Page 3307 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 13 November 2007
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industrial purposes. This is a new project. Water restrictions have been around for years before this project started. Really, I think the government has been caught with its pants down here. It has got to live by its own standards for the use of water in the city. That is crucially important.
The Chief Minister is saying that we might have to go to level 4. That is a very real possibility. It behoves the government to take all reasonable steps to ensure that it practices what it preaches and that, wherever it can, it uses recycled water. Use the treated water from lower Molonglo. Do not use this precious resource out of fire hydrants for something like this.
World War I
MR GENTLEMAN: On Sunday I represented the Chief Minister in the ACT at the ceremony for Remembrance Day at the Australian War Memorial. In attendance were His Excellency the Governor-General and his wife, the Prime Minister, Gary Humphries, Bob McMullan, Kate Lundy representing the Leader of the Opposition, the Chief of the Defence Force, the chiefs of the navy, army and air force and many others.
While I personally view war as abhorrent, I do think it is important to remember those that have served Australia in the past. Remembrance Day is the day that Australia remembers those who died in war. In 1918 the armistice that ended World War I came into force, bringing to end four years of hostilities that saw 61,919 Australians die at sea, in the air and on foreign soil. Few Australian families were left untouched by the events of World War I, the war to end all wars. Most lost a father, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend.
At 11 am on 11 November we pause to remember the sacrifices of those men and women who died or suffered in wars and conflicts and all those who served during the past hundred years. The armistice became effective at 11 am the same day and the guns fell silent on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Four years of hostilities had ended.
More than 416,000 Australians volunteered for service in World War I and, of these, 324,000 served overseas. My grandfather was one of those in the 6th Light Horse Regiment. It was started in Sydney in September 1914 for men who had enlisted in New South Wales and became part of the 2nd Light Horse in Sydney on 21 December 1914. The Light Horse were considered unsuitable for the initial operations at Gallipoli, but were subsequently deployed, without their horses, to reinforce the infantry. The 2nd landed in late May 1915 and was attached to the 1st Australian Division. The 6th Light Horse become responsible for a sector on the far right of the Anzac line and was left there on the peninsula until 20 December 1915.
Back in Egypt the 2nd Light Horse Brigade became part of the Anzac Mounted Division and in April 1916 joined the forces defending the Suez Canal from the Turks in the Sinai Desert. It fought in the battle of Romani on 4 August, at Katia the following day and participated in the pursuit that followed the Turkish retreat. The regiment spent late 1916 and early 1917 engaged on patrol work until the British advance into Palestine stalled before the Turkish bastion of Gaza.
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