with Susan Templeman MP Federal Member for Macquarie
This month I will join thousands of people across the Hawkesbury marking the 111th anniversary of Gallipoli, the day Australians landed at what became known as Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915. While each Anzac Day service is different, what’ s clear is how important it is for us as Australians to devote time to pause, to honour and reflect on the service and sacrifice of Veterans and Defence personnel across all conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
Our local schools also mark Anzac Day with their own assemblies and services, an opportunity not just to show respect but also for the next generation to learn about the ways these important moments shaped who we are as a nation. While Anzac Day marks the Gallipoli landings in Ottoman Turkiye on 25 April 1915 and the tragic loss of Australian troops on this inhospitable terrain, Australian ingenuity was vital to the evacuation of troops from Anzac Cove in December of 1915, devised by an Australian staff-officer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Brudenell White.
By gradually withdrawing troops and equipment, but maintaining the appearance of normal operations with irregular rifle and artillery fire, the evacuation was successful and the stunts used to trick the enemy became part of Australia’ s cultural identity.
More than 400,000 Australians enlisted WW1, with more than 60,000 of them losing their lives in places like Gallipoli and across the Western Front.
Their reasons were many and varied, but only two decades later, around a million Australians enlisted during WW2.
I was able to pause and honour the service of those who died in Papua New Guinea when I walked the start of the Kokoda Trail last month, and visited the Bomana Memorial and cemetery in Port Moresby.
The memorial commemorates more than 700 men of the Australian Army including Papuan and New Guinea local forces, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force, who gave their lives during the operations in Papua and who have no known grave.
The rows and rows of graves are a very visual and emotional reminder of the sacrifices so many made in defence of our region and our nation.
That’ s the sacrifice we remember on ANZAC Day.
Supporting our veterans and their families is deeply important to us as Australians. With thousands of current and former service personnel and their families living in the seat of Macquarie, I’ m proud that the federally-funded Hawkesbury Veteran and Families Hub is already up and running at their temporary location at Windsor RSL, while their permanent home at Richmond in the former Courthouse building is refitted.
The Hub provides DVA claims support and advocacy, as well as employment and housing assistance and wellbeing programs, from yoga, book club, and coffee catch-ups, to the Guitars for Veterans group facilitated by Noro Music.
Whether you head out and join an RSL Sub-branch or community event, or mark Anzac Day privately with your own quiet reflection, you’ ll be one of the millions of Australians honouring the service and sacrifice of Australian personnel.
Lest We Forget.
How
my office and I can help you
• Represent you in Parliament and raise local issues with the appropriate Minister or Department
• Answer questions, help you access government services and provide information about community groups and events
• Facilitate applications to become a Justice of the Peace or to obtain a Seniors Card
• Update your electoral enrolment details
• Send a congratulatory letter for anniversaries and birthdays of significance
• Provide you with details on how to apply for government grants
The office is located at Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury Campus Building R4, College Drive, Richmond. M: PO Box 505 Richmond NSW 2753 T: 02 4578 0300 E: hawkesbury @ parliament. nsw. gov. au
Authorised by Robyn Preston MP. Funded using Parliamentary entitlements.
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with Robyn Preston MP Member for Hawkesbury
It is no secret that, with the current crisis in the Middle East, cost-of-living pressures have become greater with the sudden shock of rising petrol prices and a lack of transparency in the way these prices are set.
The NSW Liberals and Nationals announced a plan aimed at delivering greater transparency, stronger enforcement and long-term protection for motorist facing the rising petrol prices. Phase One of the plan would introduce legislation requiring service stations to publicly report and lock in their daily fuel price for 24 hours, giving motorists certainty before they fill up and preventing
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sudden spikes at the bowser. Phase Two of the plan will be the NSW Fuel Security and Resilience Strategy that will be implemented if elected in 2027. It will focus on strengthening NSW against future supply shocks by looking at the need to expand storage capacity and properly mapping the links between electricity, gas and liquid fuels.
When the Liberals and Nationals sought to urgently debate new legislation dealing with setting a daily maximum price to provide price certainty, the Minns Labor Government voted against this debate, putting parliamentary games over practical relief.
When it comes to Hawkesbury, the Minns Labor Government is tone deaf.
Hawkesbury is the food bowl of Sydney
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– we have primary producers that travel to market everyday so that families can put food on the table. We are an electorate reliant on driving due to the lack of bus connections for families and school children – without the luxury of a metro train line and currently having one train running every 30 minutes on a single track.
Our essential workers, emergency services, aged carers, our teachers, students, couriers, individuals and families are desperately needing access to fuel, so too do those needing medical attention and those wishing to visit loved ones who are spending nights alone in hospital.
This restriction of access to the familiarities of everyday life echoes those felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, mental health was a common
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topic. We felt left out in a world where walls were closing in and we didn’ t have the support of our nearest and dearest to lift our spirits with mateship and comradery.
Fuel prices are holding Hawkesbury hostage. Let us do what we can to ensure we don’ t panic and we work together to ensure our neighbours, families, friends, colleagues and loved ones are not alone during this current crisis.
I am calling on the Minns Labor Government to help ease these new pressures felt by people in Hawkesbury, by supporting the proposal put forward by the Liberal / Nationals in delivering greater transparency, stronger enforcement and long-term protection for motorist facing the rising petrol prices.
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THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT theindependentmagazine. com. au ISSUE 191 // APRIL 2026 19