PREMIER UNVEILS COBBERS STATUE

Saturday, 19 July 2008
Summary: Premier John Brumby unveils the new Cobbers’ statue that commemorates the Battle of Fromelles. Minister Tony Robinson also comments on the unveiling.  Premier Brumby responds to questions regarding: a police blitz on train stations, protests over Monash Freeway noise, and the Pope’s apology to victims of sexual abuse.
REPORTER:    Premier, what’s the significance of the statue today?

JOHN BRUMBY:    Well its significance is the Battle of Fromelles, and July 19 and 5000 casualties in one night.  And the significance of this statue – it’s about all of the Anzac values - it’s about compassion, it’s about courage, it’s about mate-ship, and this is the story of Simon Fraser, he was the soldier who went back to pick up his injured mates and there’s that great story: he picked up one and another soldier who was injured yelled out, ‘don’t forget me, cobber’.  And he went back and got him as well, and over the course of that one night something like 300 injured soldiers were returned for treatment.

So we’ve never had a memorial here in Australia despite the fact that more Australians were injured and killed in that one night in Fromelles than in the Boer War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, in total.  It was just, you know, just an appalling part of our history in terms of loss of life, we’ve never commemorated the extraordinary sacrifice that those soldiers made.

And so, Simon Fraser is a great way of doing that because…the Western Front was crucial to winning the First World War.  The contribution that Australian soldiers made was vital in protecting France and building this great friendship now that we have with France, and it’s soldiers like Simon Fraser; their care for their comrades, compassion for their comrades, courage, bravery, mate-ship, all of those things – the Anzac spirit – and that’s embodied in this magnificent statue, ‘Don’t Forget Me, Cobber’.

REPORTER:    And it has some special significance for your family also, doesn’t it?

BRUMBY:    Yeah it’s got very special significance for my family and my father’s uncle – so my great uncle, Earnest Brumby – he went to the Western Front, he was aged 25, he lasted less than two weeks in the…trenches there.  And he was a thrower, and they used to be in the frontline and they’d throw the grenades, and he was, you know, he lost his life, he was blown into pieces.  But there were 50,000 Australians like him who lost their lives on the Western Front, and you know, all of these stories – I mention in my speech tonight, the speech today too – the Leader of the Opposition, Ted Baillieu, his grandfather too, served and lost his life.  So all of these stories run through generations of Victorians and generations of Australians, and…it’s important that we never forget the huge sacrifice that was made by so many to protect our way of life and that’s what Cobbers’ does.

REPORTER:    Just on another issue, 16 arrests on the blitz on hooligans in the city last night, is this to continue?

BRUMBY:    Well, it’s part of making our streets safer and we need to do that.  And, you know, we want Melbourne to be a great city – a lively city, a city where you can have fun – but we want it to be a safe city as well.  And we’ve had too much violence there, we’ve had too much heavy drinking and drug taking, so we set up the Safer Streets Taskforce, they were out last night, they made a number of arrests - I think they’ll be saying more about that later today – but…we’ve got a vibrant lifestyle, we’ve got a vibrant Melbourne, a vibrant tourism industry, but we want our streets to be safe at night.  We want to be able to have people walk down Collins Street or Bourke Street at one or two in the morning and do so safely.  So--

REPORTER:    Civil libertarians though are saying it’s a bit over the top; the sniffer dogs and it’s railway stations.

BRUMBY:    Well you’ve got a lot of people who are…people who have been arrested for carrying and, in some cases I understand, trying to trade in what are clearly illegal drugs like ice and heroin.  And they’re illegal, you know, and people who don’t break the law, don’t trade drugs, aren’t carrying around heroin have nothing to fear.  But, you know, we make no apologies for this, we want a vibrant nightlife but we’re not going to be able to have one if there’s too much violence.  And so all of the steps that we’ve put in place, including the Safer Streets Taskforce - this is about ensuring that these streets in the middle of the night continue to be safe.

REPORTER:    East Malvern residents are protesting today at midday about the expansion of the Monash Freeway not actually including any better sound barriers; what are your opinions on that?

BRUMBY:    Well I’m not aware of that.  I know that there’s been an extensive study of the development of the Monash extension; it’s a $1.3 billion extension, it’s a huge program.  I know that a lot are being spent on sound barriers but I’m not aware of the particular issue.

Tony, did you want to comment on Fromelles as well?

TONY ROBINSON:    Oh well it’s – by coincidence – John Monash Stakes Day down at Caulfield so…

BRUMBY:    Oh right, yeah, so, General Sir John Monash.

TONY ROBINSON:    Another great Victorian, another great Australian, and it was with Monash, I suppose, two years after Fromelles that we turned the tide of the battle on the Western Front and far and wide he’s regarded as the general who did more to bring that war to a speedy end in 1918, so another great connection between Victoria and the Western Front.

REPORTER:    And just finally, Premier, the Pope this morning has apologised to victims of sexual abuse…your response to that?

BRUMBY:    I think that’s a positive thing.  And I said the other day…I was asked about, you know, should the Pope apologise, and I said it’s not my job to offer advice to the Pope, but if it was something that would bring comfort and relief to those who may have suffered, to those who have been abused, then that would be a positive thing.  And so I welcome the fact that he’s made that apology and I’m sure that it will bring comfort and relief and strength to those families who have been affected.