"It's very important and it's so important too to young people these days. The military holds itself always to be the embodiment, the modern embodiment of the sorts of qualities which when we saw them in our young people who went off to war we admired. We didn't glory in the act of war and we mourned their loss but there was a greatness in them which is part of the national character which we in the military see in every Australian and we like to enhance it and underscore it and turn the spotlight on it. When we put on our own uniforms we get no special powers but we are carrying some special obligations and responsibilities.

"Anzac Day is a crucial remembrance of those qualities and we are really uplifted to see the way in which young Australians don't observe Anzac Day anymore as a duty but as a privilege, and to me if there are a few indicators that we have a tremendous future it is the way young people, not in any jingoistic way but in the reverential and contemplative way, see Anzac Day as their privilege to observe."

LIEUTENANT GENERAL PETER COSGROVE