Albanese, Dutton pay tribute to Anzac Spirit, attend services

Herald Sun

25-04-2025

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have attended Anzac Day Dawn Services on Friday morning, which this year commemorates the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.
The Prime Minister was at the official Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Monuments around the memorial have been lit up with projections from contemporary conflicts since 5am.
Moving and confronting from diaries and first hand accounts of World War I were also read out prior to the official service, which began with the playing of the didgeridoo.
While the instrument is not customarily played on Ngunnawal country, event organisers were able to get permission from Traditional Custodians.
Attendees were then invited to sing the hymn O Valiant Hearts, which remembers the service men and women who died in WWI.
In his dedication to the Anzacs, Mr Albanese said 'their spirit' was still felt to this day.
'We wish to be worthy of their great sacrifice,' he said.
'Let us therefore once more, dedicate ourselves to the ideals for which they died as the dawn is even now about to pierce the dark.
'So let their memory inspire us to work for the coming new life into the dark places of the world.'
Deputy Chief of the Navy Rear Admiral Matt Buckley paid tribute to Sergeant William Henry Buck, who was just 18 years old when landed at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli with the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment on the May 19, 1915.
'Four days later, a short armistice was held so that both sides could bury their dead. Sergeant Buck and his men got to work, helping to clear the thousands of dead bodies between the trenches,' he said.
'This set the tone for the months that would follow.'
While the ceremony largely went to schedule, an atte ndee was heard yelling out, 'Free Palestine' following the playing of the Reveille.
Another person said in response: 'Go kick a landmine.'
The Opposition Leader has attended the Pine Rivers Anzac Day Service at the Norths Leagues and Services Club in his north Brisbane electorate of Dickson.
Both he and Mr Albanese have suspended official election campaigning on Friday to mark the sombre day.
Mr Dutton has laid a wreath in honour of the Anzacs during a ceremony at the Pine Rivers District RSL Memorial Gardens.
The Opposition Leader was the third person to place a wreath under the sounds of bagpipes, followed by representatives of former premier Steven Miles and the Queensland Police Service among others.
More than a hundred people attended the simple ceremony in the Brisbane suburbs of Kallangur, braving the inclement weather.
Dozens more lined up in the street outside the Norths Leagues and Services Club throughout proceedings.
Mr Dutton earlier paid tribute to the tens of thousands of Australians who lost their lives in Europe and the Pacific for Anzac Day, 80 years after the end of World War II.
In a video message, he said Australians would 'especially feel the weight of history' on Anzac Day 2025, which falls eight decades after the war ended.
Mr Dutton thanked the men and women who saved 'the world from the tyranny of totalitarianism' during the conflict.
'As the custodians of that peace, it's our duty to deter tyranny and prevent catastrophic war.
'In that duty, may we never waver in effort, energy and endeavour – spurred on by the souls we commemorate on Anzac Day,' Mr Dutton said in his video message.
Mr Dutton singled out two Australians whose efforts were crucial to the end of the war – RAAF bomber pilot John Holmes and Victoria Cross recipient Thomas Derrick.
Fears of a new global conflict have been a persistent theme in the election campaign, with Mr Dutton cautioning whether Australia would join peacekeeping in Ukraine.
Mr Albanese has thrown his weight behind an effort by UK Prime Minister Keir Stermer to bring together a possible 'coalition of the willing for Ukraine'.
In his address, Mr Dutton described how at the outbreak of war, then-prime minister Robert Menzies said that Australia was part of 'a great family of nations'.
It was that family that liberated east, west, and central Europe from the Nazi regime, and the Pacific and southeast Asia from Imperial Japan during WWII.
Originally published as Albanese, Dutton attend Dawn Services to commemorate Anzac Day 2025