Whilst Australia Remembers had the endorsement of the Prime Minister, aligned as it was wi th hi s wider understanding of Australia’s war history, the initiative was also driven by the entrepreneurial activities of Minister for Veterans Affairs, Con Sciacca (Inglis 2008, 393). Sciacca’s genuine enthusiasm for Australia Remembers helped to achieve bipartisanship for the project, and won hi m ‘respect and affection from diverse groupings and individuals, regardless of their own political philosophies and affiliations’ (Reed 2004, 13). Further, Sciacca’s personal history as a Sicilian immigrant and his stated belief that Anzac could transcend its British origins to include Australians of all ethnic backgrounds helped:
…to heal the profound divisions it [Anzac] has created by removing it from its military context and extending it to former enemies and descendants of people who had no involvement in World War I. More importantly, Sciacca had decentred the Anzac legend from its location at the core of Anglo-Australian remembrance, offering it as a secular signifier of belonging within the nation (Reed 2004, 122-123).
Sciacca was therefore an active participant in the re-imagination of Australia’s war remembrance i n a more plural sense.
In addition to the goodwill that Sciacca helped to create in regards to Australia Remembers, he played an enormous role in envisaging its purpose, and in planning and coordinating its program of events. Speaking to the House of Representatives in February 1995, Sciacca outlined what the Australia Remembers programs of events and initiatives were for:
164 …the aims of those working on Australia Remembers are to thank the veterans who fought in World War II; commemorate those who died; recognise the widows and children of those who died; remember all who kept the home front running; recreate the joy felt at the end of the war in the best way possible; educate the nation about World War II and leave a lasting legacy (Sciacca 1995a, 915).
Thus, the purpose of Australia Remembers centred on two interrelated aims – to remembe r and to educate. In the process, the government helped to steer public understandings of Australian war history – challenging the primacy of World War I in Australian narratives of identity and attempti ng, to varying degrees of success, to broaden the range of identities to be recognised, including women, immigrant identities, and Indigenous Australians.
To achieve these ends, a number of elements to the program were planned - commemorative ceremonies, most notably including three pilgrimages by veterans to overseas theatre of war locations in London, Papua New Guinea, and Borneo, and major ceremonies for Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory in the Pacific (VP) Day; seed funding for state capital and regional commemorative committees; public funding for unit reunions and histories; certificates of appreciation for veterans and those who served and contributed on the home front; engaging the media in promotion of Australia Remembers; and the development of an education ki t for pri mary and secondary school children on the events of World War II (Sciacca 1995a, 916-919).
In planning this program, Sciacca had envisaged the participation of a broad cross -section of the government and the community. It was a federal affair – in addition to the Commonwealth contribution, Australia Remembers also involved the participation and planning efforts of state and territory governments and $20,000 worth of seed funding for each federal electorate to plan and enact their own Australia Remembers events (ALP 1995, 250). Employing a whole -of-government approach, Australia Remembers also engaged a range of Commonwealth government departments and bodies. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), in conjunction wi th the Department of Veterans Affairs, was asked to locate surviving uniformed and non -uniformed Indigenous veterans, and to plan a commemorative service that would recognise their war efforts (Sciacca 1995a, 917). Of further note was the DVA’s employment initiative with the Departme nt of Employment, Education and Training entitled Operation Restoration, offering unemployed Australians work and training opportunities to restore neglected or damaged war memorials and remembrance driveways, and dovetailing with the employment policies of Working Nation (see Chapter 6). Inglis notes that this was somewhat of a departure for the government and the DVA, as small-scale local memorials were historically built and maintained by the funds and efforts of l ocal
165 communities, not the government. As it was, $10 million in Commonwealth funding was se t asi de for this program (Inglis 2008, 391).
Educating young Australians about WWII was also a key priority of the Australia Remembers program, with Sciacca (1995a, 918) remarking that the production of an education kit for Austral i an school children was ‘one of the most important tasks being undertaken this year.’ Students were asked to engage with a number of themes centring not only on the rote and passive learning of events, but with active tasks that encouraged students to investigate ‘the personal e xperi ences o f war in their local communities’ (Sciacca 1995a, 919), the state directing the linking of generations through the act of remembrance. Further to this end, youth forums were conducted around Australia during Australia Remembers, culminating with a Prime Ministerial address to the nati onal youth conference on VP day. Keating (1995b, 2-3) told that audience of schoolchildren:
So it had to mean something. 50 years on, we can't say oh well that was just something in the past. This sort of stoicism, this sort of bravery, heroism, belief in Australia, belief in what we created here, belief in our values, had to mean something. And so I am exceptionally pleased that so many Australians remember and so many young Australians remember and have learned about the period.
Keating’s anxiety that WWII was not being properly remembered is manifest in his language – ‘it had to mean something’, repeated for effect after listing the heroic attributes of Australia’s service personnel – ‘bravery’, ‘stoicism’ and ‘belief in Australia’ - reveals his tacit acceptance that such meanings were not universally understood or accepted. Concern that the significance of Austral ia’s war history would be lost as the generations who experienced war aged and passed away had preoccupied those sympathetic to Anzac for decades (see Macleod 2002; Holbrook 2014, 116-121) and Keating’s government had adopted a tangible policy response – curriculum intervention – for the expressed purpose of educating young Australians about their war history and e ncouraging their continued remembrance of those events and their meanings.
Total Commonwealth funding for Australia Remembers stood at $9 million19 (ALP 1995, 250; Firth 1995, 11). The marketplace was also sought as an active partner in remembrance, but Reed (2004, 160-161) notes the government had little success in garnering support from Australian compani es. This did not stop licensed merchandise being produced, though, with 18 licensees produci ng goods bearing the Australia Remembers logo on coasters, mugs, spoons, flags, clothing and even a CD
19 Reed (2004, 15) reports a total funding figure of $12 million, which has been repeated in Holbrook (2014, 1 89 ). I have been unable to corroborate this figure with primary sources, so I have instead reported the $9 mi l lion fi gure above, drawn from ALP (1995) and Firth (1995).
166 (Reed 2004, 161). Inglis (2008, 393) further notes that Cadbury chocolates and Tooheys beer both produced war-time branded products, and that Australia Post and the Australian Mint produced war hero stamps and coins.
Media coverage was also actively sought for the purposes of raising awareness and educating the public about the significance and meaning of WWII (Sciacca 1995a, 918), and Reed (2004, 160) notes the success that Australia Remembers had in this regard. TV specials featuring personalities like Ray Martin interviewing the Prime Minister and newspaper reports and histories bearing the Austral ia Remembers logo were prominent. In sum, Australia Remembers was an integrated and lavish government led initiative of nationalism entrepreneurship and remembrance, on a scale not previously seen for a war anniversary. It sought to involve all levels of government and the bre adth of the public service; integrated wider government policy priorities with programs like Operation Restoration; attempted to activate the consciousness of the public through media engagement, corporate sponsorship, and an education kit for schools; and was, on the whole, very successful in its aim to create remembrance and memory of the events and meanings of WWII.