Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott should repudiate immediately the conclusion of the taxpayer-funded focus groups that the centenary of ANZAC Day should not be commemorated on the grounds it might offend minorities.
So far all that has happened is that we have been deafened by their silence. Not that it has to, but the ANZAC Day march in Sydney already illustrates the multi-ethnic makeup of Australia as it features the South Vietnamese contingent who fought alongside Australians against the communist menace in the Vietnam War, and Estonian, Polish, Greek, Italian Partisan. Serbs, Dutch, Assyrian, Hong Kong Chinese, Russian, Rhodesian and South Korean ex-servicemen.
Taxpayers have also a right to be informed who made up the focus groups and who inspired the divisive exercise in the first place.
Bob Vinnicombe
