Commissioner’s Address National Police Remembrance Day Service
Address by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty APM
29 September 2006
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Good morning, Senator The Honourable Chris Ellison, Minister for Justice and Customs; Mr Simon Corbell, ACT Police Minister; Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan who is here from the Western Australian Police; Lt. General David Hurley representing Angus Houston, Chief of the Defence Force; current and former Commissioners who are with us this morning from the State and Territory Police services; members of the Monaro Local Area Commander District; and members of the Ngunnawal People who are here with us this morning.
Thank you very much for joining us for today’s ceremony.
I was just reflecting that this is the sixth ceremony that we have had since I became Commissioner.
People who have been to the other six ceremonies will be wondering what the AFP has done? We are not playing down today’s ceremony; we are just acknowledging that this afternoon we have a much more significant ceremony to be performed over in Kings Park.
For many of us who have been around for the last six years and even before that - Ministers, both Government and Opposition, and previous Ministers… we have worked very hard to try and deliver for all of policing and for the legacy of policing, a National Memorial. Of course that is what we will be doing this afternoon. So we thought it appropriate this morning to have a much more reduced service - not in terms of significance, but in terms of the work that has gone in to this morning’s Service.
At that point can I just acknowledge that there have been a series of politicians both Opposition and Government, because over the course of six years a lot of things happen in politics - a lot happens in policing - but I think a lot more happens in politics.
But can I say that there are Ministers and former Ministers who have been absolutely and totally supportive of the establishment of a National Police Memorial. I thank them for their continued efforts to what will be a wonderful opening of the Memorial this afternoon.
I would also like to acknowledge two other groups of people who have helped with the Memorial; it is unlikely this afternoon that we will have the opportunity to reflect upon their efforts.
That is the Ceremonial people, who have each and every year put a lot of effort into this Ceremony, but this afternoon you will see more than 700 police gathered for the ceremony at the new National Memorial.
That is the largest number of State and Territory police including Federal police in its various iterations that has ever gathered in Canberra since the opening of the first Parliament House back in 1826.
So thank you to those Ceremonial people.
As we heard at the opening of the ceremony this morning, one of our NSW colleagues, Sergeant Colin McKenzie, whilst rehearsing for today’s ceremony.
Colin is one of a group of people who right across Australian policing has been part of the team that is trying to put together a little bit more governance and a little bit more ceremony about the things that we do in policing right around the country.
Our thoughts and our condolences go to Colin’s family and also to his colleagues who were with him yesterday when he died. Particularly our colleagues in NSW police who felt that tragedy a lot more than most of us.
In the past 12 months since the last Remembrance Day Ceremony, three of our colleagues have been killed while performing their duties in policing.
Remembering that this ceremony is a result of the Australasia Police Ministers Council and also the Police Commissioners’ of the South West Pacific - hence you have the larger number of flags than what you would normally see at a ceremony like this.
Chief Police Officer of the ACT Audrey Fagan will shortly read out the honour list of those who died, but we have lost a Victorian police officer in the course of the last twelve months as well as two police officers from Fiji. One of those Fijian police officers died here in Canberra whilst working with our International Deployment Group.
There are two other groups of people I would like to acknowledge here today. One is the Police Associations, the police unions and the Police Federation Of Australia. Without the support of the Police Associations and employment groups, we would not have been able to complete the Memorial.
Each and every year they have come here and laid wreaths as part of our ceremonies, but they have also been very much behind recognition for not only the police who have been killed on duty, but most importantly, and that is the final group of people I want to mention, is the families of the police who have been killed.
In policing we tend to think we are a little bit immune to that what happens around us. When we join policing we know the dangers that we put our hands up to - but so do our families. I think it is the families who carry the burden of the loss of the loved one - much more than any-one else.
Today is about the families.
Today is also about taking time out of our really busy world. When you look at what’s happening in policing in Australia we have police today in the Sudan, police in Jordan, police in East Timor, police in the Solomon Islands – we have police in every part of Australia carrying out their every day police duties. Of course here in Canberra we have police not only performing their national duties but importantly also performing their community policing duties.
So police are very much a part of the new landscape of those men and women who put up their hand to protect the community, help the Government to protect the community, and help the community to protect itself.
So let’s take time out today….and just stop….and pause….and reflect….as we mourn… and pay our respects….and remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in giving up their lives so that our quality of life in our community is much better than what it might otherwise be.
May they rest in eternal peace.