Tenth anniversary of the unveiling of the memorial to Australian war correspondents.
What these men did nothing can alter now. The good and the bad, the greatness and smallness of their story will stand, it rises, as it always will rise, above the mists of time, a monument to great-hearted men; and, for their nation, a possession for ever - Charles Bean
With these word Charles Bean took the measure of the fighting forces he had been covering. A tradition of fine prose and honest reporting was maintained by Gavin Long, photographers, newsreel cameramen and artists into a second world war and Korea, unto a modern era when reporters, broadcasters and television covered wars in Indo-China and the Middle East and Afghanistan.
At events and commemorations held by the Bean Foundation, we who assembled paid tribute to the magnificent record of Australian correspondents, a definition expanded to embrace all those whose reportage placed them in harm’s way, occasions to applaud courage, democracy and freedom of expression, as well as occasions for prime ministers and ministers for defence to outline current government policies.
Our gatherings served to raise awareness of our debt to those who served democracy by reporting honestly. Our gatherings served as fund raisers to pay for a memorial to correspondents in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial. My task today is to go a step beyond our correspondents.
My address today commemorates the directors of the Bean Foundation, all 28 of them, and their allies in the journey unto now that enabled the raising of serious money amid scholarly endeavour and a great many good evenings of comradeship.
The story of the Bean Foundation has its beginning during the Centenary of Federation at Old Parliament House when Tony Walker and Peter Sekuless visited the principal officers of the National Council for the Centenary, Tony Eggleton and myself, to put the case for a seminar and dinner that recognised the work of Australia’s war correspondents.
Not a lot of persuading was involved. We believed our correspondents deserved recognition. Our visitors’ ambition was a bipartisan occasion beginning in the afternoon in the former House of Representatives chamber continuing into the night at a swish dinner in the Members dining room. The Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, led a representative gathering of MPs and Senators.
With signal success, Tony and Peter returned with an idea for a more permanent commemoration. They wanted to establish a foundation to continue beyond the centenary. Mission: raising funds to build a correspondents memorial. Who was going to provide the administrative wherewithal for the effort ongoing? The answer was ready: Tony E and myself. We were slated to become chairman and deputy chairman respectively. We accepted. Likely we had no choice.
Tony Eggleton was perfect as inaugural chair. In addition to serving a succession of PMs beginning with RG Menzies, Tony had always played it fair. He was well regarded by the ALP and his former colleagues in the federal press gallery. The Foundation provided Tony and me reason to keep seeing each other and be in regular contact after the centenary. To John Howard I owe an enormous debt for bringing Mr Eggleton into my life.
The Foundation worked because it was a coalition of
- Australian War Memorial
- Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery
- persons passionate about our military history
Over the years we did not suffer factionalism, a by-product of excessive activism and a prize in contest. No, we suffered becalming which made some directors conclude there was a lack of purpose. We met often enough, made heroic decisions, then nothing came to pass.
The War Memorial had generously set aside a plot for the memorial. The Memorial had the right to accept or decline a design we might agree on; it was their land. The years drifted. Some directors did not seek renewal.
In the car park here, when I was visiting on other business, Major-General Steve Gower, Director of the Memorial, warned me our allotment of space was not secure. Nothing imminent but we needed to demonstrate progress. Steve, a director of this Foundation, had witnessed the drift. For his warning I was most grateful.
The Memorial has been a stalwart companion. After Steve, came Nola Anderson, Brendan Nelson and Matt Anderson as directors of the Foundation. Their leadership ensured cooperation above and beyond by staff. Between here and the National Press Club we had a secure Canberra base. Brendan Nelson loved this project. Major dinners were staged here, cost absorbed. A sponsorship by Boeing was directed to our funds instead.
Steve’s stern warning had its intended impact. I was as much party to drift as anyone. By phone and memo I conveyed our mission had become urgent. Amid some fierce gnashing of teeth, Warwick Costin emerged as secretary. He was game changer and match winner. Expert in governance he dealt with those agencies who might have caused us grief.
Dinner after dinner returned to closing the gap on our target. Our speakers have included Robert Hill, the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Kevin Rudd, Geoffrey Blainey, Bob Carr, John Faulkner, Angus Houston, Tony Abbott, Paul Kelly, David Hurley, Sam Mostyn.
We were not locked into the federal territory. Twice Tony Walker organised dinners in Melbourne at the Savage Club. Twice we convened in Sydney – at the Royal Automobile Club and the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The large endowments we had thought possible by large media companies did not come to pass. The dinner here in April 2014, sponsored by Boeing, was the breakthrough. Tony Abbott was guest speaker and very much in his element. Conversation at dinner overflowed into budgetary consideration. The Prime Minister approved a grant that meant we were home and ready for the hose.
Design received approval. An oculus or all-seeing eye was our collective decision. Construction began. Not a simple job. Work done, we set a date after consultation with Tony Abbott for 23 September 2015, the 100th anniversary of the letter from Keith Murdoch to Andrew Fisher about the true state of affairs at Gallipoli.
The politics of parliamentary parties does not stand still. On 15 September the Liberal Party voted to remove its leader. Our hope and firm intention were for the new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to fulfill the engagement. Achieving that outcome was the work of several behind the scenes. I note particularly the labours of Mark Riley and Mr Eggleton.
That Wednesday morning of 23 September was one of blinding, incessant rain and strong winds that demanded the MC, myself in rain jacket with hood, holding down pages with an elbow, hoping rain drops did not obliterate the ink.
Australian politics does not unperson the once eminent. I was pleased to pay tribute to the former PM.
One person I expressly mention is Tony Abbott. The then Prime Minister intervened at a critical moment to indicate his personal support. With that support we scaled a final hurdle.
A constant was the federal press gallery. It supplied us with fine directors who doubled as lobbyists in our cause. The gallery donated the profits of a Midwinter Ball to the Foundation. From the ranks of the Fourth Estate I acknowledge the contributions (in order of appointment) of Fred Brenchley, Malcolm Colless, Tony Walker, Simon Francis, Max Uechritz, Mark Riley, Cynthia Banham, Karen Middleton, Michael Brissenden, Paul Kelly, Patrick Walters.
Our armed forces gave us the services of Steve Gower, Rear Admiral Ian Crawford, Major-General Greg Melick and Brigadier Phil Winter.
I hope in listing these names I have been fair and afforded a sense of the effort invested over the decades. We have sought to honour the words we crafted for the oculus.
Amid dangers known and unknown war correspondents report what they see and hear. Those words and images live beyond the moment and become part of the history of Australia.
Australia is not presently engaged in conflict. Today is scarcely a world at peace.
The cause of free speech in the West has not been under such sustained threat since the 1930s.
In recent days an Australian journalist was abused by a US President for asking questions about that President’s corrupt practices.
What might Charles Bean, Damien Parer, the Balibo Five, the ranks of former correspondents, be thinking of a world in which Germany and Japan are reliable allies and functioning democracies, whereas the United States of America has embraced fascism, a truth that dare not speak its name?
Democratic processes, the rule of law and free speech remain so strong in this nation due in no small measure to those who fought in freedom’s cause and those who exercised that freedom reporting what they were observing.
What those men did is beyond altering. The heritage of those men and the men and women who succeeded them are our possession. Preserving that possession requires assessment anew of who is friend and who is foe.