Shorten salutes ‘modern Anzacs’
AUSTRALIAN soldiers were building living “monuments” in the embattled Afghanistan that were as worthy as those elsewhere commemorating Anzacs in bricks, brass and mortar, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said yesterday.
Making a surprise visit to Kabul, Mr Shorten said he had had the opportunity to join Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the Western Front in France for Anzac Day but wanted to see serving “modern Anzacs”.
Mr Shorten visited ADF operations in Kabul but also the outpost Camp Qargha on the capital’s western outskirts, to mix with Australian troops in the theatre of operations.
“Our modern Anzacs are building modern monuments too, all around them here, the sacrifice of our 41 (killed in action) in the recent conflicts here and monuments like the number of girls going to school, the number of graduates coming out of the officer training (Afghan National Army), life expectancy increased by a decade or more – they are monuments too and these modern Anzacs are building them all around us here in Afghanistan,” he said.