Anzac Day 2022: Freedom cannot be taken for granted

As we watch the march on Anzac Day, we remember those who have paid freedom’s price — and the many still paying its price, Anthony Albanese writes.

Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese at Parliament House Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

As we gather in the darkness of early morning on Anzac Day, we try to imagine what it was like for those first Anzacs in their landing boats, so far from home and wondering just what the dawn might bring.

That morning is now more than a century distant, but its hold on our hearts does not soften. Gallipoli wasn’t our first fight, but it was there that the Australian character wasn’t so much forged as confirmed in the eyes of the world.

In my own electorate less than a year later, on April 23 1916, the people of Balmain unveiled one of Australia’s first war memorials.

With World War I still raging, they began recording the names of those who would never walk these streets again. Among them is Private Cecil Robert Winch, who lost his life at

on that very first day at Gallipoli.

On memorials across Australia, the lists of names have just kept growing. Just as Gallipoli was not our first fight, it was also not our last. The war that was meant to end all wars turned out to be a precursor to future horrors.

I often think of my mentor, dear friend and Labor giant, Tom Uren, and what he went through in World War II. As a prisoner of war, he saw the very worst of humanity. Yet in peace, he was driven to seek out its best. Tom held up the past to us and, in doing so, he held out the hope of a better future. 

That is the spirit that brings us together on Anzac Day. To remember, because there are some things we cannot afford to repeat, and to take the hope of a better world – a hope that they allowed us to have – and turn it into reality.

Through the decades, Australians have stood against the darkness as warriors and as peacekeepers. But as the war in Ukraine so tragically reminds us, darkness is not vanquished from the world. It reminds us that freedom cannot be taken for granted, and it certainly isn’t free.

As we watch the march on Anzac Day, we remember those who have paid freedom’s price — and the many still paying its price. For so many, the war does not end when they leave the battlefield.

Just as we owe a great debt to the dead, we are indebted to our veterans.

They stepped up for us. We must step up for them.

Wherever you are, take the time to read the names on your local war memorial. Look them up, see their faces. They unite us in sorrow, in pride, in gratitude, and most importantly, in hope.

Lest we forget.