Honouring the troops

Isaac Davidson at NZ Herald reports:

MPs will give way to New Zealand soldiers – including SAS troops – and their families this evening for a ceremony in Parliament’s debating chamber to mark the Defence Force’s service and losses in overseas conflict.

In a rare move, up to 200 people will be allowed on to the floor of the House during Parliament’s dinner break for the unveiling of three commemorative plaques which recognise New Zealanders wounded or killed in Afghanistan, Timor-Leste and on peace-keeping missions.

Defence Force officials, families of the soldiers, and elite troops will hear speeches by Speaker David Carter, Prime Minister John Key and Leader of the Opposition David Shearer.

The plaques are the first to be added to the debating chamber since the 1990s, when memorials for wars in Malaysia and Vietnam were put up.

I often look at those plaques, if I’m in the gallery.

Parliamentary tour notes say the wood-carved plaques were placed in the debating chamber “as solemn reminders of the gravity of decisions made by Parliamentarians to send men and women overseas on active service and operations, and to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of those men and women”.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard referred to the plaques in a speech in the debating chamber in 2011, describing them as “snapshots of the shared and lasting bonds between our two nations”.

“Our ties were indelibly forged in hardship and mateship, from Gallipoli and the Somme to Tobruk, Korea and beyond … And wherever Australian and New Zealand blood has been shed, it remains sacred ground.”

Indeed. I hope to visit Gallipoli next April. It will be the 99th anniversary of Gallipoli. I’d like to go for the 100th but it will be too difficult to get in.