\t\t\t\tVeterans, Families of Veterans, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
\nGood morning.
\nOn ANZAC day we honour all New Zealand and Australian men and women serving in the armed forces today, and we remember with thanksgiving those who served their country in time of war, and those who died.<\/p>\n
These are familiar words. Too familiar, perhaps.\u00a0 I have said them before.\u00a0 You have heard them before.\u00a0 It is a hot day, too hot for speeches.\u00a0 And what could I, who have never experienced war, really know of the suffering and the anguish we are\u00a0 commemorating here.
\nSo let us cut to the heart of things.\u00a0 In this cemetery there are just under 7000 headstones.\u00a0 7000 lives lost.\u00a0 7000 loves lost.\u00a0 7000 men, young and old, sons and fathers, artists and poets and plumbers and farmers, dead.\u00a0 7000 futures gone, rubbed out.\u00a0 And of those who died toiling on the Thai-Burma railway, perhaps as many as 100,000.\u00a0 Malay. Burmese. British.\u00a0 Javanese. Australian.Dutch.\u00a0 American.\u00a0 And that cruellest of words:\u00a0 \u201cothers\u201d, including a small handful of New Zealanders.
\nMore than 230 deaths for each day the railway was under construction. More than 240 deaths for every kilometre of track laid.\u00a0 And how many lives back home, how many hearts back home, were broken by the deaths of these men? A million? More, surely. Many more. A human tragedy beyond counting.
\nWe are not here to listen to speeches.\u00a0 We are here to call to mind, to call to heart, the suffering of those who died and those who mourn.\u00a0 We are here to be counted amongst those who believe that the values of courage and loyalty and service and grit and mate-ship and honour continue to be true, continue to matter.\u00a0 We are here because it is the least we can do for those who sacrificed so much.\u00a0 We are here to remember. On this day we remember ordinary people from many different lands, united by a most extraordinary thing: they gave up their lives, they were robbed of their promise, so that we who came after them might live in peace.<\/p>\n
Their sacrifice stands as a silent witness to the enduring values of faith and hope and love, and to the desolation of war. It is right indeed that we should remember them.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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