The new hall honouring those who gave their lives for Australia is a “sublime and powerful addition”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will declare as he opens the centrepiece of the multimillion-dollar renovation of the Australian War Memorial.
Mr Albanese will use his speech at its opening on Tuesday evening to say the War Memorial helps the flame of memory burn brighter.
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“What a sublime and powerful addition it is. A bold vision turned into a reality that enhances the institution of which it is now part,” he will say, according to a draft of his speech.
“It amounts to an act of profound respect from the nation to all who have served in our name, and all who serve now. The fighters for peace, the keepers of peace.”
The redevelopment project has involved moving some 3700 objects – ranging from aircraft to some of the War Memorial collection’s most fragile artefacts – as the new Anzac Hall and displays took shape.
Mr Albanese sees it as offering “a profoundly human scale” of perspective to war.
“From the fluffy dice that Captain Lukas Wilds took from his V12 Monaro and carried with him to Afghanistan to every window on G for George, each one an invitation to imagine the face on the other side as they flew against the odds, ever deeper into enemy skies,” he will say, urging visitors to the memorial to read all the words and learn the human stories.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon with Flying Officer Kbora Ali at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial. Mr Albanese will use his speech at its opening on Tuesday evening to say the War Memorial helps the flame of memory burn brighter. Credit: Martin Ollman NewsWire/NCA NewsWire
“Look at the faces and get lost amid the smiles, the hope and camaraderie – the counterpoint to war’s relentless, inhuman arithmetic. They are its true cost.
“Yet, amid this loss and sacrifice, what pulses so powerfully is life, and an abiding sense of what is worth fighting for. As Australians. As human beings.
“It pulses with the hope that drives every peacekeeping mission. And it pulses with love – along, inevitably, with the grief that is love in the face of the final absence.”
