The Australian Academy of the Humanities invites academics to contribute short articles to the Academy's website under the heading 'Power of the humanities'. Professor Peter Stanley, President of Defending Country, contributed an article 'Anzac in a time of uncertainty'. His article discussed the history of Anzac since 1915 and concluded with a list of developments that 'suggest that the cult of Anzac no longer permeates Australian society as it once did'.
These were some of those devlopments:
Recent conflicts have eroded connections with Anzac, with the involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan (based on lies or mistakes) fostering an ambivalence last evident during the Vietnam years. That a judge found “substantial proof” one of SAS’s VC heroes was implicated in war crimes complicated any simple celebration of Anzac values: killing unarmed civilians is not a tenet of the legend.
Growing international tensions, especially over China, exacerbated by an unstable, unpredictable and unreliable US regime, has raised the prospect of conflict, making the simple celebration of historical experience problematic. Sacrifice in war may lie in Australia’s future as well as its past, and Anzac is seen by many as a cloak for bellicosity. The folly of AUKUS may unwittingly foster the decline of Anzac.
Despite the failure of the Voice referendum, the widespread acceptance of the fact of the Australian Wars (aka Frontier Conflict) has disrupted the simple message of Anzac: wars are no longer seen as happening outside Australia, and a debate over their incorporation into war remembrance continues.
The Australian War Memorial, for 40 years a respected centre-piece of commemoration, has since 2018 undergone massive, but unnecessary, expansion at the cost of over $600m, the legacy of Brendan Nelson, director 2013-18 and a former Liberal minister of Defence. A recent ABC 4 Corners exposed the expansion’s flawed processes and reported allegations of cronyism with an ANAO assessment finding possible conflicts of interest.
Professor Stanley concluded:
What might once have seemed one of the eternal and defining expressions of Australian national identity, perhaps turns out to be less certain. Anzac and its day has always evolved, and it will continue to do so. What directions that evolution takes will – or should be – up to the Australian people to decide.
Professor Stanley is a Fellow of the Academy of the Academy of the Humanities and an Honorary Professor at UNSW Canberra. He is also President of the Defending Country Memorial Project Inc., which produces the Defending Country website. This post is an extended version of one that first appeared on Defending Country on 25 April 2025.
Picture credit: Gallipoli 1915. 'A soldier uses his rifle to retrieve his hat from over the top of a trench'. However, it is possible that the trooper is firing over the parapet with his rifle upside down (Donor J. Derham, AWM )
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