture to mete out penalties on repeat offending export companies, such as licence suspension and prosecution, which will serve to motivate compliance with ESCAS. Decades of horrific abuse of Australian sheep at the Al Rai market in Kuwait and elsewhere will only end when offending live export companies are forced to take their regulatory— (Time expired)

Dr SOUTHCOTT (Boothby) (13:57): I rise to recognise the achievements of Andrew Tanner from Aberfoyle Park in my electorate. Andrew has faced many challenges in his life. He was born with two holes in his heart. During the surgery to repair those holds, Andrew suffered a stroke that caused him to become intellectually disabled. When Andrew was five, he was diagnosed with velocardiofacial syndrome. When he was eight, Andrew started riding with the local Riding for the Disabled Australia in Blackwood. Over the last 19 years, he has become an accomplished rider. Last year, he was selected to the Special Olympics Australian team and became the first male competitor to represent Australia in equestrian.

From 25 July to 2 August this year, 76 Aussie athletes wore the green and gold with pride in Los Angeles at the Special Olympics World Summer Games. Our team competed alongside 7,000 athletes from 177 countries. Andrew represented his country very well. In his first attempt at the games, he won both a gold and a bronze medal in his events. This is an incredible achievement which has required years of dedication, hard work and support from family and friends. Congratulations, Andrew. I believe I can speak for our local community when I say that we are very proud of you.

Ms BIRD (Cunningham) (13:58): Last week, I attended a community meeting in my area with the member for Throsby, which was called by the South Coast Labour Council and the Australian Workers' Union to explore an issue of great concern across our community: the future of BlueScope Steel. I am glad that the minister has just entered the room, as I am addressing the BlueScope Steel issue.

This is a critical industry that has been in our area for decades. My own grandmother was a cook there and my dad did his apprenticeship there. Its story is woven throughout the stories of all the families in our region. It is facing a particularly tough time. Yesterday, we hosted a delegation of the union to meet with shadow ministers. I know that they are also meeting with government ministers. They are talking about the need for governments at both state and federal levels to engage in a policy to save the steel industry. It is very, very important to us as a region. As I said, I know the minister was meeting with them today.

I just want to take this opportunity in this parliament to reinforce their message: for our community, this is a critically important industry. We hope that the government at both state and federal levels work with all the stakeholders to ensure that we do whatever we can to save the steel industry for the future and to support a region that desperately needs some support from governments on this case.

The SPEAKER: It being almost 2 pm, in accordance with standing order 43, the time for members’ statements has concluded.

Mr COLEMAN (Banks) (14:13): Will the Treasurer update the House on the state of the international economy? What do recent developments in the Chinese economy mean for Australia?

The SPEAKER (15:17): I present the Auditor-General's Audit report No. 3 of 2015-16 entitled Performance audit—Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park permits and approvals: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

The SPEAKER (15:17): I have received a letter from the honourable member for Kingston proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Prime Minister's plan to hit Australian students with $100,000 degrees

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Ms RISHWORTH (Kingston) (15:17): I rise on this incredibly important matter of public importance—that is, the Prime Minister's continued love affair with $100,000 degrees. It is so unfortunate that, despite this legislation being rejected by the this parliament on two occasions, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Education seem obsessed with bringing it back a third time. I have a message for the Prime Minister and for the Minister for Education: this is a dud of a policy. It is a policy that will not have support from this parliament, and it is time they gave up.

The Prime Minister has said this week:

… a lot of people who voted for us were going to feel dudded.

They certainly felt dudded by the 2014 budget, in which the Prime Minister and the Minister for Education brought the Australian people a proposal that they had no notice of. In fact, before the last election, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Education said that there would be no cuts to education. Indeed, they said that there would be no changes to university funding. The Minister for Education said this after the election in November. He said, 'No, we're not going to change the fees that we charge at universities.' It is understandable that the Australian people were shocked on budget night. Now, this bad piece of legislation—which would affect thousands of students, which would be a barrier to students choosing to take up a higher education degree and which would lead to so much debt for students—continues to be pursued by this Prime Minister. One must question whether or not it is a captain's pick.

The captain has got 'Mr Fix-it' onto the job.

Mr Frydenberg: The fixer.

Ms RISHWORTH: The fixer, sorry. If I were in a bind, I would not call the Minister for Education, but obviously the Prime Minister has. The Prime Minister has called up the fixer and said, 'Come and fix my problem.' He has tried. He spent $15 million on advertising his changes, which have been rejected by the parliament. We know that he was demon dialling the crossbench, who were rejecting his calls. They had had enough. They did not want him to call anymore. In fact, they deleted his number from their phone. What did he do? He said: 'They might not answer my phone call, but I am going to spend $150,000 on consultants. Maybe they will answer the phone to the consultants, if they won't answer my phone call.' Of course, the fixer cannot fix this for the Prime Minister—just like he cannot fix many things for the Prime Minister. This policy has been foisted on the Australian people. It makes severe cuts to our universities—billions and billions of dollars ripped out. It deregulates universities, forcing $100,000 degrees.

The Minister for Education and the Prime Minister often claim that they have support from the university sector. We know that they are losing friends fast. They are losing friends fast when it comes to higher education and the minister's third round of proposed changes. Even the Group of Eight have said, 'It is time to go back to the drawing board.' The fixer has not been able to fix the Group of Eight; the fixer has now been told by the Group of Eight, his biggest supporters, to go back to the drawing board. So it is time for the government and the Prime Minister to abandon this plan, because the Australian people do feel incredibly dudded. As I said, this proposal is the third time that this has been brought to the parliament. Where is legislation? Of course, the Minister for Education—

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

Ms RISHWORTH: I hear the member on the other side of the table say, 'Double D.' I have to say, if the Prime Minister would like to go to a double dissolution election on his proposal for $100,000 degrees, bring it on. That is because when I am out talking—and perhaps the Prime Minister should get out a little bit more and talk to the Australian people—the Australian people certainly do not support his $100,000 degrees. They certainly do not support his 20 per cent, on average, cut to our universities, his cut to equity programs or his cut to research—the list goes on.

We have got the mark 3 legislation, even though the Minister for Education said that if it got defeated in March, he would give up. He has had a new lease of life and one can only assume that new lease of life is just to prop up the budget. Why else would the minister have said, 'We will abandon this legislation. We will not go ahead with that in March.' But now he continues to push ahead with it. It is because these big cuts are in the budget and those on the other side need to continue to prop up their budget and continue to try to make their budget look respectable. But, as the members behind me have said, they have doubled the deficit and that doubled deficit counts the savings; they have already banked the savings of this failed policy.

But this side of the House will not back down when it comes to mark 3 of the legislation. No matter how much spending on consultants and no matter how much spending on demon dialling and advertising to the Australian people, we will not move our resolve to block this legislation. Why? Why we block this legislation? Because it is fundamentally bad policy. It is terrible policy that will leave so many locked out of the Australian university sector and locked out of the higher education sector. It is fundamentally bad policy we are seeing. You only have to look across the world where this is happening to see that. We see in the US that there is $1.2 trillion worth of student debt. That is what is happening in the US. What we know is that debt in the US is stopping people from being able to buy a house and to actually start a small business. It is an impost on the economic contribution that they are making to the country.

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

Ms RISHWORTH: Quite frankly, I find the interjections from those on the other side odd, because I have not seen them yet in the university defending this policy. They have not dared to go onto a university campus.

Mr Frydenberg: I have!

Ms RISHWORTH: Well, they obviously did not let any students and staff know they were there. I am not sure who they were talking to.

Mr Tudge: I need police protection!

Ms RISHWORTH: The member says that he needs police protection. I am not surprised, when he is taking Australian students and Australian universities down a very dark path. It is not surprising that he needs protection from the Australian people. I will stay on track, because I was pointing out that this is incredibly bad policy and it is time for the minister and the Prime Minister to give it up. The Prime Minister has had a bad week. There is no doubt about it; he has had a bad week. It has been a difficult time for him. My advice to him would be, if he wanted to turn his week around, to abandon this plan. He could come out tomorrow and say, 'This is a captain's pick.' One of the few popular captain's picks would be to abandon his plan for $100,000 degrees, because it absolutely bad policy.

The minister is losing friends very quickly. As I said, in the Group of Eight there are more and more vice-chancellors that are saying that this policy is not right. Of course, we have got the crossbench who is saying that nothing will move them, because it is fundamentally bad policy. We have each of those senators telling the minister that, so the question is: why do they pursue this? Why are they pursuing this unfair and unpopular package? It is time that they did listen to the Australian people and actually abandon this.

In the small time that I have left, I would like to say that the Labor Party stands in stark contrast. In Bluestocking Week, when we celebrate the contribution of women to higher education, we see that while the Liberal Party has $100,000 degrees, Labor has a clear program in which we will focus on STEM. We will focus on STEM because that is where the jobs of tomorrow will come from. Indeed, one of our policies—we have got a whole suite that I will not have time to go through—is that we will fund $100,000 STEM award degrees: $20,000 a year for five years, which will provide a financial incentive for students to enrol. We will focus on encouraging women to participate in that. It would be great to see those on the other side actually have a policy to address STEM and to attract women to STEM disciplines. Labor has a policy on this; the Liberal Party does not. (Time expired)

Mr TUDGE (Aston—Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) (15:28): Mr Speaker, may I congratulate you on your election to this high office. Labor are experts at peddling false information about the government's policies. As we know, they will suggest that we have cut things when we have in fact increased the funding. They peddle misinformation in relation to our industrial relations policy. They have a shameless, if not racist attack, on our free trade agreement with China. But perhaps the greatest misinformation, which they have been peddling now for close to 18 months, is this idea that our higher education policy would lead to $100,000 degrees.

That is perhaps the greatest misinformation that they have been peddling, because the implications of what they are saying and what they have been telling the Australian people is that if this higher education package passes through the Senate, then every single degree would cost $100,000 or more. They also suggest that that would be an up-front cost to boot on top of that. Not only is that misleading, not only is that wrong and not only is that factually incorrect but it is actually sending a very poor message to those people who are thinking about wanting to go into higher education. It is destroying their hopes and their aspirations. They are starting to believe that they will no longer be able to afford to go to university. That is the damage that the Labor Party is doing by peddling this falsehood that university degrees are all going to be $100,000.

I would like to go through the facts of what we are actually proposing. What we are proposing—what we put forward through to this parliament—is to deregulate fees. As you probably know, Mr Deputy Speaker, at present there is a legal limit on what the universities can charge students. In essence, we were suggesting that we should remove that legal limit and leave it up to the university councils themselves as to what fee they should be charging university students. They would still be charging it completely through the HECS system—students would have no upfront costs, no fees that they would have to pay before they entered into that degree—but they would have the ability to set the fees, be it that they put them up or be it that they put them down. We would be entrusting the university councils, made up of the best and brightest minds in the nation, to set those fees.

The idea there was that we would get a differentiation amongst the university sector. Some universities which are striving to be the very best in the world, such as the University of Melbourne, or a university like Monash or UNSW, may indeed put up their fees for some courses so that they can offer something very unique in the world. Other universities, for particular courses, may indeed drop their fees under such a model.

But how do we know that Labor has in fact been telling falsehoods, and continues to tell falsehoods even to this very day about $100,000 degrees? How do we know this? We know this because we have been listening to what the universities themselves have been saying. I would actually like to go through this very slowly for the benefit of the opposition, so that they know what the universities themselves have been saying, given that it is the universities themselves who would be setting the fees.

Let's take a look: Queensland University of Technology issued their fee guidelines under a deregulated model on 5 December last year. Let's have a look at the proposed fees. A Bachelor of Nursing, which would be a three-year degree—how much do you think they would be suggesting for that? If you were listening to the member for Kingston and listening to the Labor Party, you would be thinking, 'Jeez, a Bachelor of Nursing at QUT in a deregulated fee environment, oh my goodness!' Let's have a look. A three-year degree: $31,800 at the max, and potentially only $21,400 at the minimum for three years. At the very most, it is less than $10,000 per year.

Let's have a look at the Bachelor of Business, where you are likely to earn more money: somewhere between $32,300 for a three-year degree, with a maximum of $41,400. The most expensive course which they tabled—and they have tabled every single course and every single bachelor degree—is a 5½-year course, which is a double degree for a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Laws, which in total would be between $61,000 and $78,000 at the absolute max. Again, where is the $100,000 degree for any of those courses under this? I would like to table this for the benefit of the Labor Party so that they can see that.

Let me go to the University of La Trobe. It is a university in my great state of Victoria. The University of La Trobe said that in 2015 they are offering a guarantee that their fees will not increase by more than 10 per cent above the regulated student contribution each year of their degree—an increase of only 10 per cent.

You know what Open Universities Australia said? For the benefit of the gallery and of those people listening, they said:

… we are confident that for numerous courses deregulation of fees will … lead to—

wait for this—

a significant decrease in the cost of tuition.

Ms Rishworth: Show us your modelling! The department has done modelling and won’t release it!

Mr TUDGE: A significant decrease in the cost of tuition, say Open Universities Australia. That is what they have said.

Let's have a look at this from the Australian Technology Network head, Vicki Thomson, who looks after, I think, about 10 universities in Australia. The headline here is, 'Don't be fooled by "$100,000 degrees':

So let me repeat what has been said a million times: the university sector is not looking to introduce standard $100,000 degrees and deregulation won’t deliver them.

…   …   …

It is not only wrong, it is shameful for the fear such myths are creating in the community.

That is exactly right. It is shameful.

Ms Rishworth: Heaven forbid!

Mr TUDGE: The member for Kingston is interjecting over here, and it is difficult to hear with her interjections. Let me just go through it. If any university were going to increase their fees, you would think that it would be the Group of Eight universities—the so-called 'sandstone' universities. If anyone were going to increase their fees, you would think it would be them.

So let's have a look at that. The University of Western Australia, as you know, says:

Based on current legislation before the Federal Senate, UWA proposes to set an annual fee of $16,000 for domestic full-time students enrolled in its five undergraduate degree courses.

…   …   …

UWA is offering future students the opportunity to obtain a three-year undergraduate degree from one of the world's top 100 universities for less than $50,000.

Again, I still cannot find the $100,000 number.

I will go on. I will table here the Group of Eight universities. Again, they have their indicative fees for all of the Group of Eight universities—that includes the University of Adelaide—and again it gets nowhere near the $100,000 degree which Labor shamelessly prosecutes day in and day out everywhere they go. And they have been doing this for such a long time. That is an absolute disgrace.

Why does the Labor Party do this? Why does the Labor Party peddle these falsehoods day in, day out? Is it because they are just blind to hearing this information? Have they not read this information which I have been talking about today? It is all in the public domain. Do they not believe these statements from the university vice-chancellors themselves? Do they not believe these statements? What is it? We know what it is. It is just pure and unadulterated politics. It is the politics of fear the Labor Party is spreading which is having the effect of killing the aspirations and the hopes of so many people across the community. They should absolutely be ashamed of themselves, as Vicki Thomson outlined perfectly.

You know, the Labor Party used to be a reformist party. In the Hawke and Keating era, they were a reformist party. They introduced the HECS system. And we supported the introduction of the HECS system because it opened up so many more opportunities. And do you know what our package would do? It would do the same. It would open up 80,000 new opportunities for people, particularly at the associate degree level. It would open up so many more opportunities because we would be offering the biggest scholarship program in Australian history. That is what this package would do, and that is what the Labor Party are blocking. The Labor Party are peddling falsehoods and they should be ashamed of themselves. They are blocking opportunities for the Australian people.

Ms BURKE (Chisholm) (15:38): I would be fascinated to know what the member said when he was the student president at university in the bygone days when HECS was introduced. I would like to dig that up—because I have got on record what Peter Costello said about HECS when he was the student president at Monash University. You may say that the Labor Party was once great. But I am not going to say that the Liberal Party was once great—it has never been great. And this week has been a complete demonstration that we cannot point to anything they have done that was reformist or good. This week we saw the astounding event of a six-hour party room meeting. In my 17 years in this place I have never seen the Labor Party sit through six hours of discussion.

Why do I raise that? Because the Prime Minister said, quite rightly, that a lot of people who voted for the Liberal Party are going to feel dudded. Well, they feel a lot more dudded about this appalling legislation. This was an extraordinary statement from a Prime Minister who has already dudded every voter across this country. He has dudded every pensioner, every retiree, every hardworking low-and middle income family and women in particular around parental leave. Most importantly, he has dudded young people who are struggling to get an education—young people with hope and aspirations not based on their parents' income but on their ability to go to university. The Prime Minister wants to dramatically increase the out-of-pocket costs for every university degree and push some up as high as $100,000—and the Group of Eight have mentioned that.

And why do we know this could happen? Because it has happened before. It happened under the Howard government when the maximum rate for HECS was introduced. Here is how one newspaper paraphrased the then education minister, Brendan Nelson, at the time:

Education Minister Brendan Nelson has said that introducing fee flexibility would mean some course costs would rise, some would drop and others would stay the same, according to demand.

Does that sound vaguely familiar? Yes—because it is exactly what the current education minister has said. But did that happen? No, it did not. Here's what Dr Nelson said in an opinion piece he wrote at the time:

Some institutions may increase the tuition fees in some disciplines. Some institutions have already indicated they would like to reduce their fees or make no change at all.

But what happened? Here is what Dr Nelson said during debate on his bill:

Some university vice-chancellors have already said that they will not be changing their HECS charges .... it is quite wrong for critics to say that every HECS charge is going up by 30 per cent …

Sound familiar? Yes. And what happened? Everyone rose to the maximum amount of 30 per cent when there was a cap.

Deregulate and you all have to go to the maximum amount, especially when you are also taking away 20 per cent of the funding to universities. That is something that they took off the table—standing next to the Group of Eight—before this budget. And then it was miraculously back in the budget papers. We were told that the 20 per cent was going. We were told by the Prime Minister before he won the election that there would be no cuts to education. What a joke! What an out and out disgrace! What a lie!

We were also promised by the Minister for Education that they were not going to raise fees. But the first thing he introduced into this parliament was legislation to deregulate, which was automatically going to increase fees and take away 20 per cent of funding. Why is this so important to me? Because my electorate is home to over 50,000 university students at Monash and Clayton and the Deakin city campus at Burwood. I was at Deakin just the other day having a sausage sizzle with the students. Every one of them is concerned. They are not concerned about what we are telling them; they are concerned about what the university is not telling them. What is actually going to be the cost of their degree into the future? And it is not just for future students; it is for students now. Before, you probably would not have used higher education as a thing you would lobby on. But now everyone should have the aspiration for their child and for themselves to go to university. Deakin university will lose $157 million in funding over four years, and Monash will lose more. This will also reduce the ability to do research in this field.

And what about STEM for the future? What about the kids at great institutions like Box Hill High in my electorate, which is an amazing STEM institution already? Already, 305 students who have graduated from Box Hill High have gone on to STEM courses. This is a local government high school that provides amazing science and maths courses. In particular, it runs a program for educating boys. It is an exciting place to be. But already the students there are concerned that they will never have the opportunity to go to university. They know that their parents have made sacrifices enough. How are the government going to get away with this? The Prime Minister should be sorry for dudding every student in this country— (Time expired)

Mr PORTER (Pearce—Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) (15:43): I think the notion of $100,000 university degrees is one of those very rare phenomena where the sighting of the existence of the phenomenon is in direct and inverse proportion to the actual evidence of the existence of the phenomenon—and there are a few instances where that has occurred. But I know that is definitely the case here because the proposition in this MPI from members opposite is that deregulating the tertiary education sector would force universities into a position where they would charge $100,000 for degrees. We have heard 15 full minutes from members opposite of weird, wild and colourful spin. The only thing missing is one single solitary example of a $100,000 degree that they can stand up and put on Hansard. Where is it? Let the record show that there is silence! One single example—

Ms Rishworth interjecting—

Mr PORTER: That is interesting! Let's look at that head-on. In its official publication outlining its degrees, UWA is offering future students the opportunity to obtain a three-year undergraduate degree, from one of the world's top universities, for less than $50,000.

Ms Rishworth interjecting—

Mr PORTER: Is that right? You cannot become a doctor or a lawyer by only doing a single undergraduate degree? I know that your maths is average, but let me put this to you—if you do a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Law at the University of Western Australia, how many degrees are you doing? One plus one is two. If you do a Bachelor of Law at Curtin University, when you have the ability to do that as an undergraduate, how many degrees are you doing at Curtin University? That would be one. I had taken it to mean, when you had advertised quite unfairly that there would be university degrees that would cost $100,000, that you were not adding up four or five or six university degrees. It is absolutely ridiculous. You fail at the first hurdle. There is not a single example of a $100,000 degree. There are posters everywhere, up and down the corridors—not a single example. The only other phenomenon that I can think—

An opposition member interjecting—

Mr PORTER: Is that at QUT? The Bachelor of Laws at QUT, in all their scenarios, is either under or just over $50,000. This is the officially released costings of the university. Do you know what the best modelling to determine what a university fee is going to be? That is the modelling that the university provides to the students who will be paying the fee. You would think it is pretty reputable modelling. I certainly think it is more reputable than silence.

The ridiculous thing here is that university after university has come out and said that the notion of $100,000 degrees is simply absurd. QUT said:

… at a minimum, we must maintain our current university funding levels, and directly link any increase in fees to educational improvements for students.

In the 15 per cent reduction scenario, which I believe was the one they favoured, the lowest total fee for a course over three years is the Bachelor of Nursing, at $29,200, and the highest three-year course is the Bachelor of Business, at $39,100. They publish what the fees will be. The University of Western Australia have undergraduate fees at about $50,000—from a Go8 and top 100 world university.

The Group of Eight modelling of likely fees in a deregulated system has business at $59,000, humanities at $42,000, social studies at $42,000, psychology at $59,000, IT at $44,000, visual performing arts at $44,000, performing arts at $36,000, mathematics at $38,000, foreign languages at $29,000 and science at $38,000. One needs only imperfect math to see that they all fall well short—indeed, mostly by 50 per cent—of the $100,000 mark.

I can only think of a few other phenomena where there is such an inverse proportionality between the sighting of the existence of the phenomenon and the actual evidence for it—this is the Big Foot of political debate, the Elvis sighting of political debate. I understand that Kalamazoo, Michigan, is where the greatest cluster of Elvis sightings has occurred. It is a great and sad thing, because it would have been Elvis's 80th birthday on 8 January this year, but the sad and real truth is that Elvis does not exist, and yet this myth of sightings of the great man lives on, even though the evidence is zero. There is absolutely no difference whatsoever. You have got as much chance, Members opposite, of producing the king here as of demonstrating that there will be a $100,000 degree.

Ms PARKE (Fremantle) (15:48): It was Oscar Wilde who had his character in Lady Windermere's Fan Lord Darlington say that a cynic was a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. You could say that those who put a blind faith in market forces, who think deregulation is an end in itself, suffer from the same hopeless mix of obsession and ignorance. And this government, in so many areas, has shown that same inclination to let the market loose, to let prices and profits reign in areas where prices and profits do not belong and to allow the often unfair, imbalanced and distorting effects of an improperly regulated market to cause harm to Australia's social fabric.

The most important aspects of our shared wellbeing, and indeed the defining features of the fair go in Australia, are the public goods we enjoy and maintain together—our public health and public education systems, our land and marine environments. Yet this government in all those areas wants to privatise and deregulate or else enable the private exploitation of those shared public goods. This is ideological madness.

The government's proposed deregulation of university fees will take higher education further down the path to becoming a product to be advertised and sold to those with the greatest purchasing power. It will take university education further down the path of commodification and image marketing, and it will make Australia's productivity and innovation future subject to both personal and institutional economic self-interest.

Universities are not supermarkets, and degrees are not products to be produced at the cheapest cost and sold to the highest bidder. We are fortunate in Australia to be able to consider the path other nations have followed in comparable areas of public policy, and of course the United States is particularly relevant as a country that has favoured deregulation and the private-sector provision of health and education. On that point, it is interesting that last July, when Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was asked to nominate the two biggest mistakes the government could make in taking Australia down the path of economic stagnation and widening inequality, he cited the deregulation of universities and the introduction of the Medicare co-payment. In stark contrast to the Minister for Education, who said Australia has much to learn from the United States, Mr Stiglitz said:

Countries that imitate the American model are kidding themselves.

He went on to say:

Trying to pretend that universities are like private markets is absurd. The worst-functioning part of the US educational market at the tertiary level is the private for-profit system. It is a disaster. It excels in one area, exploiting poor children.

If you're rich your parents can pay the fees, but if you are poor you are going to worry about how much debt you're undertaking.

It is a way of closing off opportunity and that's why the US doesn't have educational opportunity.

While we in the US are trying to re-regulate universities, you are talking about deregulating them. It really is a crime.

That is what is at issue here—a proposal to make university education less accessible and less fair. It is absolute rubbish for people to claim that the use of the HECS or HELP loan schemes makes the level of fee irrelevant. Anyone with any experience of the real world, especially the real world of people in lower income families, would know that the prospect of taking on a large debt acts as a powerful disincentive. It will mean that young people who already question whether university is a feasible option choose not to back themselves and their talent and their potential, or else choose a cheaper option than the course to which they are best suited.

In my state we do not need to speculate about how the government's proposed deregulation would change the landscape, because there has already been a clear indication from the University of Western Australia about how it would respond. UWA announced that it would replace the current three-tier system of regulated fees, where the highest fee is $10,500, with a flat fee across its five bachelor degree streams of $16,000 a year

That amounted to a price rise of 55 per cent for commerce students, 75 per cent for science students and 155 per cent for arts students.

This is the reality in prospect under the Abbott government's deregulation agenda for Australian universities and Australian students—a massive jump in the cost burden and a massive barrier and disincentive for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and from rural and regional areas, as I was, who already face additional challenges.

I have some sympathy for the universities themselves—to the extent that the government is offering fee deregulation as a sop to cover huge cuts in funding to the sector. But I am glad that the uncritical and even unbridled enthusiasm of some universities has given way to a more sober assessment of the real effects and impacts of deregulation on education, equality of opportunity and fairness in Australia.

The Abbott government's proposed funding cuts and fee deregulation for tertiary education in Australia have rightly been rejected by this parliament on two occasions; they represent another broken promise, another example of a government that wants to price everything but values nothing.

Mr CHRISTENSEN (Dawson—The Nationals Deputy Whip) (15:53): What a very rare thing we are debating at the moment—a debt that the Labor Party actually does not like! In this case, it is student debt. This is a very rare thing we are debating. It is almost as rare as the $100,000 degrees that we are told about in the member for Kingston's MPI here. It says in the MPI that there are $100,000 degrees, and so it says on the posters that the Labor Party members put out the front of their offices here in Parliament House, along with all the propaganda that they are speaking to themselves about.

Where are these $100,000 degrees? We have looked high. We have looked low. The member for Aston has looked for them. The member who spoke earlier has looked for them. We have looked for them in the Group of Eight. We have looked for them in the sandstone universities. We looked for them in the University of Western Australia when it set its fees. We looked for them in QUT when it set its fees. I could look for them in the Regional Universities Network. One university that is a member of that is the Central Queensland University. They say:

Despite the scare campaign, we do not believe that $100,000 degrees will be a reality in the regions.

So they do not exist in the cities or the regions. Where, oh, where are these $100,000 degrees?

Mr Speaker, I am just going to check my drawer and see if there is a $100,000 degree in here. No, there are no 100,000 degrees in here. Perhaps you could check under your computers for me, Mr Deputy Speaker! Member for Aston, perhaps you could check in the dispatch box. Please, tell me if one of those $100,000 degrees is in there. We are having a hard time finding them.

But they exist, apparently. Where? In Labor Party modelling. The only place they exist is in modelling that those opposite have paid for. It might have been done by NATSEM, but everyone knows one thing about modelling: if you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out. That is exactly what these $100,000 degrees are—absolute rubbish.

It is disgraceful that the Labor Party have come into this place and attacked the very fundamental thing we have in this country of university education that is accessible to all students. In doing so, they are undermining the system. They are undermining the system because they are going to make it financially unviable. When they come in here, their proposals all sound great. They came in here on the reply-to-the-budget night and the Leader of the Opposition said, 'We are going to make university degrees free for a bunch of people in the STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—area.' It sounds great, but ultimately nothing is free. Someone has to pay. When we looked to see what the costs were, the first to come out was at 8.59 that Thursday night when the speech was delivered by the Leader of the Opposition. It came out in The Guardian. They said, 'It is going to be $353.2 million.' That figure was too big, so the Labor Party ran around and shortly afterwards said, 'No, no. It's only $45 million.' There was a lot of confusion because these were numbers that were coming out of the Labor Party.

Then we heard from the Leader of the Opposition the next day on ABC Radio National that it was only $350 million. Then, again, later on in its FutureSmart Universities policy released that day they said it was going to be only $45 million. They went back and forth. They do not know the numbers. Then the next day in The Australian it was reported that it would be a $1.4 billion hit to the taxpayer and to the university system, making this university system unsustainable. And now they have the gall to come in here and lecture us about fictional $100,000 degrees when what we want to do is make the university system sustainable well into the future. Right now it is not and it certainly will not be if Labor come in and give out free degrees to people.

The principles we have in the university system are right. You can basically put your degree on the credit card and pay it back when you have the capacity to do so. That is a great thing for students from all walks of life, from all socioeconomic groups, and it is something that should remain in place. The Labor Party should get on board with the deregulation we are proposing.

Ms VAMVAKINOU (Calwell) (15:58): Tony Abbott continues to be an absolute nightmare for my constituents. Having won an election promising no cuts to education, the Prime Minister is determined to hit my local students and their families with $100,000 tertiary degrees. Just like the rest of the Australian public that have been repeatedly and comprehensively dudded by this Prime Minister on a whole raft of issues, my electorate is rightfully outraged.

Calwell is one of the most disadvantaged electorates in the country. It traditionally has one of the lowest rates of participation in tertiary education. By substantially increasing university fees, the participation rate will deteriorate further. The government's $100,000-degree fiasco is happening at a time when my local school and parent communities as well as myself as the federal member, the state members and the local council have been working very hard to encourage our young people to stay in school and to give them the confidence to believe that they can go on to higher learning. A lot of this work is now at risk, and it is work that comes on the back of massive investments in my electorate from previous state and federal Labor governments.

With the progressive and social justice policies of past Labor governments, we have built an education infrastructure in Calwell that we are very proud of. We have created an environment where our kids love learning and have the confidence to remain in school and aspire to realise their full potential. In fact, we encourage them to do so at all levels.

I often talk to parents about their children and see the pride that parents have in their children's achievements and the hopes they have for their education future. In my electorate there are many young people who have the necessary skills, intelligence and determination to contribute to society in great and various ways by becoming doctors, lawyers, scientists and educators, to name but a few. I visit my schools and talk to my local students, who tell me about their plans and what they hope to become some day, and a large number of them want to go to university. Yet I believe that the government, with its proposed university cuts, is stealing their dreams.

When I think of how $100,000 degrees are going to affect my community, I think of a new and emerging community, the Iraqi community. They came here as refugees, and a great number of them are tertiary qualified. In fact, I had the pleasure of attending the 80th birthday party of the first female dentist in Iraq, who resides in my electorate. She is just one example of the many members of this community who took every opportunity available to them in their home country of Iraq to complete higher education and become successful members of society. This community place a high premium on education and they want the same opportunities they had in Iraq for their children here in their new home, Australia. But $100,000 degrees will make this very difficult if not impossible, because these are not wealthy people. They are people who are trying to establish themselves in Australia by finding a job, and their priority is to provide for their families in addition to their children's education. In fact, most families in my electorate are struggling to make ends meet. So imagine what the additional burden of $100,000 degrees will do, not just to the family budget, but to their aspirations for their children.

During the Rudd-Gillard years, we significantly increased the number of Commonwealth supported places at universities for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. The university in my electorate that is attended by a large number of students is La Trobe University. As a result of the previous Labor government increasing the number of Commonwealth supported places, a number of my local students were given the opportunity to attend this university; many were the first in their families to do so.

This government's budget proposes to cut over $136 million to La Trobe University's Commonwealth Grant Scheme over the next four years. I can only imagine what this will do to the opportunity for my young people to attend La Trobe University, and other universities, for that matter. In the process of slashing funds to universities, Minister Pyne claims that the government's higher education changes will benefit students from low socio-economic backgrounds because, as he says, they will create more places for brighter kids from these backgrounds. This is a con job, because the proposed Commonwealth Scholarships Program will not receive Commonwealth funding. Instead, this program will be funded entirely by student fees. So, whilst indeed the program may be of benefit to a limited number of students who meet the criteria, it is not an answer for those who miss out because of capping or eligibility criteria. My community will still be left with students who will not be able to access higher education, because they will miss out.

This is truly an extraordinary and heartbreaking waste of potential, not just for— (Time expired)

Mr WILLIAMS (Hindmarsh) (16:03): What we have not heard in this discussion this afternoon is what is best for the university sector, what is best for the students of our country and what is best for the future of Australia. The opposition has conveniently neglected to address these issues. In reflecting on some of the things that universities have said about changes they would like to see in the way they operate, I will quote a few of their leaders. The peak body representing Australia's universities says that the reforms are a 'once in a generation opportunity' to shape a higher education system that is 'sustainable, affordable and equitable' for students of the nation. Universities Australia Chief Executive Belinda Robinson said failure of the package will condemn the university system to 'inevitable decline'. The Vice-Chancellor of the ANU said it would be 'a great tragedy for our nation, for our universities, for our future generations' if this opportunity were passed up. Over the last year we have heard former Labor members like Gareth Evans, John Dawkins and Maxine McKew, and the list goes on, endorsing a change.

We know that universities in Australia are facing great challenges. They are facing competition from the ever-powerful universities around the world, particularly in Asia, including China. They know that the system needs to change to give them a better chance to succeed, a better chance to operate their universities the way they want to and a better chance to determine their own future. We know the government is not increasing fees. We know that, through competition, universities will be forced to set reasonable fees. We have heard a lot about $100,000 degrees. My good colleagues, whether the member for Dawson or the member for Pearce, have clearly articulated that there is no evidence for that. As the member for Pearce said, it is like the sighting of Elvis—all myth and no evidence, no reality.

The member for Kingston raised the issue of STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She failed to acknowledge that the federal government has been investing considerably in STEM in recent years. There is an extra $12 million to restore focus and increase students' uptake of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects in primary and secondary schooling across the country. This builds on another $5 million program. So we are committed to STEM—always have been, always will be. If you commit to something, it is important that you get the costings right. We have heard about Labor's costings for surpluses. Just recently the member for Dawson raised their costings for their HECS subsidisation. We know their costings bounced around numerous figures, whether $350 million or $42 million, and the media just tore this part. There is a lack of credibility to their costings. They were done on the run, with very little thought.

Labor are running a scare campaign on this issue.

I go back to what has been said by universities themselves. The Queensland University of Technology have released the modest fee increases that there would be under a deregulated system, with degrees in science and nursing costing just under $30,000, and their business-law double degree, 'one of the best in the country', would be $14,272 a year for 5½ years. That is evidence that there is no credibility to these claims of $100,000 degrees. That is Labor, again: scare campaigns, falsehoods, lack of credibility on costings and on policy. They have talked about policy a lot, but all we have is their wish list for subsidisation of degrees in which they could not even get the costings right, whereas we have moved on to what is really needed for our nation in terms of the reforms that are required to drive the university sector forward.

It is not just universities that are backing this; it is our industries and the key leaders of our business councils, such as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They have all submitted their recommendations on the need to change our higher education system for the future of our country because we need to compete in a new world, in a new space, with a knowledge based economy. The skills of our future generations need a change in structure and support, and that is what these reforms would offer if they are allowed to proceed. I thank the House.

Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (16:08): Coalition MPs are claiming that $100,000 degrees do not exist. If they seriously are saying that these degrees will not become a reality under their overhaul of the higher education system, then they should release their own modelling, the modelling that they have refused to release for over a year. I have said previously that today's young people have the misfortune to face an axis of financial evil: job insecurity, housing unaffordability and student debt. It is their particular misfortune to have an education minister who does not give a continental about their financial hardship. Nor does he care about maintaining academic standards and the reputations of our universities.

If the Liberal government succeeds in its plan to deregulate university fees, we will have achieved the complete opposite of the system in the 1970s, when places were allocated on the basis of academic merit. Academic merit and performance will count for nothing. Your financial capacity—or, more accurately, your parents' capacity—to pay large fees will count for everything. Under that system, what point would there be in working hard during year 12? Of what value would be the marks of students past who have worked hard and did well in year 12? Good luck to the year 12 teachers, and secondary teachers generally, trying to encourage their students to do the hard yards and finish secondary school!

This is no scare campaign. With higher university fees, uncapped places and the reliance on overseas students, we are already seeing universities stray far from their original, noble purpose of being seekers after truth and educators of young minds. Now many of them regard making a profit as their core objective and behave like Coles and Woolworths.

The University of Wollongong bought a table at a Liberal Party fundraising breakfast in Sydney in 2011, paying $1,000 to do so. The New South Wales Auditor-General reported in 2015 that three universities had made political donations since 2008, and the Auditor-General describe this as an 'inappropriate use of public moneys' and recommended policies to prohibit political donations from universities.

Uncapped places and deregulated fees are just another free-market dream that will give us declining academic quality and increasing social inequality. Indeed, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption says that universities are now so financially reliant on international students that they are unable to fully confront academic incompetence and poor language skills, plagiarism or even bribery. ICAC says in its report:

There is no simple solution that will effectively eliminate the gap between the capabilities of the students and the academic demands of the universities, and no easy way to eliminate the corruption pressures created by the gap.

It says:

Students may be struggling to pass, but universities cannot afford to fail them.

It also says:

For students entering universities with low levels of English, false entry qualifications or financial pressures to work rather than study, cheating in some form or another will often be seen as an easy solution for passing the course.

This cheating has included the use of ghostwriters, stealing exam papers and hacking lecturers' computers.

ABC's Four Corners program reported in April 2015 that education agents in China, which supplies one-quarter of Australia's international students, advise on how to get around enrolment standards. It also quoted current and former academics, who said that plagiarism was being ignored in universities and that there were strong internal pressure in universities to pass failing students. University of Queensland Professor Paul Frijters said:

'We've got to pass the vast majority of our students no matter what their level is, no matter what their prior knowledge is, no matter how much or how little effort they put in.'

Zena O'Connor, a lecturer in the architecture, design and planning faculty at the University of Sydney, said the university's response when told that plagiarism had increased sharply was, 'Thank you for your feedback.'

It is regrettable that students are now under such pressure, with high fees and a shortage of graduate jobs, that they are driven to cheat. It is a clear sign that we have taken a wrong turn in relation to tertiary education. If we deregulate student fees, as the minister proposes, this government will be shamelessly selling out our young people and fitting them up for unprecedented levels of student debt. It is a scandalous way to treat our young people. Despite all the bluff and bluster on the government benches, there is absolutely no doubt that fee deregulation will lead to substantial fee hikes, as has occurred everywhere else it has been done. (Time expired)

Ms MARINO (Forrest—Government Whip) (16:13): To Labor members opposite, who think that a scare campaign is just a bit of fun—I have seen the laughter that has gone on today as part of this debate—I say: you have to be very careful what you wish for because, when you get it, it may be different to what you expect. Yes, your scare campaign about $100,000 university degrees might have looked like a bit of fun to you, but it certainly did not to the students in rural and regional Australia. That campaign actually has scared some young people; you got what you wished for. There are young people who have changed their minds about their future education opportunities because of your scare campaign. If that was Labor's intent, I am appalled. But that is exactly what it has done. I had a recent higher education forum, and that was some of the feedback that I got—that the campaign about $100,000 fees has actually prevented some young people from taking up their higher education opportunities. That is exactly what is going on. If young regional and rural students were not facing challenges, here is another one.

We saw what Labor did when they changed the criteria for youth allowance, given the challenges facing rural and regional students with accommodation. This is not their first go at this. We saw the effect on a whole lot of young rural and regional students during those early Labor years. And here they are still at it. That is the bit that I find particularly appalling. It is having an impact. That is the cruel personal cost of this type of campaign. It may have looked like a political opportunity—and they are very proud of those posters—but what is the human cost? Did they ever think of the human cost to a young person who has limited funds and a family in a small regional community that is already struggling to support them to go away from home and study? When they see those headlines—'$100,000 university fees'—what does that do to that family? I do not think Labor even gave any thought to what that might do to the aspirations of younger people.

As we know, universities in Australia have always come at a financial cost to students. Until 1974 university fees were the norm, and governments of both persuasions had policies and plans to make tertiary education available to as many people as possible. A Curtin Labor government increased the number of university graduates. In response it increased the number of scholarships funded by the Commonwealth. The Menzies Liberal government invested in higher education, especially in sciences, investing heavily in additional universities to cater for increased demand. Menzies also increased scholarships, and the coalition created a new category of federally funded tertiary institutions called colleges of advanced education, to provide even more bachelor-level degrees. Of course that very least respected Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, abolished university fees, and then Bob Hawke had to make a different decision and he introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.

Governments from both sides of politics—the rational ones anyway—believe that students need to make a contribution towards their own higher education. Both sides have a system where government funds the up-front cost, and the beneficiaries, the students themselves, are given the capacity to pay off their debt over time, as their income allows. This makes sure that all students have the same capacity to absorb and pay off higher education fees. But, as I said earlier, we should note that not all students have the same access to tertiary education. Those from a regional and rural area face accommodation and other costs that often are not part of what a student from a metropolitan area faces.

Labor have no understanding of this, or not only would they not have changed the youth allowance—going back all those years to when they first came into government—they would not be out there with posters threatening $100,000 university fees and scaring young people away from even trying to attain their higher education dreams. Those young people will come back to regional areas and be part of our future. That is exactly what we want to ensure. That is what the additional scholarships were about in our plan, and that is exactly what Labor have voted against. They have voted against further and greater opportunity for rural and regional students.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Goodenough ): The discussion has concluded.

Mr ANDREWS (Menzies—Minister for Defence) (16:19): I am indeed honoured and humbled to participate in this discussion of the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli, on the motion moved by the honourable Prime Minister.

One hundred years ago, Turkey repulsed the British and French fleet at Canakkale, decisively ending their attempt to force the straits. Four days later, the fateful decision was made to commit to an amphibious landing at Gallipoli. From this vantage point 100 years later, the Gallipoli campaign marked a turning point in the history of two nations that have been together ever since, Australia and New Zealand. For the great imperial powers of Europe, locked in the lethal stalemate on the Western Front, Gallipoli was in fact something of a sideline. A fleet of obsolete vessels and a relatively small force, reinforced by untested colonials, would attempt to break the stalemate by reopening a sea route to the Russians in the Black Sea, thus drawing Turkish troops away from Caucasian theatre of operations. It ultimately failed this objective.

From the Anglo-French perspective, the campaign that we commemorate the centenary of this year at Gallipoli was merely one failed attempt to break the stalemate in Europe. For the Ottoman command, the campaign was critical to prevent the opening-up of a new front that they could ill afford. From this perspective, the successful defence of Gallipoli should have been a victory that ensured the survival of the Ottoman Empire. But, with the clear-eyed hindsight of history, we can see this campaign today in a very different light. To the fledgling nations of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, this encounter—this great battle at Gallipoli—is now remembered as a critical juncture in the birth of independent nationhood. Indeed, for the Turks under Kemal Ataturk, since regarded as the father of modern Turkey, it was the beginning of a new nation. Far from being a failure, this was the campaign in which Australia and New Zealand proved to the world and to themselves that they could survive the withering heat of modern warfare. As we look back it is sometimes difficult to remember how modern that warfare was. The First World War was the war which included the last cavalry charges in history and it was the war that included aeroplanes for the first time; it included people on bicycles and people in a modern invention, the tank. It was a critical juncture in warfare.

In this great historical irony, what appeared to be a great victory for the Ottoman Empire was in fact a watershed moment for the nationalist movement that was to replace it. For Australia's official war historian, Charles EW Bean, 25 April 1915 was the day 'the consciousness of Australian nationhood was born.' Bean made it clear that the Australians did not fight because of any hatred of the Turks; rather, he said:

…the big thing in the war for Australia was the discovery of the character of Australian men. It was character which rushed the hills at Gallipoli and held on there …

It was that same recognition of the character of so many from this country who died in that Great War that was commemorated by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people around Australia on Anzac Day and in events surrounding Anzac Day this year. My electorate was no different from the electorates of all the other members of this place. At the dawn service at Warrandyte some 3,500 to 4,000 members of the local community came out to commemorate the Centenary of Anzac. At the morning service at the Templestowe RSL, some 3,000 people came out—numbers significantly more than the services at which large numbers of people turn up each other year. At the Doncaster RSL dawn service, some 2,500 people attended. Even at the Donvale Rehabilitation Hospital there were some 200 people, compared to maybe 50 on other occasions. Throughout the electorate, at local football ovals there were services during the day, and at the Croydon RSL some 3,000 people attended the dawn service. I would like to place on record our appreciation for the presidents, the chairs, the committees and the office bearers of each of those RSLs who year after year organise these memorial events. I thank Hank Vanderhelm who was standing in for John Pearson at Warrandyte, Michael Flanagan at Templestowe, Charles Collins at Doncaster and Sam Berrie at Croydon.

For the first time in 24 years I was not able to attend the services in my own electorate because I was representing the government on Anzac Day at the Western Front, which I will come to the moment. When I returned after having been in Europe for Anzac Day I organised a morning tea at the Doncaster RSL to which I invited members of the Returned Services League branches and various organisations in the district, and we had some 80 or so people in attendance on that day. It was my opportunity to say to them on behalf of a grateful nation and particularly on behalf of the constituents of Menzies how much we appreciate the ongoing work that they do. It is not just Anzac Day each year—it is Remembrance Day and the commemoration of other events such as the Battle of Long Tan. They also do ongoing work, particularly for veterans and their families, through Legacy and other organisations in the electorate. It is something that we in this country can be very proud of.

As I said, I was honoured to represent the government on Anzac Day at the Western front, particularly at the service at Villers-Bretonneux, where some 7,000 people withstood the cold, driving rain before dawn and at dawn. Most of them walked back the three or four kilometres into the small village of Villers-Bretonneux, where the mayor had provided a breakfast, and then there was a town service in Villers-Bretonneux. There was also a wonderful concert of schoolchildren from not only Villers-Bretonneux but also other villages around the area. The Australian government helps to fund that and gives out a number of awards to students each year. It was wonderful to see the local students singing Waltzing Matilda as well as other Australian songs in their repertoire at that town service. We later drove for some two hours and stopped in the middle of a field which was once the bloody, muddy fields of World War I where the locals in the 1920s erected a small cross called Le Petit Croix, where each year representatives of the government of Australia stop along with local French men and women to commemorate the First World War, before going onto Bullecourt—another scene of ferocious fighting during the First World War—where 2,000 to 3,000 people, mostly Australians and New Zealanders, were in attendance. By then it was a warm afternoon on the Somme for the town service, which involved the commemoration of both Australian and local French fighters in the First World War, and that was followed by a march of about a kilometre or so out to the Bullecourt Digger memorial, in the fields where the fronts were in the First World War, for that service. We concluded the day by driving to Ypres in Belgium where there is that famous service at Menin Gate which has been held every night of the year for decades. Again, there were thousands of people gathered there on that occasion for that service to mark the special time of Anzac Day. I was privileged to be at Menin Gate, along with my counterpart the Minister of Defence from New Zealand, the Hon. Gerry Brownlee, to lay wreaths.

On all of these occasions, whether it was overseas at the Western Front, whether it was the people who went to Gallipoli, whether it was local services in your electorate and my electorate, Mr Speaker, hundreds of thousands of Australians turned out because this was such a significant occasion in the history of this country, and it is so important for this parliament to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli.

Debate interrupted.

Mr ZAPPIA (Makin) (16:30): Congratulations, Mr Speaker, on your appointment as Speaker of this House.

Whilst the Abbott government rushes to sign free trade agreements and the TPP, it unwisely dismisses the groundswell of critics who constructively argue that such agreements do not deliver the exaggerated benefits claimed and, even worse, can be detrimental to many sectors of the Australian economy. Those critics are not radical minorities but include conservative politicians, respected economic analysts and even the Productivity Commission.

I accept that free-flowing trade between nations has meant that more people have easier access to more products and that removing trade barriers has very likely delivered considerable benefits to people around the world. It also means that inefficient businesses will not survive unless they change. However, attributing trade benefits solely to free trade agreements in an ever-changing world can also lead to flawed conclusions. The world is much different today to what it was a decade ago and different again to each decade before that. The internet, rapid communication and faster transport means that consumers know what is happening and what is available around the world. Governments that continue to put up barriers to consumers buying what they want from where they want will quickly find themselves on the wrong side of their voters.

I note that the USA, China and Japan were all major Australian trading partners well before the signing of FTAs. I also note that the lower Australian dollar has overshadowed tariff reductions committed to in FTAs, and, as we are seeing with China right now, some countries continue to manipulate their currencies in order to influence trade. A rising middle class has most likely done more to lift Australia's trade with Asia than FTAs. Interestingly, beef sales to Vietnam and China rose sharply without FTAs. Furthermore, there is little evidence that FTAs signed in recent years have been of significant benefit to Australia. What they have done, however, is to add more obstructions and compliance obligations on traders and limitations on Australian autonomy.

Not surprisingly, the evidence is mounting that the major beneficiaries of FTAs are global transnationals and economic superpowers, who seem determined to control world markets. The use of investor state dispute settlement clauses—ISDS clauses, as they are otherwise known—in agreements is an example of the growing power of multinationals. These clauses enable foreign companies to sue governments if a change of law affects the investment of a company. It is a right that is not available to domestic entities. That, in itself, is an absurd, discriminative proposition.

Just as foolish, national sovereignty is lost and democratically elected governments lose the right to make laws and decisions that the people may want. This is not exaggerated scaremongering. It is happening right now, with Phillip Morris using a 1993 agreement between Australia and Hong Kong to sue Australia for profits lost because of Australia's plain-packaging cigarette laws. That case has already been running for four years. To date, it has cost a reported $50 million—and it is still far from over. There are also claims the Victorian government's attempts to support local industries and use Australian steel in government projects breaches FTAs with Japan, Korea and the USA.

Australia is not alone with these dilemmas. Over 608 ISDS cases have been taken out in recent years, and the numbers are rapidly escalating—driven, in part, by law firms that do very well out of them. Of those cases, around a third fail and the rest are either settled out of court or won by the companies. Even worse, the cases are generally secretive, not subject to the normal judicial rules of law and are heard by a panel of three selected arbiters. How any government could trade away its sovereignty by entering into such agreements bewilders me and the people I speak with.

Not surprisingly, several governments are now wanting to review the ISDS process. Former Prime Minister Howard, to his credit, would not allow an ISDS clause in the Australia-United States FTA. With every agreement there are winners and losers. Governments trade off the future of one industry sector and the jobs of thousands of Australians against that of another. It is a trade-off that simply does not sit comfortably with me.

There are two other serious concerns that I want to refer to. Firstly, FTAs may extend patent periods, thereby preventing lower-cost generic products from entering the Australian market. Secondly, under the ChAFTA, foreign labour may be brought into Australia to fill jobs that could otherwise be done by Australians.

On 28 July I hosted a very well-attended public forum on trade agreements in my electorate. The views and concerns I have outlined reflect the overwhelming views of those people who attended on the night. The government should not be so dismissive of public sentiment on these matters and should take note of the serious concerns that have been raised throughout the community with respect to free trade agreements and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Mr VARVARIS (Barton) (16:35): The St George Business Awards is an annual event in the Barton electorate that celebrates the businesses in this wonderful community. I was really pleased to be able to attend this year, along with my wife, to meet all the finalists and the winners, and to present several categories of awards. It is such a great honour to attend an event such as this in my capacity as the federal member, to help celebrate the hard work of the region's many diverse enterprises. As we all know, small businesses are the backbone of our nation. They are the engine room of our economy. That night, I saw our nation's ethos all around the room in the Venus Reception Centre—that if you have a go, you can succeed.

Barton has some 13, 000 businesses dedicated to serving the community and beyond. They range from automotive services, personalised services, professional services, hospitality and catering through to health, child care and community based organisations. Many of these businesses are family owned and run by people who work long hours and work tirelessly to retain their customers day in, day out. These businesses are also under pressure from other similar organisations or online based enterprises offering similar goods. Yet these businesses have survived the ebbs and flows of the economy and battle on each day to provide something invaluable for the region.

They do not ask for much in return, except to be left alone to run their operations according to the needs they have identified.

This means not being burdened by red tape, excessive bureaucracy and spending days in the office pushing paperwork, as opposed to developing and nurturing client and business relations. They want a fair go because they have neither the time nor the resources like big organisations have to dedicate to compliance, accounts keeping, recruitment, advertising and marketing, sales and so forth. For many organisations, the owner and manager is one and the same, the marketer and human resources manager is one and same and the accountant and customer service manager is also one and the same, or within a lean team. Yet, their economic contributions to the local Barton economy and Australia cannot be underestimated. All these businesses want recognition of their hard work and appreciation of their needs in the policies we develop to further assist them, not hinder them.

The St George Business Awards is also an excellent opportunity for me to personally speak to many businesses in a celebratory environment, to catch up and see how they are going. Of course, it is a great opportunity to let them know what the coalition is doing to further their entrepreneurial spirit and how we are encouraging them with opportunities of growth and investment rather than burdening them with new rules and legislation that stifle their potential. The budget this year has an outstanding small business package designed to help grow the economy and create jobs. We understand the value of small businesses in the Barton community. This can be said of most small businesses across the country: often they are small enterprises operating locally and employing locally. These organisations need and want greater incentives to continue doing what they love, including tax relief and tax deductions for assets purchased and also access to resources to help run their organisations more efficiently or to mitigate commercial or contractual issues.

I am pleased that this side of government has been vital in delivering a multitude of small business packages that will assist organisations in many ways, including a cut of 1.5 per cent for incorporated small businesses and five per cent for unincorporated. Small businesses can also claim an immediate tax deduction for every asset purchased up to the value of $20 000. For example, Shelley, from Admire Florist in Bexley North, the winner of the St George Business Awards in 2014, can now acquire new vans and computers to keep up with local and online demand. In fact, when I visited Shelley's business recently with the Treasurer, she was more than happy to reiterate what a help the small business package in this year's budget has meant for her floristry. Similarly, when we visited Macchina coffee shop in Kingsgrove, the owner, Harry, confirmed exactly what the budget meant for his growing enterprise—in this instance, new cashiers, a new coffee machine, grinder and so forth. Being able to deduct the asset amount straightaway can make a world of difference to small businesses, which are the lifeline of local communities. To be able to reduce tax burden and assist in revenue mean more investment back into the business and stability for its employees. These small business owners are extraordinary individuals. They have taken a risk in bettering their lives and that of their families, and they deserve to be rewarded with adequate support.

Finally, my congratulations and best wishes for this year's St George Business Award winners: Patrizi Motors; Specialist Laser Clinics, Sir Braxton Chocolate Bar, 3 Bridges Community, A Touch of Salsa, Lashings at Brighton, The Pilates Room, All Seasons Fruit Market, Expressions Hair Culture, Sole Therapy, Laser Logic Clinic, Terry White Chemists Kogarah, Argy Property, Omeros on the Beach, Form Interiors, Divani Ladies Fashion and Joshua Gallagher—ACTiv Elite Performers.

Ms BRODTMANN (Canberra) (16:40): Over the past few years, since I was elected member for Canberra, I have become increasingly concerned about the nature of discourse in this country—in particular, the uncivil nature of discourse not only in politics, in parliament, but also in the media and in the wider community.

We all know parliament is a contest of ideas and that that contest should be rigorous and robust. But the contest should not be personal and it does not need to be a blood sport. Canberrans have told me time and time again that they want more policy and less posturing in parliament—and I agree. I am worried that the current uncivil discourse in Australian politics and also in some other sectors, particularly in the social media community, is causing people to disengage with the political process. In an age that is more connected than ever, in an era where that connectedness is meant to enhance democracy, Australians now seem to be more disengaged and disillusioned with our democracy and, through that, disenfranchised.

This year's Lowy Institute poll of Australian attitudes found that just 49 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds say 'democracy is preferable to any other kind of government', and 26 percent believe it does not matter what kind of government we have. And last year's Plan International Australia survey of 1,000 young women and girls on sexism found that one per cent or less wanted a career in politics. These are disturbing findings and, I believe, a sign that the bile-filled national debate and uncivil discourse and behaviour has alienated many.

The responsibility to improve the pitch and tone of debate rests with all of us. We, as leaders, must behave decently and respectfully to each other. We need to call out unacceptable behaviour when we see it and put an end to personal attacks. Ultimately, we need to change the culture of public discourse in this country. I acknowledge that this will be hard, and it will be confronting. But politicians, the media and the community have been the first to call for cultural change in our schools, in the corporate world, in our boardrooms, in our cultural, sporting, academic and religious institutions, in the public service and in the Australian Defence Force. There has been a call for an end to bullying and harassment, for an end to sexism, for an end to discrimination, for an end to the 'boys clubs' and instead a call for greater diversity. Each of these institutions is responding.

As Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and as someone who consulted in Defence for nearly a decade, I know that organisation is making significant changes to develop an inclusive culture, to stamp out unacceptable behaviour at every level, from the Australian Defence Force Cadets, to ADFA, to RMC through to the senior management and the top brass. The best example of that is not just David Morrison's 'Get Out' speech but also last year's speeches by the incoming chiefs, where inclusiveness was the predominant theme. Yet, curiously, we politicians are particularly quiet when it comes to the need for cultural change here, in this institution—parliament.

Today I call on all of us to accept that we need to change the nature of public discourse in this parliament, because I am very worried that those young women and girls—that possible 99 per cent—who may dream about influencing public policy through a career in politics are frightened that they too may one day be victims of trolls on social media, vilified through Facebook, or bullied or harassed

I worry that those women do not seek to be engaged in public policy and the political process, because of fears of being bullied and harassed.

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl writes:

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

So who is responsible for the civility of discourse in this country? I say all of us—our leaders, our media and our community—because the definition of civil is, 'polite, obliging, not rude,' and it is also, 'of or belonging to citizens'.

Mr WHITELEY (Braddon) (16:45): Mr Speaker, this is my first opportunity to congratulate you on your elevation to the post of Speaker: well done. Often when we think of Anzac Day, we think of the contribution that RSLs make in helping the wider community remember the service of Defence Force personnel, and they do do a great job. But just as important as the older generation's continued contribution to this important task is that of our children. The Anzac Day Schools' Awards are designed to encourage initiative and creativity in the way that schools commemorate Anzac Day, with an emphasis on inventiveness balanced with tradition.

Today, I congratulate three schools in Braddon, which have received an Anzac Day School's Award. In particular, Latrobe Primary School, which received the Anzac Day Schools' Award for the grade 4 to 6 students' 3D poppy display and research into the journeys of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers from Albany to World War One battlefronts. I take the opportunity to congratulate all the teachers and students of that school for ensuring that the contribution of all those who have served our nation will never be forgotten. In recognition of the award, Latrobe Primary School will receive a certificate, a winner's plaque and $2,000 prize money, and I congratulate them.

Further representing Braddon is St Joseph's Primary School in Rosebery, which was runner up for the Anzac Day Schools' Award for grades 5 and 6, and Marist Regional College, which was awarded a highly commended certificate in the Tasmanian high schools award. St Joseph's is a small school of just 92 students. With the encouragement and support of the entire community, they took a vacant shopfront and turned it into a display for their artwork and research, amongst many other things. It is wonderful to see this young people being engaged in this process.

I want to move on to another matter: the attitude that mobile phone service is a luxury in our community is long gone. It is one of the most basic telecommunication services, on which most have come to rely, and that is no different in the electorate of Braddon. That is why the 2013 election commitment from the Liberals that they would spend $100 million on boosting mobile phone coverage throughout the country was so warmly welcomed. Many areas in my electorate have been covered by recent announcements, but of course we know that there are more black spots. I am so pleased that the government has announced a further $60 million to address this.

I have already encouraged communities in my electorate to contact me seeking my support for their local black spot to be fixed. One such community is the residents in Sulphur Creek, Heybridge and Preservation Bay. These areas are some of the most idyllic locations on the north west and residents are immensely proud of their small towns, apart from one small thing—the poor or non-existent mobile phone coverage. Like residents in other small towns throughout the country, they rely on mobile phone coverage to conduct business, to keep in contact with family and friends, and for emergencies.

I take this opportunity to thank Mr Brian Britt for his work in compiling a lengthy petition of residents. This petition calls on the government to include Sulphur Creek, Heybridge and Preservation Bay in the program. At the end of my contribution, I will table this petition, which has met the requirements of the petitions committee and has been approved for tabling.

Last week, I again had the privilege to offer the federal government's support to local north-west sporting champions. Local sport is integral to the community and the benefits are felt widely, not only by the sportsmen and sportswomen but by the officials, family and friends. While it is important to focus on the health and community benefit of sport, sometimes people have exceptional gifts in sport and the opportunity to represent their community on the state, national or international stage. This was the case with 16 young men and women that I recently presented with $500 to meet the costs of them competing. In this place, I congratulate publicly: Gabrielle Turley, representing basketball; Caitlin Radford, equestrian; Semra Peach gymnastics; Mia Cooper, hockey; David Gardiner, horse riding; Erin Percy, netball; Mia Luttmer, soccer; Oliver Malley, swimming; Patrick Roberts, swimming; Nicholas Plats, swimming; Ethan Stratton, also swimming; Beau Bramich, touch football; Emily Turner, touch football; Zoe Groves, hockey; and Luis Wilson, canoeing.

These young people do us proud. When they speak at these presentations, they speak well. They genuinely appreciate the support of their parents, in particular, for driving them around—as we know and as we do as parents. They are extremely grateful often for the volunteer efforts of the coaches that provide the experience and the support that they need. I congratulate them in this place for the effort they show.

I present that petition.

Petition received.

Ms MacTIERNAN (Perth) (16:50): I raise serious concerns that we are fighting the war on terror with the wrong weapons and that elements of the proposed changes to the citizenship legislation are actually damaging our ability to deal with radicalisation in our community. During the winter recess, I held in my electorate a community forum on citizenship laws. We were particularly—but not exclusively—focusing on those provisions of the legislation that give ministers the right to: make a determination of fact that a person has engaged in certain behaviour; then, secondly, make a determination that that amounts to an act of terrorism; and, thereafter, advise a person that they have had their citizenship revoked, where they were dual citizens.

People are deeply concerned about this. In my electorate, some 45 per cent of my constituents are born overseas and there will be many who are—as I was—not aware that they are dual citizens. It was only when I nominated for federal parliament that I discovered that I was automatically an Irish citizen because my father had been born in Ireland. The issue that I want to focus on today is the very disturbing evidence presented there that social cohesion has been breaking down, in part because of these proposed changes. We had a very powerful presentation from Dr Zarrin Siddiqui from Pakistanis in Australia, who have been an absolutely magnificent group in Western Australia, providing very positive role models for women and showing how a modern Islam is completely compatible with Australian culture, values and mores.

Dr Zarrin Siddiqui pointed out that already members in her community have become very hesitant about providing evidence to authorities on odd behaviour, because of the profound consequences that could result from this. Even if this turned out not to be something that was able to be substantiated as being in fact terrorist behaviour, there was that threat that citizenship could be lost. So there is this hesitancy about the traditional dialogue that has been taking place between these communities and the authorities, including the Australian Federal Police.

We were also told that Muslim families who have traditionally gone to non-Muslims schools are now moving to Muslim schools, because they fear being spied on, every aspect of teenage behaviour will be dwelt on and people making complaints. We have created a culture of fear. We learnt of Muslim families who were deciding that they wanted to move into areas where there were more other Muslim families so that they felt protected. We are ensuring that that great goodwill that has been part of our Australian community is in fact being brought under threat.

An extraordinary example was raised at the forum, where Muslim people now feel that they do not have the same political rights. A case was quoted where a man, who was an Australian citizen but of Muslim faith, was seeking a security clearance from work. He was asked in that process if he had attended any political protests and he nominated three peaceful meetings he had been to, including a candlelight vigil in relation to the war in Gaza. He was then denied his security clearance. There is this growing fear within the Islamic community that they are no longer entitled to participate fully in political life.

This is of deep concern. We must, of course, combat home-grown radicalisation; we need to act. But what we are doing with these proposed changes in citizenship laws is indeed creating an us and them. We are inciting, I believe, Islamic people to lose confidence in Australia's commitment to incorporating them into our community as an integral part of the community. (Time expired)

Mrs WICKS (Robertson) (16:55): Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I also commend you and congratulate you on your selection as Speaker. Today in this House stands a single white rose. It is a poignant reminder of a great community leader, the honourable member for Canning, who died of a heart attack doing what he loved. Today, I want to rise to pay tribute to another great community member in my electorate, Mickey Dean, who also recently died of a heart attack while playing football, which was a game that he loved. He was only 47.

He scored the goal of the match in the first half, with some of his family members looking on. His dad told that he was proud of him. At half-time, he came off the field and during the second half of the match he collapsed and died of a heart attack. Even though there was a paramedic there, who was actually playing on the field with him, they were unable to save him. He was another great man taken all too suddenly from his family, his friends and his community.

I never knew Mickey, but I really wish I had. He was a coach, an active member of the Southern & Ettalong United Football Club, the deputy captain of the Bays Rural Fire Service, a former surf lifesaver and a man who served in the Army Reserve for 15 years. He was a man who was described at his funeral, held yesterday, as an outstanding role model with an extraordinary legacy of love, compassion, love for life and exuberance. Last Sunday, I joined about 400 people who stood in a minute's silence for Mickey on James Browne Oval at Woy Woy. I was honoured to meet his wife, Peta, and to meet his parents. I extend my deepest sympathy to his parents; his wife, Peta; and to his two teenage sons, Jared and Ethan.

I heard some wonderful stories about this very great man. He was a man who was incredibly generous and who would tip tradies over and above what they ever charged just because. His club president, Gary Fish, had this to say about Mickey. I will read it out:

It was Mickey's 10th year with the club, and for eighth of those he was also a coach of a junior side as well.

He did a lot of volunteering around the club – and would never think twice about offering a hand. You'd never have to go looking for him, and he didn't mind getting his hands dirty.

As a player Mickey was strong and fit – he once rode a pushbike 200km for charity – so it was a surprise to see this happen.

Everyone loved being around him, and he always had a smile on his face – I'd describe him as a captain's pick, someone you'd always want on your team.

The club had a campaign – 'put your boots out for Mickey'. His son Ethan did that, then wore his dad's boots and his Number Eight jersey and scored a goal on Sunday. It was a special moment.

Mickey' team, the over 45's, a playing on, including at 3pm at James Brown Oval in Woy Woy this Saturday.

I will be joining them. We will be launching a petition in support of seeing defibrillators installed and/or provided to all community clubs on the Central Coast and, indeed, right across New South Wales. Victoria is already leading the way in this important initiative. I am pleased to join Mickey, his club and the community in support of this very, very important initiative. Mickey, I never knew you, but thousands of your fellow committee members did and they loved you. You left a mark on their lives. This week, as I speak in a chamber with a white rose that stands in honour of the member for Canning, in your memory, Mickey, let me also stand alongside your family and your football club in support of this very, very important cause.

It is an important cause, because there were five deaths on football fields last year and four this year so far, including Mickey. While it is acknowledged that a defibrillator may not have helped in this particular instance, the facts are—and I know this as a surf lifesaver—that they dramatically increase the chances of survival for a sudden cardiac arrest if are applied quickly. While 30,000 Australians suffer from sudden cardiac arrest, only five per cent survive; but immediate access to this important piece of equipment can lead to a 70 per cent survival rate if applied quickly.

May I commend Central Coast Football, who are donating $500 to all football clubs on the Central Coast towards a defibrillator, and also the Men of Football on the Central Coast, who are donating $11,500 towards this as well. In honour of Mickey and for Peta, Jared, Ethan and his club, I stand here today to make a commitment to you—in the words of the club's motto—that we will never, ever give up. Vale, Mickey Dean.

House adjourned at 17 : 00