The Genre of Prime Ministerial Anzac Day Addresses, 1973-2016
Nicholas Bromfield
University of Sydney
Email: nicholas.bromfield@sydney.edu.au
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank Rodney Smith, Peter John Chen, E.M. Bird, and the
anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of
this paper.
Abstract:
The last quarter of a century has seen an explosion in prime ministerial engagement with
Anzac, and in particular, the marking of Anzac Day with a national address. Correspondingly,
there has also been enormous interest in Anzac from members of the academy, but there has
been little systematic analysis of the breadth and depth of prime ministerial Anzac Day
addresses. This paper seeks to correct this omission by conducting a critical discourse analysis
of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses from 1973-2016 in order to sketch their imprecise,
but increasingly institutionalised and consistent, genre boundaries. The paper delineates the
various thematic and characteristic features of these addresses, including where and when
the addresses have been delivered; the fixity and hybridisation of the prime ministerial Anzac
speech genre; the thematic and tonal representations of Anzac; the wars and battles prime
ministers asso iate A za
ith; a d ho A za s age ts a e. As will be shown, whilst
Australian prime ministers may closely adhere to the traditions of Anzac with their addresses,
they also subtly renovate understandings of Anzac in alignment with their policy agendas.
1
Introduction
At dawn on the 100th anniversary of Anzac, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivered
a speech at Anzac Cove.1 “ta di g i the e e gi g lue light, A ott s spee h e alled the
actions of those men who had landed at Gallipoli a century earlier, interpreted the values that
those servicemen had fought for, and called upon the Australian audience to remember their
sacrifice and follow their example. The speech - its setting, its form, and its themes – would
have been familiar to any audience member who had happened to watch previous Australian
prime ministerial dawn service addresses at Gallipoli since 1990. But was it always so?
Since 1990, Australian prime ministers and their governments have increasingly
supplanted the Returned and Services League (RSL) as custodians of Anzac.2 They have
consistently given Anzac Day addresses during the last twenty-five years at significant sites of
Australian war remembrance and in a form that often closely matched the high rhetoric and
atio alis of A ott s
A za Da add esses. But this has ot al a s ee the ase.
Early prime ministerial engagement with Anzac was more sporadic, more suburban, and less
spectacular. Further, prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses have not always been about the
sig ifi a e of A za i Aust alia s atio al life and early prime ministerial engagement with
Anzac showed a high degree of genre flexibility. Over time, the conventions of these
addresses have coagulated, and have begun to demonstrate a significant degree of rhetorical
path dependency.3
Despite this, a systematic analysis of the evolution of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses
has not been attempted.4 This paper seeks to correct this omission by conducting a critical
discourse analysis (CDA) of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses from 1973-2016 in order
to outline their imprecise, but increasingly institutionalised and consistent, genre boundaries.
The paper delineates the various thematic and characteristic features of these addresses,
Tony Abbott, April 25, 2015.
Da “e i e, Gallipoli . PM Transcripts - Department of Prime and Cabinet,
https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-24397.
2
Ma il Lake, Ho Do “ hool hild e Lea a out the “pi it of A za ? , in Marilyn Lake ed., What’s Wrong
with ANZAC?: The Militarisation of Australian History (Sydney, 2010), p. 139; Kenneth Stanley Inglis, Sacred
Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape (Carlton, 2008), pp. 554-555.
3
De is G u e, The Gilded Cage: ‘heto i al Path Depe de
i Aust alia Politi s, in John Uhr and Ryan
Walter eds., Studies in Australian Political Rhetoric, (Canberra, 2014), pp. 99–118,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt13www0c.
4
In political science, recent generalist works on Australian political rhetoric pay little or no attention to prime
ministerial Anzac Day addresses. See: Dennis Grube. Prime Ministers and Rhetorical Governance. (Basingstoke,
2013); John Uhr and Ryan Walter eds., Studies in Australian Political Rhetoric, (Canberra, 2014).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt13www0c; Ni k D e fu th, Ne e Hithe to “ee Outside of a )oo
o a Me age ie : The Language of Australian Politics, Australian Journal of Politics & History, Vol. 56, 1 (2010),
pp. 38–54; Judith Brett, The Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard,
(Cambridge; New York, 2003), pp. 196; 204. Historians have been more active in analysis of the role of prime
ministers in the resurgence of Anzac, but these works do not offer detailed examination of the linguistic
construction of prime ministerial language or exhaustive analysis of the development of prime ministerial Anzac
Day engagement. See: Carolyn Holbrook, Anzac: The Unauthorised Biography, (Sydney, 2014), pp. 166-206;
Inglis, Sacred Places; James Curran, The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National
Image, (Carlton, 2006); Lake How Do Schoolchildren, 139; Ma k M Ke a, A za Da : Ho Did It Be o e
Aust alia s Natio al Da ? , in Marilyn Lake ed., What’s Wrong with ANZAC?: The Militarisation of Australian
History (Sydney, 2010), 110–34; Matthew Graves, Memorial Diplomacy in Franco-Aust alia ‘elatio s, in
Shanti Sumartojo and Ben Wellings, eds., Nation Memory and Great War Commemoration: Mobilizing the Past
in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, (Oxford, 2014), pp. 169-187.
1
2
including where and when the addresses have been delivered; the fixity and hybridisation of
the prime ministerial Anzac speech genre; the thematic and tonal representations of Anzac;
the wars and battles prime ministers associate Anzac with; and finally, ho A za s age ts
are. The systematic analysis of these speeches is worthy of study because the prime
minister s access to the power resources of the state ensures their profound influence on
nationalist discourses. However, this power should not be overstated5 and prime ministers
have also felt the disciplining effects of Anzac. So, whilst this paper does not purport to
p o ide the defi iti e ausal e pla atio fo A za s e e t esu ge e, it does de o st ate
how prime ministerial rhetoric has both reflected and engendered this regeneration.6
Theory and method: critical discourse analysis and corpus assisted discourse analysis
The paper utilises CDA as the methodological basis for the analysis. However, CDA is a theory,
as well as a method, and it views discourse in three dimensions:
[…] (i) a language text, spoken or written, (ii) discourse practice (text
production and text interpretation), (iii) sociocultural practice.
Furthermore, a piece of discourse is embedded within sociocultural
practice at a number of levels; in the immediate situation, in the wider
institution or organization, and at a societal level […]7
Importantly, CDA therefore points to the socially embedded nature of language, whilst
simultaneously analysing its linguistic construction. The paper thus conducts analysis at these
levels.
This qualitative approach to CDA is supplemented by quantitative corpus assisted
discourse analysis (CADA). CADA explores texts with concordance software in order to
examine …lexical frequencies and distributions, regularities and irregularities in collocation
patter s a d thus patte s of ea i g .8 CADA can be used usefully in conjunction with CDA
5
Joan Beaumont, The Politics of Memory: Commemorating the Centenary of the First World War , Australian
Journal of Political Science, 50:3, (2015), p. 531.
6
The causal explanation for the recent resurgence of Anzac is a much studied, yet contentious, topic. It has
been variously advanced to be due to the increasing temporal distance from the original Anzacs; the emergence
of a trauma narrative surrounding service personnel and Anzac during the 1980s; the interest in family genealogy
and histories; battlefield tourism and sacred pilgrimage; the engendering role of politicians and the state; or the
reconciliation of Vietnam veterans with the Australian body politic. See: Inglis, Sacred Places, pp. 413; Christina
T o e T au a a d the ‘ei igo atio of A za : a a gu e t, History Australia, Vol. 10, 3 (2013); Holbrook,
Anzac Unauthorised Biography; Bruce Scates, Return to Gallipoli: walking the battlefields of the Great War.
(Cambridge, 2006); Marilyn Lake ed., What’s Wrong with ANZAC?; Ni holas B o field, Welcome home:
reconciliation, Vietnam veterans, and Anzac during the Hawke government, Australian Journal of Political
Science, published electronically 19 Jan 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2017.1279123.
U fo tu atel , spa e does ot allo a fulle e plo atio of these ausal e ha is s gi e the pape s fo us o
prime ministerial language.
7
Norman Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. (New York, 1995), p. 97.
8
Paul Ba le , Te o i Politi al Dis ou se f o the Cold Wa to the U ipola Wo ld, i No a Fai lough,
Guiseppina Cortese, and Patrizia Ardizzone, eds., Discourse and Contemporary Social Change, (Bern, 2007), pp.
49–71.
3
as it offers an introductory insight into the corpus before conducting qualitative analysis and,
further, quantitative verification of qualitative analysis.
In addition to CDA, some points about genre need to be made. As Fairclough points
out, … ge es a
uite o side a l i te s of thei deg ee of sta ilizatio , fi it a d
9
ho oge izatio . Genres also li k togethe i ge e hai s , such as media releases tied
to set spee hes, o h idise i ge e i i g .10 Further, Frow points to the structural
features of genre - its formal textual features, thematic structure, situation of address (or
tone), structure of implication (an assumed background knowledge that informs an
audience), rhetorical function, and physical setting.11 Issues like the physical setting of the
speeches, the linking of genre types and their hybridity, and the themes, tone and rhetorical
purpose of the speeches, will be employed to demonstrate the increasing institutionalisation
of a form of prime ministerial Anzac Day rhetoric that is reverential, nationalistic and geared
towards partisan policy agendas.
The corpus
The corpus consists of thirty-four speeches and eleven media releases, and to the best
knowledge of the author, represents the entirety of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses
between 1973 – 2016.12 The collation of this corpus is an endeavour that has not been
attempted before and it contains speeches and addresses that have received little or no
scholarly attention.13 It has been selected from a range of archival sources14 and has been
cross-checked for coverage with newspaper reports regarding Anzac Day. The necessity of
the selection of many sources was clear, as their delivery was on Anzac Day and their subject
matter was primarily on Anzac. Others required more judgement – those addresses that were
directly on Anzac, and were in close proximity to the date of 25 April, were also selected.15
Speeches and media releases given on Anzac Day, but not directly and substantively on Anzac,
have been omitted, as ha e spee hes su sta ti el o Aust alia s a e e
a e
delivered on dates other than Anzac Day, such as Remembrance Day or other battle
anniversaries.
9
Norman Fairclough, Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research, (London, 2005), p. 66.
Fairclough, Analysing Discourse, pp. 31-2; 34-35.
11
John Frow, Genre. The New Critical Idiom, (London, 2006), pp. 9-10.
12
The corpus has been treated as a population and will thus employ descriptive statistics.
13
This is primarily associated with speeches made by Fraser and Hawke prior to 1990.
14
Source material has been located from the PM Transcripts Archive hosted by the Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet, the prime ministe ial li a ies of Whitla , F ase , Ha ke a d Keati g, the p i e i iste s
website at pm.gov.au, the PANDORA web archive, the National Archives of Australia, and material hosted at
www.aph.gov.au.
15
See Robert Hawke, April 24, 1989, “pee h B The P i e Mi iste Ope i g Of The E te sio s At The
Heidelberg Repatriation General Hospital Melbourne Ap il
, PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet, https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-7579; Paul Keating, April 23, 1993,
Lau h Of The Bu a-Thaila d ‘ail a , PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=8850; and Kevin Rudd, April 24, 2009, Add ess to the
Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and General Sir John Monash Foundation Leadership Luncheon
Do kla ds, Mel ou e,
PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=16515.
10
4
Anzac Day: the speech setting and frequency
In his brief parsing of the role of prime ministerial rhetoric on Anzac Day, Grube asserts: [f]or
Australian prime ministers, it has been a consistent duty of the rhetorical prime ministership
to speak at a dawn service on ANZAC day [...] 16 Figure 1 tests this assumption, and reports
the frequency of dawn service addresses, Anzac Day addresses falling at a time other than the
dawn service, non-Anzac Day addresses and one recorded message to the nation. During the
period under examination, dawn service addresses were outnumbered by addresses that fell
at other times on Anzac Day by more than double. As such, prime ministerial dawn service
addresses have not been the most frequently employed platform for making an address on
Anzac Day, despite their prominence in public memory due their publicity and stirring
imagery.
Further, as Figure 2 reports, Anzac Day addresses, at a dawn service or otherwise, have
not always been a o siste t dut of Australian prime ministers. It is only since 1990 that
prime ministers of both parties have begun to regularly address an Anzac Day audience. This
is not to say that prime ministers did not engage with Anzac prior to 1990, but that
engagement was as a participant, rather than as the focus or the driver of the ceremony. The
prime minister s ole, the , as f e ue tl to se e as o e of the dig ita ies of the o asio ,
lending the endorsement of the state to the proceedings. For example, Whitlam marked
Anzac Day 1973 in London, with his only two active Anzac Day duties being a wreath laying at
the Cenotaph at Whitehall and reading one of two lessons at an Anzac Day sermon at
Westminster Abbey.17 Similar participatory patterns were revealed by Fraser and Hawke prior
to 1990.18
Finally, prime ministers Anzac Day participation was often more local, rather than
national or international, as prime ministers marked Anzac Day in their local electorates, state
capital cities, or wherever they may have found themselves on Anzac Day as they conducted
the business of government. For instance, Whitlam marked Anzac Day 1974 with a dawn
service at the Edmondson VC Memorial Club in Liverpool in his electorate of Werriwa, before
laying a wreath at the Sydney Cenotaph, and attending an afternoon Anzac service at the
Masonic Club in Parramatta.19 Fraser tended to commemorate Anzac as he conducted the
business of government, and favoured participation in Anzac Day ceremonies around the
16
Grube, Prime Ministers and Rhetorical Governance, pp. 55.
AAP, “till a Strong Aust-British Bond, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 26, 1973, p. 9.
18
Nicholas B o field, The Tu
to A za : A C iti al Dis ou se A al sis of P i e Mi iste ial A za
Entrepreneurship, 1972PhD thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016), pp. 76-77,
https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/15561.
19
Gough Whitla , Dail P og a - 24 to Ap il
, Ap il ,
, Item 38762 [Box 202] and PDF Whitlam
Institute
E-Collection.
http://cem.uws.edu.au/R/FYUT33SP9S2PYXEEA7228RNDTQNK9XBGSMY43843QYTKPAKGJV00394?func=results-jump-full&set_entry=000010&set_number=000026&base=GEN01-EGW01;
James
Cu i gha ,
,
Joi A za Day Procession, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 26, 1974, p. 2.
17
5
country as he did so. Fraser thus appeared at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in 1976,
Sydney cenotaph in 1977, Alice Springs in 1978, Esperance in 1979 (the site of his only Anzac
Day address), and at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance in 1980, 1981, and 1982.
Over time, prime ministers have increasingly moved away from local memorialisation
and have instead marked Anzac Day at a national or foreign site of Australian war
remembrance. Figure 3 demonstrates that Gallipoli has been a frequent site, but only after
Ha ke s t ip the e i
.20 The AWM i the atio s apital Ca e a has i easi gl
replaced the suburban setting of prime ministerial Anzac Day remembrance too, with all six
addresses that have been given there occurring after 2000.21 Trips to World War Two sites of
remembrance were conducted by Keating to Papua New Guinea in 1992 and by Howard to
Thailand in 1998, but notably dropped off after 2000, as Gallipoli and the AWM were
increasingly preferred.
The ‘“L s lo al a d state situated e e
a e has ee la gel a a do ed prime
ministers. Instead, Anzac Day has been increasingly marked at significant Australian war sites
overseas, or at the AWM. CDA stresses the socially embedded nature of discourse, which
compels us to examine these shifts and the way they reveal the increasing institutionalisation
of prime ministerial engagement with Anzac. The physical setting of a genre is therefore
relevant because the setting activates a frame that distinguishes it from other genres.22 The
shift from the local to the national or international stage calls upon the audience to note the
epla e e t of the ‘“L as A za s ustodia , the growing significance of Anzac in Australian
national life, and the central role of the prime minister and the state in its remembrance.
Finally, the state s do i ating involvement in the site of A za s memorialisation supports
the limiting of remembrance to certain endorsed activities and locations.23
Genre chains and hybridisation
Prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses have linked in chains with other genre forms.
Prominently, this has included the media release and the interview. This linking may seem
innocuous, but the regular connection of these forms demonstrates the prime ministerial
pursuit of media coverage of their Anzac Day activities and their confidence in the media to
report this news to their audience. For example, Ho a d s 2004 Anzac Day trip to visit the
troops participating in the Iraq War consisted of two addresses, two media releases regarding
Anzac Day itself, two media releases regarding the awarding of medals for service, and finally,
20
Hawke made the first prime ministerial Gallipoli trip in 1990. Howard followed in 2000 and in 2005, Gillard in
2012, and Abbott in 2015.
21
Prime ministerial addresses at the AWM have been given in 2001, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2016.
22
Frow, Genre, pp. 9-10.
23
Shanti Sumartojo, A za Kinship and National Identity on the Australian Remembrance Trail, i “ha ti
Sumartojo and Ben Wellings, eds. Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration: Mobilizing the Past in
Europe, Australia and New Zealand, (Oxford, 2014), p. 306.
6
interviews on 25 April and on the morning of 26 April.24 This burst of activity helped ensure
the maximum positive coverage of Ho a d s e t al essages of suppo ti g a d tha ki g the
troops for their service, and his reinforcement of the necessity of Aust alia s I a
commitment.25 The linking of these genres reveals how prime ministers have actively
engendered the coverage of their Anzac Day activities and messages.
Prime minister s A za Da add esses also de o st ate a high deg ee of h idisatio
of the various categories of their rhetorical responsibilities, those being world leader, party
leader, local member, policy advocate, national representative, and relationship builder. 26
The role of national representative is most obviously present in prime ministerial Anzac Day
addresses, but all of these genre forms are evident in the corpus. Further, prime ministers
have frequently mixed together two or more genre categories. Hawke in particular combined
categories – blending national representation, policy advocacy, leadership on the world stage,
and attempts to connect with sections of the electorate. For example, on Anzac Day 1986
Hawke spoke in Athens and recalled the sacrifice and comradeship of Greeks and Australians
during World War Two:
These shared experiences from the darkest and most bitter days of
defeat have, however, left lasting benefits.
For the Australians and other allies who fought alongside their Greek
comrades it is the staunch friendships which were forged then.
These friendships were tested to the utmost limits and have endured.
They endure not only among those who fought but have been passed
down to the men and women of succeeding generations.27
Joh Ho a d, Ap il ,
, Add ess to Aust alia T oops Doha , I a , PM T a s ipts - Department of
Prime Minister and Cabinet, http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21233; A za Cele atio s,
April
25,
2004.
PM
Transcripts
Department
of
Prime
Minister
and
Cabinet.
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21226; A za Da , Ap il
,
. PM T a s ipts Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21225;
Aust alia “e i e to I a a d Afgha ista ‘e og ised, Ap il ,
. PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet. http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21228; Aust alia s i I a
Ho ou ed, Ap il
,
. PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21227; I te ie
ith Pete Ca e AM P og a
e, ABC
‘adio,
Ap il
,
. PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=21231; T a s ipt Of The P i e Mi iste The Ho Joh
Ho a d MP Add ess To The Aust alia T oops, Baghdad, I a , Ap il ,
, PANDO‘A, Aust alia s We
Archive.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10052/200411210000/www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/speech825.html; T a s ipt Of The P i e Mi iste The Ho Joh
Ho a d Mp Doo stop I te ie , I a , Ap il
,
, PANDO‘A, Aust alia s We
A hi e.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10052/20041121-0000/www.pm.gov.au/news/interviews/Interview823.html.
25
Mi helle G atta , The Ho a d Pla Of Atta k. The Age, April 28, 2004, p. 17.
26
Grube, The Gilded Cage, p. 43.
27
‘o e t Ha ke, Ap il ,
“pee h
Bo Ha ke at the Anzac Day Ceremony, Athens, The Bo Ha ke
Prime
Ministerial
Library.
24
7
Here Hawke took on the role of national leader, speaking on behalf of the nation and imbuing
Anzac with meaning for the Australian people – friendship between allies. Simultaneously,
Hawke was inhabiting the role of world leader, representing Australia to the world and
building the relationship with Greece, with the friendship between the nations enduring
and being passed down . Finally, Hawke was alluding to his role as a policy advocate and
relationship builder to sections of the domestic audience in Australia, as the Greek diaspora
in Australia was an important constituency for the ALP during the 1980s.28
Such genre hybridity did sometimes attract dissension when overt partisanship
intruded. Keating attracted controversy in 1993 when he linked his preference for Asian
e gage e t ith Aust alia s a histo
alli g the 8th Division held as Prisoners of War
(POWs) by Japanese forces in World Wa T o … the fi st pio ee s of Aust alia i Asia. The
f o tie s e . 29 The RSL and the Opposition both responded by condemning the prime
minister for introducing partisanship to Anzac Day.30 Ho a d s I a t ip o A za Da
also attracted criticism when it became clear that the isit s pu pose was as much about
securing support for the contested deployment as it was for thanking the troops.31
Over time, instances of genre hybridisation that included partisan policy advocacy
became less frequent. Howard in particular took an active role in engendering this norm,
remarking I have a golden rule on ANZAC Day I never talk about anything that has any kind
of pa t politi al [ o otatio ]. 32 This is certainly not uniform across the corpus,33 but policy
advocacy of the type that saw Keating provoke controversy in 1993, or Hawke spruik his
34 and the ALP s Defence White Paper in
go e
e t s e o d o epat iatio e efits i
1991,35 has declined in frequency. Instead, prime ministerial speeches have primarily shifted
to a format that conforms to the genre category of national leader, with allusions to world
leader if the address is being hosted by a foreign government. This change over time reflects
http://ura.unisa.edu.au/R/EC5LXQY1XDXARL82RVUIIF2N3A44NFJ6RLFK47MJF4KLRT9UY5-01395?func=resultsjump-full&set_entry=000002&set_number=000814&base=GEN01-URA10 .
28
Ja es Jupp, The ALP a d the Eth i Co
u ities, in John Warhurst and Andrew Parkin, eds., The Machine:
Labor Confronts the Future, (St Leonards, 2000), pp. 250–63.
29
Keating, Burma-Thailand Railway, p. 2.
30
Jodie B ough, Keati g s T i ute Ba kfi es - Diggers Sacrifice Used for Political Gain: RSL, The Canberra Times,
April 24, 1993, p. 1. Keating also provoked controversy on Anzac Day 1992 with similar partisan alignment of
Anzac with policy. See: Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart (North Sydney, 2011), pp. 184.
31
Grattan, Plan of Attack, 17.
32
John Howard, April 25, 1999, T a s ipt Of The P i e Minister The Hon John Howard MP Radio Interview
With John Fai e, ‘adio LO, PANDO‘A, Aust alia s We A hi e, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nphwb/19990516130000/http://www.pm.gov.au/media/pressrel/1999/3LO2504.htm.
33
See Rudd, Chamber of Commerce, fo a le gth e pli atio of his go e
e t s poli espo se to the Glo al
Financial Crisis.
34
Hawke, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
35
Robert Hawke, April 25, 1991, “pee h B The Prime Minister Opening Of Gymnasium At Hmas Coonawarra
Darwin Ap il
, PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=8283.
8
the growing coalescing of the genre boundaries of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses and
their increasing conformity with the sombre and nationalistic rituals of Anzac.
Thematic and tonal representations of Anzac
The next section will examine the tone and themes evident in prime ministerial
representations of Anzac. It tests prime ministerial A za Da add esses to see if “eal s
assertion that A za a e ie ed as a spe t u
ith the digge t aditio at o e e d a d
36
the A za t aditio at the othe is evident. Drawing upon the image of national identity
expressed in the Australian legend,37 the digger tradition is characterised by the bottom-up
values of the soldiers who fought in World War One - mateship, anti-authoritarianism,
larrikinism, racism, sentimentality, pity and fear.38 The Anzac tradition, on the other hand,
consists of the top-down values of officialdom and the state, emphasising:
[…] a set of attitudes and values within which notions of honour, duty,
bravery, sacrifice and salvation are central, located particularly within
a militarist context. Overarching these are the imperatives of
commemoration and remembrance linked with an overpowering aura
of nationalism, emphasising unity, sameness, heritage, patriotism and
loyalty.39
Also tested for is T o e s a gu e t that since the 1980s […] personalised stories of
trauma, suffering, loss and pain came to occupy a legitimate space in the public discussion of
A za , along with post-t au ati st ess diso de PT“D a d ete a s status as i ti s.40
Crucially, the rate at which prime ministers have incorporated these variables into their Anzac
Day addresses has an important effect on the rhetorical function and tone of their speeches.
Figure 4 reports the coded frequencies of these variables over time,41 and confirms
“eal s characterisation of the state driven Anzac tradition. Official representations of Anzac
by prime ministers strongly reference the service and sacrifice of service men and women,
their bravery, honour and heroism, and lessons for the nation state regarding national unity
rather than national diversity. These lessons are reinforced by frequent calls to remember
and by the sacralisation of Anzac by reference to its sacredness. Further, after 1990, the high
36
Graham Seal, Inventing Anzac: The Digger and National Mythology, (St Lucia, 2004), pp. 3-6.
Russel Ward, The Australian Legend, (Melbourne, 199), pp.1-2.
38
Seal, Inventing Anzac, p. 3.
39
Seal, Inventing Anzac, p. 4.
40
Twomey Trauma and the Reinvigoration of Anzac, pp. 88; 105-106.
41
These variables have been coded in the corpus. This has created a population of coded mentions, and the
rate of mentions of these variables over time, and per speech, have been used to reflect the differing number
of speeches given. The Anzac tradition themes n=7: remember; sacrifice; bravery/courage/valour/heroism;
duty/service; honour; unity; sacredness/soul. The digger tradition themes n=7: mateship/mates; generalised
Australianness; humour; egalitarianism/fair-go; larrikinism; anti-authoritarianism; fear. The trauma themes n=7:
trauma; ongoing physical/mental health effects of war; suffering; horror; disturb; PTSD; victim/victimhood.
37
9
rhetoric of the prime ministerial Anzac Day address genre has increased, and especially during
the lead-up to the centenary of Anzac after 2010. Notably, prime ministers rhetoric does not
substantively include the traumatic themes Twomey has identified with public discussion of
Anzac, with some key identifiers of this variable (trauma; PTSD; victim/victimhood) being
completely absent from the corpus.
Prime ministers employment of the Anzac tradition has an important rhetorical
function as it asks the audience to remember the values of service, sacrifice and unity, and is
frequently employed in conjunction with lessons for the present. These lessons for the
present often included a e pli it o i pli it poli age da, su h as Ha ke s h idisatio of
Anzac Day and policy speeches in ser i e of his go e
e t s poli age da, Ho a d s
alignment of Anzac with justifications for the deployment of Australian troops to the invasion
of Iraq, o Keati g s neoliberalism and Asian engagement.
The tone of prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses reinforces the rhetorical function
outlined above, with the employment of the Anzac tradition again playing a crucial role. The
digger tradition s informality, laconic humour, and ambivalence towards the heroism of
death, serves as a poor foundation for the sombre and reverent tone that Australian prime
ministers have employed on Anzac Day to augment their policy agendas. Trau a s e phasis
upon the horrifying effects of war also poorly serves prime ministers to al eeds. The Anzac
tradition, on the other hand, is replete with signifiers of appropriate tone - calls to remember
duty, honour, and sacrifice invites reflection and reverence, not light-heartedness regarding
the larrikin exploits of diggers or cynicism engendered by the traumatic legacies of war.
Whilst the digger tradition and trauma variables are comparatively less emphasised
than the Anzac tradition variable, the fashion and meaning of their rarer inclusion is
important. Regarding the digger tradition, Australianness and mateship in the contemporary
context have more plural meanings than the older racialised and gendered representations
of Australianness that this tradition draws upon. Additionally, both parties have employed
mateship, which has weakened its connection to the Australian legend. Dyrenfurth has
poi ted to the a s that Ho a d s conservative and neoliberal e sio of ateship …
seemed to decouple its meaning from state interventionism in aid of a more egalitarian and
equal society. 42 But F ase s i o atio of ateship as o e of the g eat ualities of A za
in 1979 reveals that conservative engagement with mateship also has a longer history.43
T o e s a gu e t that a s o goi g ph si al a d e tal health effe ts a e now an evident
theme in public discussion of Anzac is also present, as these issues are a prominent sub-theme
of Keati g s a d post-2010 speeches. But the more horrifying effects of war are frequently
42
Nick Dyrenfurth, Mateship: A Very Australian History, (Brunswick, 2015), p. 201.
Fraser, Anzac Day Esperance. F ase s o l A za Da spee h emphasized Aust alia s allia e elatio ships
a d the he oi ualities of se i e people: They have helped to sweep the seas and conquer the skies from the
Arctic to the Southern Ocean.
43
10
avoided by other prime ministers or softened by the regular linking of suffering with heroism
and sacrifice.
The reverent tone invoked by the Anzac tradition is helped by frequent prime
ministerial reference to the sacredness of Anzac. Sacredness, pilgrimage and spirituality are
regularly employed as themes by prime ministers, ensuring the tonal sanctity of Anzac. These
references are primarily secular, though allusions to the Christian faith also sometimes
appear.44 At Lone Pine in 2015, Abbott explicitly drew upon Ecclesiasticus 44:13, reminding
the audience of the biblical basis of his parable:
On the headstones here, on the graves with no name, are etched the
words: their glory shall not be blotted out.
It is taken from the Scripture: Their seed shall remain forever. Their
glory shall not be blotted out.
A century on, we re-affirm this truth.
Our nation has grown from their seed.
Australia thrives and prospers, nourished by their example.45
A similar biblical parable is given by Rudd in 2010 regarding the lessons of Anzac, as he drew
upon Matthew 5:9: ANZAC has taught us anew the wisdom of old - blessed are the
peacemakers. 46 Such references, in combination with more frequent secular references to
the atio s soul, pilg i age to the sa ed site of Gallipoli, o the spi itualit of the da , all
echo the reverent and authoritative tone of the sermon. Further, the reference to the
Christian faith reinforces the Anglo-Celtic hegemony that characterises prime minister s
Anzac Day speeches.
On rarer occasions, the tone is patriotic and celebratory, not reverential. In particular,
McKenna has noted calls by Howard after 2001 to not only commemorate Anzac, but to also
celebrate it.47 Such rhetoric invokes nationalist sentiment, calling upon the audience to revel
i A za s e p essio of Aust alia ess. This all to ele ate A za is e tai l e ide t i
Ho a d s la guage afte
, ith his
add ess fo i sta e a gui g that A za : […] is
about the celebration of some wonderful values, of courage, of valour, of mateship, of
“ee G aha “eal AN)AC: the “a ed i the “e ula , Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 31, 91 (2007), pp.135144 for discussion of the intersection of secular and Christian religious practices in Anzac.
45
Tony Abbott, April 25, 2015, Lo e Pi e Add ess, Gallipoli, PM Transcripts - Department of Prime Minister
and Cabinet, https://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-24398.
46
Kevin Rudd, April 25, 2010, P i e Mi iste “pee h at the AN)AC Da Natio al Ce e o Aust alia Wa
Me o ial, Ca e a O the Co
e o atio of the Ce te a of AN)AC
Ap il
, PM T a s ipts Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=17247.
47
McKenna, Australia’s National Day, 126-127.
44
11
decency, of a willingness as a nation to do the right thing, whatever the cost. 48 But calls to
celebrate Anzac also have a broader history. They are evident in the language of Hawke in
Next year, we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of [A za ] 49), Keating in 1992
This visit today [to Kokoda] is a celebration of our freedom and our friendship [with PNG]
50
… a d ‘udd i
… perhaps it is also time for a further national conversation as to how
51). The call to celebrate Anzac is thus more
we commemorate a d ele ate AN)AC i
than a featu e of Ho a d s Anzac Day addresses, but is instead part of the patriotic sentiment
that prime ministers ask audiences to embrace.
These thematic and tonal characteristics have served particular political purposes.
The more frequent employment of the Anzac tradition by prime ministers has aided the subtle
(and occasionally not so subtle) renovation of Australian identity in line with their
go e
e t s poli p io ities. “u h e dea ou s ha e ee aided
the e e e tial,
sanctified, and patriotic themes and tones of the Anzac tradition that make challenges to their
representation of Anzac difficult, if not blasphemous.52
The wars and battles of Anzac
The next section examines which wars and battles prime ministers associate Anzac with and
thei o se ati e i te p etatio of Aust alia s a histo . Prime ministers have focused
upon the two World Wars and their associated battles, and upon honouring the participants
of contemporary Australian Defence Force deployments. Gallipoli has dominated prime
minister s i te p etatio of Aust alia s a histo . The representation of wars and battles is
significant because they profoundly influence the su ess o failu e of the add esses
rhetorical function.
Figure 5 reports the named frequency of the war or conflict that prime ministers see
Anzac being associated with. World War One, the war that established Aust alia s
contemporary pattern of remembrance, is mentioned most frequently, followed by World
War Two and the Iraq War. Wo ld Wa T o s e tio s p edo i ate du i g the
s, the
decade that saw the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, the Australia Remembers
program of commemoration, and an attempt by Keating to relocate the meaning of Anzac to
Kokoda. Prime ministers have also prominently honoured the service of the present-day
Australian Defence Force in their speeches, have linked them to the Anzacs of the past, and
have sought to use Anzac as a platform to legitimise Australian participation in contemporary
John Howard, April 25, 2003, T a s ipt Of The P i e Minister The Hon John Howard MP Address At Anzac
Da Pa ade, Ca e a, PANDO‘A, Aust alia s We A hi e, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10052/200311210000/www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/speech94.html.
49
Hawke, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
50
Paul Keating, Paul Keating Prime Minister: Major Speeches of the First Year, (Barton, 1993).
51
Rudd, Anzac Day National Ceremony.
52
See Bromfield, Welcome Home for discussion of the depoliticisation of Anzac by Prime Ministers.
48
12
conflicts.53 Notably, prime ministers have not used Anzac Day as a platform to acknowledge
and commemorate the frontier wars between Indigenous Australians and white settlers that
established the modern Australian state, reflecting their general reluctance to incorporate
Indigenous Australians into their interpretation of Anzac identified in the next section.54
Figure 6 reports the named frequency of the battles associated with Anzac for battle
sites with four or more mentions in the corpus. Gallipoli dwarfs mentions of other battles
and has become increasingly emphasised in recent years. The most significant battle sites of
Anzac are also strongly associated with the two World Wars, with the Battle of Kapyong
during the Korean War and the Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War being the only
named exceptions. Qualitative analysis of the appearance of the mid-century wars of Korea
and Vietnam and their associated battles in the corpus reveals that they received little
substantive attention from prime ministers. Instead, they mostly feature briefly in a list of
wars and battles to be commemorated, rather than as the focus of commemoration. There
are exceptions, like Gillard s
honouring of the troops who had fought in the Battle of
55
Kapyong or Hawke s 1989 recollection of the o t o e s of Viet a a d Viet a ete a s
difficulties when they returned from that failed war.56 However, remembrance of these wars
and battles does not predominate in the corpus.
Only two prime ministers have attempted to alter the close association between the
meanings ascribed to Anzac and the physical location of Gallipoli. Keating attempted to
relocate Australians understanding of their war history from Gallipoli and World War One to
the Pacific and World War Two.57 This shift was intimately connected to his political agenda
- an Australian republic, the outlook to Asia, and a rejection of the deferential conservatism
that he a gued ha a te ised the Coalitio s embrace of Empire and remembrance of war.
Abbott was the other, arguing in 2014 that Australians should do more to honour Aust alia s
contribution on the Western Front, placing it hierarchically above Gallipoli in a list of WWI
campaigns: Above all else, we should remember the Western Front… When all is said and
done, Gallipoli was a defeat; but the Western Front a victory. Victories, even terrible ones,
should be no less iconic than heroic defeats. 58 A ott s attempted alte atio of A za s
emphasis did not appear to have had the same partisan inflection that Keating imbued his
relocation with and has not attracted the controversy that Keating provoked.59
Matt McDonald, and Matt Merefield, Ho Was Ho a d s Wa Possi le? Wi i g the War of Position over
I a , Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 64, 2 (2010), pp. 186–204.
54
See, for instance, Inglis, Sacred Places, pp. 502fo Ho a d s refusal to include the frontier conflicts
between Indigenous peoples and white settlers in the AWM.
55
Julia Gillard, April 25, 2011, We ‘e e e The
ith Ou “ile e, “pee h at the AN)AC Da “e i e, PM
Transcripts
Department
of
Prime
Minister
and
Cabinet,
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=17811.
56
Hawke, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
57
Curran, Power of Speech, pp. 294-295; Holbrook, Anzac Unauthorised Biography, pp. 179-180.
58
Abbott, Anzac Day National Ceremony.
59
A ott s short and turbulent term as prime minister may have also been a contributing factor that curtailed
his ambitions in this regard.
53
13
The wars and battles of Anzac are crucial elements in the rhetorical function of prime
minister s A za Da add esses. If, as this pape a gues, prime minister s spee hes o A za
Day serve a policy function, as well as a commemorative one, then the structure of implication
of a add ess e o es u ial to the spee h s heto i al ole. I othe o ds, if prime
ministers wish to employ Anzac for policy ends by associating those policy ends with the
positively perceived traditions of Anzac, then they must focus upon those aspects that invoke
positively perceived background knowledge; the good wars and battles of the world wars,
and especially upon Gallipoli where the nation was born . It comes as little surprise that the
conflicts where Australia is interpreted by large enough numbers to have committed wrongs
(the wars of settlement and Vietnam) are ignored or marginalised, as their inclusion would
hinder this rhetorical function. The fact that Keating ran into such controversy for a relatively
conservative reinterpretation of the location of Anzac, let alone engaging with the highly
partisan debates surrounding white settlement, demonstrates how crucial adherence to the
traditions of Anzac is if rhetorical success is to be ensured.
Anzac’s Agents
Who have been the histo i al age ts ho e a ted Aust alia s a histo in prime ministerial
Anzac Day addresses? “u h a a al sis is li ked to CDA s o e to a al se and reveal the
structural relations that produce and reinforce discourses and texts.60 A number of factors
ill e e plo ed he e, i ludi g the ge de of A za s agents, instances of named ethnicity,
and the general level of incorporation and acknowledgement of diversity in the addresses. It
will be shown that prime ministers continue to predominantly speak of Anzac in terms that
reinforce notions of national unity and are negligent of difference, despite considerable
community activism and academic criticism of the hegemony of masculine and Anglo-Celtic
identities in Anzac.61
Beginning with gender, Figure 7 shows the frequency of representations of Anzac
age ts gender per Anzac Day address. Strikingly, women are never identified as an Anzac
agent with a singular gendered noun in prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses and media
releases. The phrase
e a d o e is used frequently, but men are the only singular
agents identified by prime ministers.
Service type can also serve as an imperfect proxy for gender, as nursing is historically
associated with women and frontline engagement in battle with men. Such gendered roles
have of course evolved over time, and prime ministers have generally reflected the
contemporary circumstance with the conjoined gendered nouns of men and women.
60
Fairclough, Analysing Discourse, pp. 3.
See, for i sta e, Ja es Be ett, Lest We Fo get Bla k Digge s: ‘e o e i g Aboriginal Anzacs on Television,
Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 38, 4 (2014), pp. 457– .; F a k Bo gio o, A zac and the Politics of
I lusio , in Shanti Sumartojo and Ben Wellings, eds., Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration:
Mobilizing the Past in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, (Oxford, 2014), pp. 81–97.
61
14
However, given the historical focus of many prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses, service
type can still demonstrate the gendered nature of prime ministerial representations of
A za s age ts. Thus, Figure 8 reports the frequency per speech of coded instances of service
type in the corpus.
The only mention of the contribution of nurses (and by extension, allusion to women)
to Anzac comes from Abbott in his 2014 Anzac Day address 62 and his 2015 dawn service
address.63 As su h, ep ese tatio s of the ge de of A za s age ts i prime minister s A za
Day addresses have changed little since feminist activists and academics began to challenge
the gendered nature of Anzac in the 1980s.64 Prime ministers representations of Anzac
remain predominantly male.
Indigenous Australians also rarely feature in prime ministers A za Da add esses,
featuring in only three named mentions of ethnicity, one by Hawke in 1991,65 one by Gillard
in 2012,66 and the only Anzac Day acknowledgement of country by a prime minister with
Turnbull in 2016.67 In contrast, Howard tended to emphasise unity over diversity, repeatedly
utilising the refrain that Anzac represented national unity and common purpose.68
The emphasis upon unity is not uniform across the corpus. Keating argued that the
POWs of World War T o […] found in all sorts of circumstances that they shared common
human ground with people they had, for cultural and historical reasons, been inclined to
pat o ise o despise a d that the e as a lesso i that fo Aust alia s as the e gaged ith
Asia.69 Gillard saw Anzac as reflective of her migrant experience, and linked that to the
meaning of Anzac for Indigenous and Turkish Australians:
This is the legend of Anzac, and it belongs to every Australian.
Not just those who trace their origins to the early settlers but those
Tony Abbott, April 25, 2014, Add ess to the A za Da Natio al Ce e o , Ca e a, PM T a s ipts Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-04-25/address-anzac-daynational-ceremony-canberra.
63
Abbott 2015 Dawn Service.
64
See: Ma il Lake, Missio I possi le: Ho Me Ga e Bi th to the Aust alia Natio -Nationalism, Gender
and Other Seminal Acts, Gender & History Vol. 4, 3 (1992), pp. 305– ; Ch isti a T o e , T au a a d the
‘ei igo atio of A za : A A gu e t. History Australia, Vol. 10, 3 (2013), pp. 85–108.
65
Hawke Speech Gymnasium Opening.
66
Julia Gillard, April 25, 2012, Da
“e i e, Gallipoli, PM Transcripts - Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet, http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=18532.
67
Mal ol
Tu ull,
Ap il
, A za Da Natio al Ce e o
Co
emorative Address,
http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-04-25/anzac-day-national-ceremony-commemorative-address.
68
“ee, fo i sta e, A za Da
: It [Anzac] has remained relevant not to glorify war or to paint some
romantic picture of our history but to draw upon a great example of unity and common purpose o A za Da
: We come to draw upon their stirring example of u it a d o
o pu pose. John Howard, April 25,
,
A za
Da
,
PM T a s ipts - Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/browse.php?did=12819; T a s ipt Of The P i e Minister The Hon John
Ho a d MP At The Da
“e i e, Gallipoli, Tu ke , Ap il ,
, PANDO‘A, Aust alia s We A hi e.
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nphwb/20001108130000/http://www.pm.gov.au/news/speeches/2000/anzacDay2504.htm.
69
Keating Burma-Thailand Railway.
62
15
like me who are migrants and who freely embrace the whole of the
Australian story as their own.
For Indigenous Australians, whose own wartime valour was a
profound expression of the love they felt for the ancient land.
And for Turkish-Australians who have not one but two heroic stories
to tell their children. 70
Conservative leader Abbott grappled with diversity in 2015, when he said at the dawn service:
The first Anzacs were tradesmen, clerks, labourers, farmers and professionals; they were
from every conceivable occupation, from every rung in the ladder of society, and from every
poi t u de the “outhe C oss 71, a characterisation that did not specifically name structural
identities like class, ethnicity or gender, but nodded to their importance.
These examples demonstrate the nuance evident in debates about identity and Anzac.
Whilst Anzac has largely remained a nationalist discourse associated with the hegemony of
Anglo-Celtic and masculine identities, it has not remained exclusively so. However, the extent
to which prime ministers represent diversity has largely continued to be dependent on
outsider groups conforming to the hegemonic strictures demanded by Anzac, and the
attendant compliance with its values of service, sacrifice and duty to the state. As Gillard said,
Anzac belongs to those who embrace it, rather than Anzac embracing them.
However, we might also question how much agency prime ministers have over Anzac,
given its historical association with Anglo-Celtic and masculine identities.72 The Anzac
resurgence so evident in the last quarter of a century has ensured that those prime ministers
ho do o fo to A za s ge e ou da ies ha e a po e ful heto i al tool if they are only
talented enough to work within its limits and exploit its authoritative themes and sanctified
tone. Failure to conform to these boundaries risks provoking sanctions from opposing
partisans who may perceive the sullying of Anzac. Such observations will give little hope to
those who would prefer to see a more progressive Anzac that does more to represent the
diversity of Australians or those who might wish to challenge prime minister s emphasis on
the conservative and militaristic tendencies of the Anzac tradition. It would seem instead that
the resurgence of Anzac amongst the Australian public has provided a powerful incentive to
prime ministers to retain A za s o se ati e ide tit ou da ies.
Conclusion
70
Gillard Dawn Service Gallipoli
Abbott, Dawn Service Gallipoli.
72
I am in debt to the anonymous reviewer who made this point. I have gratefully incorporated their criticism
and thank them for their suggestion.
71
16
The institutionalisation of prime ministerial Anzac Day rhetoric has not been a self-evident
process. Prime ministers since Whitlam have not always made Anzac Day addresses and these
addresses have not always been characterised by the high prose of national sentiment. The
shift from the suburban, sporadic and largely passive marking of Anzac to the active, regular,
spectacular, and national, e e
a e of Aust alia s a histo has ee a p o ess that
prime ministers have both embraced and engendered. Anzac Day has become an occasion
that prime ministers regularly use as a platform to expound upon more or less explicitly
expressed policy agendas and to renovate this central national discourse in line with, and in
service of, these political projects.
Such shifts have not always been successful - there are boundaries to Anzac that
cannot be violated if a prime minister wishes to fruitfully engage with this national discourse.
Prime ministers must respect the positively associated values and themes of the Anzac
tradition - service, sacrifice, honour, unity, sacredness and remembrance, all centred on the
sanctified actions of the Anglo-Celtic and masculine soldiers who fought at Gallipoli. Stepping
outside these boundaries, as Keating attempted by baldly associating his attempted
relocation of A za to Kokoda ith his go e
e t s poli age da, is a politi all
a e
manoeuvre likely to attract strong opposition rather than unity. As such, a high degree of
rhetorical path dependency is now evident in prime ministerial Anzac Day addresses - they
must now conform to the conventions of the genre if they wish to engage with it appropriately
and successfully.
These findings suggest that prime ministers have had a nuanced effect on the
resurgence of Anzac. Their power as national leaders and their regular and enthusiastic
promotion of Anzac since 1990 has allowed them to encourage a particular form of Anzac
centred on the conservative and state-driven values of the Anzac tradition. But prime
ministers ha e ot ee f ee age ts i A za s esu ge e as the ha e also felt its dis ipli i g
effe ts a d ha e o fo ed to A za s histo i al lega ies a d o espo di g ge e
ou da ies. This pape s fi di gs about the coalescing of the genre boundaries and the
rhetorical path dependency of prime ministers A za Da add esses the efo e suggests that
a al ses that fo us o a si gle ausal fa to as e plai i g A za s esu ge e a e i he e tl
limited. As such, futu e a al ses of A za s esu ge e that pu po t to ad a e o e
empirically accurate causal reasoning would benefit from the careful, systematic, and
theo eti al e a i atio of the i te pla et ee the top-do
a d state d i e ausal
explanation of the esu ge e, a d o e otto -up ultu al a d so ial ausal dete i a ts
of A za s e i al.
17
Tables
Anzac Day Address Time
20
9
4
1
Other Anzac Day Ceremony
Dawn Service Ceremony
Non-Anzac Day Ceremony
Recorded Message
59%
26%
12%
3%
Figure 1
Anzac Day Address Frequency
4
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
3
1 1 1 1 1
1
2
3
1
1 1
2 2
1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2
1
1 1
2
1
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
0
1
2
Speech
Media Release
Figure 2
Site of Anzac Day Address
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
4
4
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
Prior to 1990
Figure 3
18
1
1
1990-1999
1
1
1
2000-2009
1
1
1
2010-2016
1
1
1
Rate of Reference to Anzac Tradition, Digger Tradition, and Trauma, per Anzac Day
Address
Prior to
Variable
1990-1999 2000-2009
2010-2016
Total n
1990
Anzac Tradition
4.75
6.21
5.94
12.8
335
Digger Tradition
1
1.29
1
2.4
63
Trauma
0.25
1
0.65
1.5
41
Figure 4
War
WWI
WWII
Iraq
Afghanistan
Vietnam
Korea
East Timor
Solomon
Islands
Peace Keeping
Gulf War
Malaya
War On Terror
Frontier Wars
Figure 5
19
Rate of Reference to Named War per Anzac Day Address
Prior to
1990-1999
2000-2009
2010-2016
1990
0.75
0.50
0.29
0.60
0.50
0.79
0.06
0.40
0
0
0.71
0.70
0
0
0.18
1.00
0.50
0.07
0
0.50
0
0.07
0.06
0.50
0
0
0.29
0.20
Total n
21
19
18
13
8
7
7
0
0
0.18
0.20
5
0.25
0
0
0
0
0.07
0.27
0.14
0
0
0.06
0
0
0.12
0
0
0
0.10
0.10
0
4
3
3
3
0
Rate of Reference to Named Battle Site per Anzac Day Address
Battle
Gallipoli
Lone Pine
France
Western Front
Kokoda
WWI Middle East
Burma Railway
PNG
Flanders
Tobruk
Crete
Greece
Singapore
Kapyong
Long Tan
VillersBretonneux
Prior to 1990
0.57
0
0.50
0
0.25
0
0.25
0
0
0.25
0.50
0.50
0
0
0.25
1990-1999
0.67
0.21
0.29
0
0.36
0.14
0.21
0.43
0.14
0.07
0.14
0.14
0.29
0
0
2000-2009
0.94
0.18
0.12
0.12
0.06
0.06
0
0
0.06
0.12
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.12
2010-2016
2.60
0.90
0.50
1.20
0.30
0.40
0.20
0
0.20
0.10
0
0
0
0.30
0.10
Total n
70
15
13
14
10
7
6
6
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
0.25
0
0.18
0
4
Figure 6
Rate of Reference to Gendered Nouns per Anzac Day Address
Gender
Prior to
1990-1999 2000-2009 2010-2016
1990
Men
1.50
2.21
0.65
2.10
Men and women
0.50
1.21
1.00
1.00
Women
0
0
0
0
Total n
69
46
0
Figure 7
Service
Infantry
Air force
Navy
Nurses
Figure 8
20
Rate of Reference to Service Type per Anzac Day Addresses
Prior to 1990 1990-1999
2000-2009
2010-2016
0.50
0.57
0.24
0.90
0
0.14
0.12
0.20
0
0.36
0.12
0.20
0
0
0
0.20
Total n
23
9
6
2