No wins in war: Kerr | Photos, video

RSL sub-branch president Kevin Kerr said the turnout for Remembrance Day was typical of Wagga.

“Wagga residents support us very well,” Mr Kerr said.

Mr Kerr praised the participation of the city’s students in Remembrance Day.

A number of Wagga schools joined the service including Wagga, Kooringal and Mount Austin high schools, as well Christian College and Mater Dei College.

They joined more than 300 people at the city’s cenotaph.

“Kids are our future, the schools are really good and they support us,” Mr Kerr said.

“We need exposure of why we need these commemorations.”

Mr Kerr said the high numbers at the commemoration were due to the strong support from the community as well as former and current service families.

“They have or have had sons and daughters in areas of conflict,” Mr Kerr said

It’s the second biggest day for the sub-branch which initially started as a memorial for the First World War but has since expanded to all conflicts.

“Soldiers were coming back with all kinds of injuries from conflict with the latest being TBI – traumatic brain injury,” he said.

“On Remembrance Day we can reflect on these conflicts.

“No one really wins.”

Mr Kerr said there was two minutes silence – one for soldiers who laid down their lives and one for the people left behind.

Mr Kerr said the cost wasn’t just in the lives lost in conflict but also monetary – which could have been spent educating and caring for the nation’s people.

Former Member for the Riverina Kay Hull delivered the guest address, recounting the ordeal of Sister Vivian Bullwinkel – and 64 nurses evacuated from Singapore in 1942.

She later gave evidence to war crimes tribunals. 

“There are times within a Member of Parliament’s service that will have a lasting impact,” Mrs Hull said.

“None more so than the day you sit in the House of Representatives listening to the Prime Minster tell the house the parliament will determine to send Australian troops to war.”