Name: Lieutenant General Peter Leahy AC
Bio: Former Chief of the Australian Army
The Australian Army I the 21st Century – 3rd November 2005
This speech was printed in Sydney Papers Vol.17 No.1 in 2005 (pages 11-18)
In an address to The Sydney Institute on Wednesday, 3 November 2004, the Chief of the Australian Army, Lieutenant General Peter Leahy AC, spoke of being in charge of the Army at a critical time in history. Drawing on the ethos of the Anzac spirit over decades, Peter Leahy told his audience that the task of the Army was about far more than winning battles. “The soldier of today,” he said, “must be a warrior first and foremost. But he or she must also possess skills of diplomacy, cultural awareness and an ability to improvise in very ambiguous circumstances.”