Mr Speaker, distinguished guests, Philip, Lynn, Margaret, Ted Baillieu, ladies and gentlemen.
In 1919, as the first anniversary of the Armistice approached, an Australian journalist working in London at the time by the name of Edward Honey was one of the first to propose a simple yet powerful means to commemorate the end to hostilities: silence.
The idea was embraced: for so many it seemed the best way to capture a grief so engulfing that no words or sounds could do justice to its scale.
And as silence captured the unfathomable, a visual symbol of the conflict also emerged: the poppy.
On the Western Front they famously bloomed in their millions, in bomb craters and in soil torn by artillery fire, and were accordingly adopted over time as a symbol of remembrance of the conflict.
A century ago, Australia was evolving as a new country, but the Great War changed who we were at the time, how we evolved and developed to before who and what we are today.
If the outcome of that Great War had been different all those years ago, so too would today’s Australia. The rights, liberties and choices we so casually enjoy in our daily lives, and debate in this parliament building, might have been very different.
We stand in silence and wear a poppy to remember those who fought, who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who bear the costs at home and afterwards.
Over the past six years almost a million poppies have been handcrafted for displays like this one. Some have been knitted by descendants of the original Anzacs, but many more have been crafted by people whose forebears have come to call this country home more recently.
Now, they metaphorically bloom again, here at Parliament House, and across the lake, at the Australian War Memorial.
Today also provides an example of how remembrance can take other forms. I would like to make mention this morning of two special art exhibitions that open today at Parliament House.
The Lest we forget exhibition features new works purchased for the Parliament House Art Collection to mark the Centenary of Anzac.
A second exhibition, titled From War, features works by artists who are veterans, and brings together works from Parliament House’s own collection with pieces from the Australian National Veterans Art Museum.
I encourage you to visit these exhibitions, which speak so compellingly of our nation’s experience and the experience of those who served.
In closing I join the Speaker in thanking the Australian War Memorial, which is leading the national commemorations of the Centenary of Armistice here in Australia, and also the Department of Veteran Affairs and the European Union for their support of this display.
Now, we have representatives from four schools here today: Grange, Kapooka, Tarcutta and Uranquinty, and I’m going to ask a representative from each school to come forward and join the Speaker and I and place a poppy on the mats.
[ENDS]