The Hon Dr Mike Kelly AM MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support yesterday attended the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat. The memorial was opened on 6 February 2004 and annual ceremonies have been conducted to mark the dedication of the memorial.

"This unique memorial marks the suffering and deprivation of liberty of some 35,000 Australians who were held as prisoners of war during the Boer War, the two World Wars and the Korean War," Dr Kelly said. It is the first memorial outside the Australian Capital Territory to be officially recognised for its national significance.

"I'm enormously proud that the Rudd Government declared the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial a National Memorial in 2008," Dr Kelly said. "I would like to recognise the efforts of Catherine King MP, Member for Ballarat, and the Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Hon Alan Griffin MP, for their ongoing support of the memorial. I would also like to pay tribute to the community of Ballarat, which invested so much effort to make the memorial a reality, including the exhaustive research that went into listing all the names of the prisoners."

"The occasion was particularly meaningful for me as my grandfather is among those listed on the memorial as he was a prisoner on the Burma-Thai railway and endured enormous suffering and the needless loss of mates. This memorial will serve as a reminder to future generations of the sacrifice of those Australians who were held as prisoners of war, and I thank the Ballarat community for its ongoing support of this unique memorial," Dr Kelly said.