Brash Don: Motions — Tomb of the Unknown Warrior—Recognition of Service of New Zealanders 
Brash Don: Motions — Tomb of the Unknown Warrior—Recognition of Service of New Zealanders 
[Volume:621;Page:16867] 
Dr DON BRASH (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 On behalf of the New Zealand National Party I rise to strongly support the Prime Minister’s motion. I commend the Government warmly for its initiative in bringing the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior to fruition. Today we honour the Unknown Warrior and I was privileged to take part in the service this morning at the cathedral and the interment this afternoon at the National War Memorial. In doing that we celebrate the life of this man who died and the lives of the 30000 New Zealanders who died while defending our country in the last century. In a sense this warrior represents all those who died but particularly the 9000 who died and for whom no known burial place is found. We do not know the details of his life his age or his rank where he came from his religion his politics or his family circumstances. What we do know is that he died at the Battle of the Somme. 
I am not sure how much members of this House know about the Battle of the Somme but it has to be one of the most ghastly battles in which at least the countries of the British Commonwealth have ever taken part. It is said that some 400000 British Commonwealth people died at the Battle of the Somme of whom 1500 were New Zealanders. On the very first day of that battle it is estimated that Allied casualties—not German casualties; just Allied casualties—were 56000 dead. That is roughly what the Americans lost in the entire Vietnam War. I understand that Allied troops going out of the trenches in the Somme were told to form up at one arm’s length apart and to walk—not run—towards the enemy trenches. It is not surprising that they were mown down by machine-gun fire. 
National strongly supports the creation of this Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. It is one appropriate way to honour the sacrifice made by all those men and women predominantly young from every part of New Zealand. Few of our older schools and none of our towns and cities lack an honours board listing the names of those who fell in our defence. We honour too those who returned severely injured. Indeed we honour all those who served and their families. But of course creating this memorial is only part of what we must do to honour those who died. We honour them also by ensuring that our defence forces today are appropriately supported and resourced. Since we are talking in a non-partisan way I think it is fair to acknowledge that successive Governments have sometimes failed in that regard. 
Let me also say that it is important to remember that those who fought and died did so to protect our country and our way of life—that is a society of first-name informality that is largely free of class divisions a society where all children have access to education and health care a society where people are free to make decisions for themselves and their families and a society where all New Zealanders regardless of race have the rights and privileges of British subjects in the words of the Treaty of Waitangi. There are strong differences of opinion in this House and that is not surprising. We differ about how to achieve those objectives. Each of us will and should argue strongly for the measures that we believe will best achieve the objectives for which those people died. But we must never forget that many of our objectives we share in common. We honour the fallen when we seek to protect and promote the things for which they died. 
On the occasion of the marking of the 150th anniversary of Parliament in the Banquet Hall I recalled an occasion that happened to me on the night before the election in 2002 when at a black-tie dinner in Napier the host asked a clergyman to give thanks before we sat down for the meal. He got up and gave thanks for the food and the drink and went on to give thanks for the fact that in 24 hours we would have elected a new Government. He said that nobody would have been shot nobody would have been beaten to death and the parties who lost would not contest the election although they would be sad—and we were—but would accept the result. He said that we are one of a tiny number of countries in the world for which that is true now and has been true for many decades. Today we remember all those who gave us that legacy.