ANZAC DAY ADDRESS 2008
 
Your Worship, Honoured Guests, Fellow Veterans and Citizens,
     
Late last year I attended a rally in Queen Street as a protest against the imminent passing of the Electoral Finance Act, and the ramifications of this legislation against freedom of speech in New Zealand.
 
The march terminated in QE2 Square and veterans were invited to mount the dais with speakers, which several did. The various speakers spoke. Then the organiser asked the veterans if they would like to speak, obviously expecting these elderly gentlemen to remain silent.  One spoke,  but then instead of stuttering and stammering, the old fellow spoke lucidly, not against anything the organisers had proposed, but more doubting their ability to carry out their proposal.
 
He brought to the notice of the crowd the failings of the previous administrations in matters relating to freedom.
 
The organisers, shocked that some one should point out these failings, requested that the silly old duffer surrender the microphone.
 
He being a gentle and restrained person complied with their request.
 
After all the organisers had  paid for the microphone and the sound system, therefore the freedom of broadcast was theirs.
 
So much for their championing freedom of speech though!
 
Or rather you can say what you like BUT don’t rock the boat.
 
To quote George Orwell: “Freedom of speech is the right to say things people don’t want to hear.”    
 
As President of the RSA I was at that time looking for a speaker for the service today.   So here you have that same old duffer.
 
This Anzac Day,  the 93rd  anniversary of the Gallipoli Landing,  around the world New Zealanders and Australians will be assembling before memorials as we are, to pay  their respects and to remember the sacrifice made by our  countrymen, our forebears.

Not just those who made the ultimate sacrifice and have their names inscribed on memorials but also those who served and returned home. Many have passed on and some of those remaining are parading here today.
 
Our memorial lists “The Boar War, First World War, Second World War, Korea, Malaya, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Gulf War.” I believe it is also unique in that mention is made of all who served. Thus being inclusive and on going, for conflicts did not end with the Gulf War. We still have people serving in Afghanistan, East Timor,  and other places around the world.
 
While there can be great heroism in war, there is little glory.
 
Only destruction and death, pain, suffering and grief.
 
Suffering and grief that will go on long after the conflict is over.

While the first two conflicts were wars of Empire - the latter have all been wars of ideology, against Fascist and Communist, totalitarian regimes. 
 
There were  volunteers for the Boar War, though New Zealanders were colonial troops volunteering in support of the mother country.
 
The First World War, most certainly the war that changed the world, the war that led to the demise of the German and Ottoman Empires, the rise of Socialism in Europe, the Second World War and many of the problems that exist in the Middle East to this day.
 
However WW1 also led to the recognition of New Zealand and the other Dominions as independent nations within the British Empire, firstly, by inclusion in the Imperial War Cabinet of 1917 and latterly with New Zealand independently signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.  This independence was later recognised with the Balfour declaration of 1923 and the 1931 Statute of Westminster.
 
These were evolutionary steps on the road to Nationhood, steps started with the signing of Treaty of Waitangi, where sovereignty was ceded and British justice, at that time the finest justice system in the world, introduced to New Zealand.
 
Thus New Zealand became a free, democratic, sovereign nation by evolution rather than revolution, but sadly since the introduction of MMP, our freedom, our democracy, is in danger of being evolved away.   
 
 In fact Freedom of speech has been suspended for this election year.
     
 Many War Memorials carry the inscription
 
“They gave their lives in the cause of freedom.”
 
But what is freedom? 
 
Well, freedom is not a free lunch.
 
Freedom has no monetary value, freedom can not be brought with dollars and cents. The currency of freedom is courage and commitment.   That price is all too often paid in blood
 
Freedom is the natural state of man. Freedom can not be quantified or divided.   You cannot be half or a quarter free.
 
You are either a freeman or a slave.   Free to live your life as you want, with the proviso that you leave me to live mine as I want to.
 
The first tenet of freedom is Freedom of speech, a freedom now under attack by our servants, the Government, the very people we elected to manage our affairs. 
 
Put simply, your freedom starts where my nose finishes!!
 
Free to practice your religion, no matter how stupid or silly other freemen perceive your beliefs to be.
 
If you believe you have ghosts and goblins under your bed or taniwhas in your duck pond - they are your ghosts, your taniwha but don’t expect me as a rational man to believe or pay to have them excised.
 
In closing I must the mention the theft of the 6,000 poppies and dozens of collection buckets last week. This was theft that created national outrage.
 
However, I am saddened by the fact that other crimes some much more traumatic for the victim do not get the same coverage and high profile.
 
One must question if we have become immune to the disrespect for personal sanctity and  private property as shown by criminals in this country.
 
On this count alone I feel we should stop and take stock as a nation.
 
Thank you.