A week of memories we shouldn't allow to fade |
It's the season of anniversaries.
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The big one, of course, was Anzac Day on April 25, marking 111 years since the fateful Gallipoli landings, a foolish attempt to seize control of a narrow waterway that echoes loudly today. The date is firmly etched into the Australian psyche.
A day later, April 26, marked 40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when an explosion in reactor four of the nuclear power plant in the then Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine spewed radioactive material over large parts of Europe and led to the untimely deaths of thousands of people.
The catastrophe laid bare the perils of poorly managed nuclear energy and the hamfisted attempts of the then Soviet Union to cover it up, from its own people and from the rest of the world. Trust was irrevocably eroded - in nuclear energy and in Russia as a responsible world power.
Today marks 30 years since the Port Arthur massacre, another defining moment in our history and a test for newly elected prime minister John Howard. His response to the mass murder of 35 people was to take on the rural and gun lobbies and secure a national ban on automatic weapons and a buyback.
Howard's reforms earned him global applause and were often cited as a model for other countries struggling with gun violence. But the Bondi massacre in December was a stark reminder of the need to ensure the laws are not weakened over time. That, as one expert put it, we ought to stop the self-congratulation and face the reality there are still areas of gun control that need further work.
Just as happens after every mass shooting in the US, there was a rush for new gun licences in the weeks after the Bondi attack. On this 30th anniversary, some states - including, ironically, Tasmania - are resisting calls to put caps on the ownership of registered firearms.
Thursday is another important anniversary - the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. It, too, had a profound effect on our country. There was a large influx to our shores of refugees fleeing the inevitable reckoning after the country was reunified. The vast majority went........