Senator SANDY MACDONALD (7:28 PM) —I had the opportunity of visiting Gallipoli on Anzac Day this year, along with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer. It was an extraordinary experience, and I shared it with 15,000 other Australians, both old and young, who attended the dawn service and the other commemorative services on the day. The dawn service was held this year at the new commemorative peace park above North Beach, which is just to the east of Anzac Cove itself, where simultaneous landings took place 86 years ago, on 25 April 1915. From the Australian perspective, the organisation of the day was the responsibility of the Commonwealth Office of Australian War Graves, headed by Air Vice Marshal Gary Beck, and I congratulate him on his organisational skills. They were very good indeed.

I was very privileged to have a part in the dawn service, commencing at 5.30 a.m. I gave the call to commemoration, and I was accompanied by my wife and my six-year-old daughter, who wore her great-grandfather's medals. Her great-great-grandfather had, in fact, served at Gallipoli with one of the Scottish line regiments. It was a particularly moving occasion for all of us and for all the other people there, both young and old, who had made the effort to go. I do not think there are any events so burnt into our soul as the events of Gallipoli, for a number of reasons, both personal and national. It was an experience I will never forget, especially when, with the first rays of the sun rising over the eastern horizon and the sound of the waves lapping the Aegean, we turned to face inland and looked at an outcrop of rock which had been called the Sphinx by the Australians and we sang Abide With Me. That was the time when the Australians were landing those 86 years ago.

I would also like to thank the Turkish and New Zealand governments, who made the day such a success. I was particularly grateful to be hosted by the Turkish government for a number of days. The Turkish Grand National Assembly is the Turkish parliament. They hosted me for four days. They were particularly generous to me and gave me enormous access to people, businesses, authorities and the things that make Turkey the country that it is. I was grateful to the Turkish-Australian Friendship Group, of which I am the chairman in this country, who gave me enormous opportunity to explore further commercial and trade links. I have been able to follow up a number of those since my return. I would like to thank the Turkish ambassador, His Excellency Umut Arik, who was extremely generous in facilitating my visit.

Turkey and Australia share a unique relationship, of which we are all aware, forged by the great events of Empire and history that made up World War I. We are fortunate indeed to have that relationship, and it is appropriate to recognise the enormous impact Gallipoli has had on modern Turkey as well as modern Australia, with the emergence of Colonel Ataturk, who was the commander of the company who happened to be above Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915. It was he who, eight years later—partly because of his success as a military commander—went on to command the forces that defeated the Greeks, and he became the first president of Turkey in 1923. There were a number of lessons for Australia from Gallipoli. There was no greater lesson to Australians and the Australian Army than the lesson that nobody but Australians should command our troops on the ground. It was an early lesson that we were on our own and we were responsible for our own destiny, and that is as true today as was made clear at that time.

Gallipoli brought home to me a longstanding concern that I have had about the projection of Australia's national identity, and that concerns our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. The tune is outdated and boring, and the words are banal and meaningless. Nobody knows the second verse, and most of us try our best with the first. Our Gallipoli veterans did not fight under Advance Australia Fair, nor did those at Tobruk, nor did those at Long Tan. In our Centenary of Federation year, it is surely time to recognise that we have done our best with Advance Australia Fair and that we should consider some alternatives.

At the Gallipoli service, we heard the French national anthem, the Marseillaise; the German national anthem; the American national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner; the Indian national anthem—a wonderful national anthem; the Turkish national anthem and the New Zealand national anthem, God Defend New Zealand. I am not ashamed to say that it was embarrassing to be represented by Advance Australia Fair. To all of us, internationally, Waltzing Matilda is Australia. We have the O'Hagan words to it, God Bless Australia, but there are other wonderful tunes and words, including Bruce Woodley's I am Australian, sung most wonderfully at the Centenary of Federation sitting in Melbourne in May. But whatever change we might make in a country so full of talented musicians as Australia, it will be an improvement on Advance Australia Fair. I simply do not believe there is any public attachment to Advance Australia Fair in the community. There never was; there never will be. It is not like our flag, which the great majority of Australians love. There should never be a change of the flag, but there should be a change to our national anthem before we all fall asleep singing it.

I commend the role of the Australian embassy in making the Anzac Day ceremony such a success and facilitating the visits of politicians like me and others. I recommend that every Australian who has the opportunity to attend the Anzac Day service in Gallipoli should go. They will understand a little more of their country if they do.