Kerry Stokes makes a comeback at the Australian War Memorial – but just to give the Remembrance Day Address

The War Memorial has a recent tradition of comebacks, with Brendan Nelson returning as Chair (then announcing he is going again), having been Director. Now, Nelson’s predecessor as Chair, Kerry Stokes, returns as the giver of the Remembrance Day address at the Memorial.

Funnily enough, the speech looks rather like any one of a number of Nelson speeches over the last decade. Who knows how these things are put together.

It’s a nice speech for the occasion, full of emotive phrases, quotes from Charles Bean, and telling anecdotes. Nothing in there, though, about the big $550m build (including its dodgy financing), Frontier Wars – or (directly) Ben Roberts-Smith.

David Stephens

11 November 2022