Steve Price: Paltry Anzac Day plans an insult to diggers
Over-cautious Anzac Day restrictions have turned a day of national pride into a dog’s breakfast, and it’s insulting - and dangerous - for those who served.
Opinion
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Anzac Day in 2020 was one of the saddest days of COVID lockdown for millions of Australians.
For the first time in most of our memories — certainly since the end of WWII — there was no march through capital cities and country towns.
No proud parade of Diggers down St Kilda Rd, medals flashing in the autumn sun, and perhaps saddest of all no bugler sounding Last Post at a chilly Melbourne Dawn Service.
I don’t need to remind you the MCG was also empty last Anzac Day.
No 100,000 Collingwood and Essendon fans standing in respectful silence for a minute — a spine tingling event to witness firsthand.
Instead, the Ode of Remembrance and Last Post was recorded at an empty MCG and played out on Anzac Day. It’s difficult to remember but after round one, the AFL last year went into a shutdown, not resuming until June 11.
The late Bruce Ruxton — Victorian RSL boss from 1979 to 2002 — would have been at his vocal best I am sure, arguing that the inspiration of the military parade should have still gone ahead.
Bruce would have been on radio and TV calling the political and medical cancel merchants soft and telling anyone who would listen Anzac Day should go ahead.
Love or loathe Bruce — and I had many media run-ins with him — he was the best advocate the RSL has ever had.
On his death the Victorian Labor Premier at the time Steve Bracks paid tribute, remarking Ruxton, a man he admired, put veterans first, second and third.
Fast forward to today and a majority of Victorians wouldn’t have a clue who the RSL State president is. I had to look the bloke’s name up.
It’s Dr Robert Webster OAM and he’s been in the job since 2017.
Dr Webster served as a national serviceman in Vietnam, and we all thank him for that service and his remarkable work in the veteran space, especially in the area of health, since.
He’s probably a great bloke but what he’s lacking it seems to me — and most of his interstate RSL counterparts are as bad if not worse — is cut through and the political contacts to get government on side.
Nationally the RSL has lost its muscle and many veterans, especially women, feel the old school tie RSL types are letting them down.
Take Sunday fortnight — Anzac Day around Australia — for example. State-by-state it’s a dog’s breakfast that need never have happened.
In Victoria our march will be limited to 5,500 veterans while in NSW they are allowing double that number. Why would that be, given Victoria has been COVID-free and for longer than NSW?
In Queensland the Anzac Day march has no limit on numbers at all and this in the City of Brisbane that was locked down for three days over a COVID scare just a week ago.
The Dawn Service at The Shrine in Melbourne is an even bigger cave-in, to overly cautious medical advice from Chief Health Officers who have, from day one, been too tough on Victorians.
Instead, Melburnians who normally turn out in their tens-of-thousands have been told to book a ticket limited to just 1400 or watch it on Facebook.
What an appalling insult to those who served, those families who want to pass the Anzac legend on to their children and very importantly to those younger veterans who need the day of mateship to simply continue to live.
The incidence of PTSD among younger veterans is at an all-time high. It’s so bad nationally we are crawling towards a Royal Commission into what is a national stain on us all.
Anzac Day is one day when many of these men and women gather with their unit mates and have at least a day of the comradeship they so miss.
The day also triggers many and I have a friend called Fletch who narrowly avoided killing himself one Anzac Day.
With a hosepipe already connected to his ute’s exhaust, a veteran advocate who deserves a medal — Martin Shaw from Wounded Heroes — knocked on the window and asked, “are you OK Digger?”
He wasn’t but Martin saved his life, and Martin fears what might happen on this watered-down April 25.
Unless the RSL reinvents itself as a more modern aggressive advocate for veterans back from places like Afghanistan and Iraq we will lose the momentum Anzac Day gained in the last few decades.
Anzac Day 2021 should have been the biggest ever and given at the time of writing an MCG crowd of 75,000 – it may go higher – will be allowed in and seated next to each other, how dare they limit the Dawn Service to 1400 and the march to 5,500.
Bruce Ruxton would never have put up with that.
Footnote: In January, in this space, I wrote about Anzac Day suggesting fireys and frontline health workers be allowed to march at the rear of the parade this year. That went down like a lead balloon and you changed my mind readers – thanks.
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