Mr ALBANESE (3:30 PM) —My question is directed to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs web site currently states:

Does the Prime Minister agree that the roadworks requested by the Australian government have resulted in the removal of the very cliff faces where the Anzacs charged, where their trenches were made and where they were buried? Hasn’t the Prime Minister’s road changed Anzac Cove forever?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I have not seen the web site to which the member refers but on the question of the road, as the member knows, the changes that were requested by the Australian government in the former Minister for Veterans’ Affairs’ letter did not relate to the Anzac Cove road. It is true that some changes were made to that road as a result of the common position of Australian and Turkish authorities that, for safety and conveyance reasons, some reinforcement and change was needed, but the scale and scope of those were not specifically or, indeed, implicitly requested by the Australian government.

Let me also say this: we have had excellent cooperation from the Turkish authorities. I had the privilege, as did a number of other members of this House, to visit Anzac Cove on Anzac Day and I also had the privilege to meet in person probably about 1,000 young people who were there. I will say two things about it. The first thing I will say is that not one single person of the at least 1,000 people—largely young but of many ages—that I met said anything about the roadworks: not one single person.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr HOWARD —The honourable member has asked this question. He has tried to make a bit of mileage out of it. He is entitled to do that but I am entitled to put the facts as I encountered them there. I had the opportunity to meet these people, and not one single person made any reference to the road. I suspect that that was also the experience of others in this House who visited.

Could I also take this opportunity to say that, as a result of discussions that I had with the Turkish Prime Minister on 26 April, there has been an agreement for a joint engineering review, and the review will be conducted as a matter of priority. The team from Australia that is contributing to that review will be leaving this weekend, and the Turkish government has agreed that no further roadworks will take place until those discussions are held.

The other point that I will make to those who sit opposite is simply this: sacred though this site is to this country—and it plainly is—we must remember that it is Turkish territory. We must respect the sovereignty of Turkey and we must also acknowledge the contribution that the Turks have made to the joint commemoration of events that occurred on this particular site. I say to the member for Grayndler and to some—not all—on the other side who have sought to make some political mileage out of this that, if they had been there, they would have been sadly disappointed by the response of average Australians to their miserable campaign.