Doesn’t the red poppy contribute to a collective amnesia that sanitises history and disrespects the memory of conscripts about the horrors of war and their suffering after the war?

Moreover, the white poppy explicitly acknowledges that the majority of those killed by war are not soldiers but civilians including women and children. Shouldn’t they be remembered? Where is the ethos of ‘never again’ — ie., Australia fighting wars on behalf of other nations states/empires such as the UK in the past and the US now.

Shouldn’t peace be the central message for Australia not war? Especially when the Australian Light Horse played an important role in the capture of Beersheba and Gaza in 1917. The collapse and ensuring partition of the Ottoman Empire between France, Britain and Turkey set the stage for a century of conflict that continues with the brutal destruction of Gaza and the conflict in Lebanon today.

Given this history a white poppy for the killing of women and children. would not be amiss.

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