Address to the Lest We Forget Sunset Tribute

Can I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respect to elders past and present. 

Can I thank the Australian Remembrance Foundation for holding this event, and can I acknowledge the many very distinguished guests who join us this evening. On this 111th anniversary of the landings of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps on the beaches of Gallipoli, our world is both volatile and challenging, and it feels as though all of us are in a search for predictability and certainty for a system, an order, even an idea, upon which we can rely. 

At the going down of the sun before the morning, on which we especially remember the 103,000 Australians who gave their lives wearing our nation's uniform. 

It is well to reflect upon their example. 

Each of them lived in differing versions of Australia, in both place and time, but all of them and each of us have a shared experience of a country where we all feel a deep commitment to our fellow citizen, of a national character which can maintain humour in the face of great adversity, of a fierce spirit of egalitarianism and a deep sense of mateship. 

All of this goes to the heart of the idea of Australia, an idea which called every one of them to service, an idea which sustained them as they met their fate, an idea for which they died, and an idea which is embodied in their sacrifice for us. 

On this Anzac Day, as we give thanks to each and every one of them and all of those who have served in the Australian Defence Force, let us recommit ourselves to the idea of Australia, which, in a darkening world, remains our guiding light.