Page on Keatings Speech

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier was a speech delivered by the honourable Paul Keating. The speech was delivered on Remembrance Day in 1993.

The main purpose of this speech was to address and honour the soldiers who had fought for us during the wars and had unfortunately lost their lives while fighting for the wellbeing of this country. Although today it is widely understood that Keating intelligently used this speech to slyly make reference into many of his political agendas such as pushing away from the monarch along with the reconciliation debate. Although at the forefront was to unify Australia and urge them to come together to remember and to honour their sacrifices. Keating uses inclusive language such as we and us in order to unify Australia as a nation and not as individuals he also does this to put himself on equal footing. Although Keating’s sub texts such as the push for a republican country are evident as Keating mentions how the soldiers lost their lives under order from the king emphasizing that these may have been wars that Australia did not have to partake in although we were forced into it due to our place in the commonwealth.

The context of this speech is quite relevant to the way Keating has structured his speech. There were two major influencing factors in this speech. One being the reconciliation debate and the other being the fact that it was the 75th annual Remembrance Day. The reconciliation debate was the ongoing debate between indigenous and no indigenous Australians. This was important as Keating utilised this opportunity to unify the country. The first paragraph states how little they know about these soldiers but how they still sacrificed their lives for our country. Keating is clearly trying to state that it did not matter what is skin colour was, or what ethnicity he descended from. He states that the soldiers did not fight for the white population but all the population Caucasian, aboriginal and Asian. Again Keating used...