Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) (2:04 PM) —I move:

It is appropriate, even though we are 60 years on, to pause for a few moments to recall that historic moment, on 8 May 1945, which saw the end of World War II in Europe. As Winston Churchill was to observe on VE Day 1945, although the German war had ended, Japan ‘with all her treachery and greed’ lay unsubdued, and, for another few months of particular relevance to Australia, the war in the Pacific continued. The end of that war will be the subject of particular commemoration in this country later this year.

With remarkable prescience, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 the former Allied Supreme Commander in World War I, Marshall Ferdinand Foch, of France, was to remark, ‘This is not a peace treaty; it is an armistice for 20 years.’ Tragically, his prediction turned out to be deadly accurate and World War II became the most costly, lethal, evil and horrible conflict that the world had seen. It was a war that, unlike World War I, ended in the total subjugation and surrender of Germany. It was a war that consumed, to a far greater extent than any previous war, civilian populations. It was a war that clouded—but, when defeat came to Germany, ultimately revealed—the horror of the persecution of the Jewish race by the Nazis. The extermination of six million Jewish citizens and other minorities in the concentration camps of Europe represents the most systematic and horrible genocide in all of recorded human history.

It was a war in which Australia played a very significant and honourable role both in the European theatres and also in the Pacific, a role that involved the deaths of many thousands of Australians. It will always be to the credit of this nation that for 12 months at a crucial stage of World War II—before the entry of the United States and all that that entailed, with the huge industrial capacity and overwhelming economic power of the United States—she stood alone alongside Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries against Nazi Germany after the subjugation of most of Europe. History will always remember the contribution of the airmen of Australia in the Battle of Britain and the role they played alongside their British, Canadian, South African, New Zealand, Rhodesian, Polish, Czech and other comrades in that decisive air battle, which represented the first significant setback that Hitler suffered during the war. It was a setback which was not in itself enough to turn the tide, but it was the first time that a significant reverse had been suffered by the Nazis.

As I know all members of the House—and, in particular, the Leader of the Opposition—will appreciate, the land battles in eastern Europe of course represented the greatest bloodbaths of World War II. It has been estimated that some 85 per cent of German casualties were incurred fighting on the Russian front. And the losses of Russia were truly staggering; some have put them at 25 to 27 million people. Then of course the most decisive event in the war occurred, in terms of the ultimate conclusion, when Japan attacked the United States and thus brought into World War II all the power, strength and overwhelming industrial capacity of the most powerful country economically that the world has ever seen.

One could talk at great length about the historical significance of this conflict, and this is perhaps not the time to do so; but it is a time to record the fact that it was a fight for the values this nation believes in. It was a fight for freedom; it was a fight for democracy; it was a fight against those who sought to impose their will brutally on minorities. It was also a fight that led to an upheaval that dramatically reshaped the face of post World War II Australia. It is fair to say that much of the migration that changed Australia after World War II would not have occurred had it not been for the upheaval of that war and the coming to Australia immediately after World War II of so many people, not only those who were called, in the language of the time, ‘displaced persons’—those who came from the Baltic countries and from eastern Europe—but also those who came from northern and southern Europe seeking a better life in this country. They have made a permanently beneficial impression and have shaped in a very significant way the face, the temper, the mood and the character of postwar Australia.

As we mark this very important anniversary, we acknowledge the huge sacrifices that our allies made—the sacrifices of the Russian people, the British, the Americans, the Canadians and those brave people from countries such as Poland who suffered so much at the hands of both the Soviet Union and the Nazis. No country in the history of Europe was more picked over and cast aside—and despoiled perhaps—than the nation of Poland. We remember these events, we give thanks to God that we have had relative peace for the last 60 years and we rededicate ourselves as a people and a parliament to the universal values of freedom and democracy, which were the values we fought for and finally succeeded in protecting in those terrible days of World War II.