Broadcast on Saturday 25 April 2026 at 6:55pm on the ABC.

I am proudly delivering this year’s Anzac Day address from the recently opened peacekeeping gallery at the Australian War Memorial, here in Canberra.

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal, the traditional owners, and pay my respects to elders past and present.  

I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women and veterans.

In this time of upheaval around the world, a time of conflict and uncertainty, the quiet solemnity of our national Memorial, and countless memorials around the country, remind us of our commitment to pursue and uphold peace, and to honour and remember those who have served.

I am standing in one of the Memorial’s newest galleries – which honours our ongoing commitment to peacekeeping missions.

Today, Australian peacekeepers are in the field in some of the most dangerous places on earth, to give fragile peace a chance, and hope to the most vulnerable.  

As your Governor-General, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force, and the daughter of an Australian Army veteran, I am honoured to speak to you on such an important day.  

A day of unity, where those simple words ‘Lest we forget’ stand both as a promise and a powerful reminder of our responsibility to those who have served, those in uniform today and to give thanks to their families and loved ones.

It is comforting to see Australians and international visitors of all ages and from all walks of life visit this memorial and engage deeply with the stories it tells so powerfully.  

On my many visits here I have met school students from across Australia, those honouring a relative on the Roll of Honour, those who might not have a direct connection to the Anzacs and those who are simply visiting Australia and are keen to know more of our story.

The Last Post ceremony is conducted every evening other than Christmas Day. It is always a moment of peace and reflection. A solemn ceremony, where an individual story reminds us not only of what we have lost in war, but what we have gained by their example.  

As Federation brought Australia into being as a nation in 1901, the founding pillars of our national defence emerged in the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army, joined later by the Royal Australian Air Force. 

125 years later, on Anzac Day, we pay tribute to the men and women of the ADF; to the veterans, whose lives have been shaped and enriched by their service and to who we make an unwritten promise to help pick up the pieces if they have brought the consequences of service home - physical or psychological;  and to the families, whose love, support and encouragement has always made service possible.

I have learnt from our modern serving women and men, and their families, about their roles and why they choose to serve.  

They often tell me about the legacy of the Anzacs, something I experienced profoundly on last year’s Anzac Day at Gallipoli.

I meet our modern ADF members on bases, ships, and runways, in mess halls and on parade grounds in Australia and overseas. From Darwin to North Queensland, Wagga Wagga to Holsworthy and Adelaide and so many more places.  I meet with non-Commissioned Officers and with chaplains. I also meet ADF members, veterans and their families in communities wherever I travel around the country.  

I know that today, communities around Australia will have come together in acts of quiet reflection and remembrance.

In your towns and communities, sharing the pride in all that they have given, and continue to give, to the defence of our country, our freedoms and our values.

It has also been my great privilege to pay that respect wherever I travel.

Every person in uniform has chosen unrestricted service—to put service before self. In  times of conflict, on peacekeeping operations, or in response to humanitarian crises, our sailors, soldiers and aviators demonstrate the ADF’s core values of service, courage, respect, integrity, and excellence.

Those values were gifted by the generations that have come before – the golden thread from the original Anzacs, to the Rats of Tobruk, to the men and women in uniform at sea, on land and in the air today.

In a time of rising global uncertainty, Australians can be confident in our modern Australian Defence Force, and the women and men who, in the tradition of the generations that have come before, serve with pride, commitment and dedication.

On this Anzac Day, I am proud to send a message from this sacred place, commemorating with Australians at home and around the world to remember the fallen, honour those in uniform and our veterans, and their families.

Lest we forget. 

<END>