Today, as on every other ANZAC Day, we remember and we honour, the Australians and New Zealanders who were the first ANZACs. We remember that at dawn on the 25th of April 1915 they landed at Gallipoli to confront a committed foe firmly believing the defence of the British Empire to be a just and noble cause.

Today, as we remember those first ANZACs, we also remember those Australian who have fallen in every conflict to which this nation has been committed: in World War II, in Korea, in Malaya, in Vietnam, and in other foreign fields.

We remember that they were often no more nor less than ordinary men and women led by destiny into the service of their country: clerks from the capital cities, farmers from the bush – sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters. We recall their conspicuous acts of courage and heroism; their resourcefulness and resolution; their indomitable spirit and the irreverence of their humour and their compassion for fallen comrades.

We do not recall these things to glorify war, still less to idealise its ways. All wars are agony with greater horror always near.

Certainly we can take pride in our battlefield successes, but today, more than on any other, we should remember the many sacrifices made in our name. The blood that has been shed makes sense only if we remember that for over one hundred years, going back well before 1915, Australian men and women have given their lives so that we might live free and in liberty.

As we remind ourselves of sacrifice, let us also recall that the character of the men and women who have served Australia in war owes much to the generations of its immigrants. Since the early 19th century they have come from across the world to make Australia home.

And for more than 100 years people have been settling here from the place we now know as Lebanon. As you will all be aware, the first Lebanese immigrants arrived in Australia in the late 1800s. It was a period of drought and economic depression and yet typically, they worked hard and for the most part prospered.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lebanese immigrants were classified as Turks and thus as enemy aliens. Yet some young Lebanese-Australians joined the Australian Imperial Forces and served with conspicuous distinction in various campaigns throughout World War I. As is the nature of war, some did not return.

During World War II, hundreds of Lebanese-Australians – both immigrants and Australia-born – enlisted, fought and died; for they too were “Aussie Diggers”. Many more made a contribution to the war effort on the home front by serving in civilian roles in hospitals, in factories; every where work needed to be done.

Generations of Lebanese-Australians are now part of our nation’s success story. They have helped Australia define its character. They have helped Australia become a better place to live, to work and to raise a family. They have helped us to be a free …a just …and a fiercely democratic people.

It should be our hope, indeed we should dare to dream, that we can live in a world where our liberty is not at risk, our prosperity not in jeopardy, our freedom not under threat. Sadly that world is not at hand.

Today, we enjoy our liberties solemnly aware that sometimes they come at a terrible cost. It is a cost we continue to bare. Today as we remember the ANZACs – and all those that have since fallen with them, let us also remember the 3511 men and women of Australia’s defence forces currently serving overseas who daily go into danger.

In Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor Leste and the Solomon Islands among other places

They are the inheritors of the ANZAC tradition. They are our living link to a tradition of service and sacrifice that began 93 years ago today.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much to be grateful for here in Australia. As painful as it can be, we cannot afford to forget our history. That you are here today in such large numbers suggests that you at least will not easily do so. So on this ANZAC Day let us once again resolve to remember not just those who gave so much, but also those who continue to bear such a heavy burden of service on behalf of us all.