Regal Community
Remembrance Day 2015
The Hon Stuart Robert MP
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Minister for Human Services
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC
11 November 2015
Remembrance Day 2015
The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC, Stuart Robert, honoured fallen French and Australian servicemen and women today at a Remembrance Day service at the Arc de Triomphe in France.
“Our First World War and Second World War veterans hold a special place not only in the hearts of Australians but in the hearts of many of our European friends. Their courage and determination in the face of fierce opposition earned them enduring respect and affection,” Mr Robert said.
“Today, as I stand here in a proud French nation we pay special tribute to our country men and women who died during those conflicts,” Mr Robert said.
At 5 o’clock on the morning of 11 November 1918 the Armistice treaty was signed, and at the 11th hour of the same day the French and Belgium battlefields fell silent. Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day after the Second World War, to include commemoration of the men and women who died in the Second World War.
On Remembrance Day each year Australians across the nation and around the world pause at 11am for one minute’s silence to remember those who died or suffered for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts.
Remembrance Day also provides an opportunity to think of those who came home from deployments with physical, mental and emotional scars, and of the families who support them.
“We owe veterans and their families a debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice, and the Australian Government is committed to seeing they have easy access to all the compensation and benefits to which they are entitled, along with vocational rehabilitation options and opportunities to enhance their health and wellbeing,” Mr Robert said.
“Today, just as they did 100 years ago, our military personnel risk their lives so we may live freely. Let us honour them all this Remembrance Day.”