Fax from PRIME MINJISTER
21 November 1996 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. JOHN HOWARD, WP
ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE WITH PRESIDENT CLINTON
LADY MACQUARIE'S CHAIR SYDNEY
E& OE
Mr President, Mrs Clinton, Mr Bob Carr, Mrs Helena Carr, the Lord Mayor of
Sydney, Councillor Frank Sartor, and many other distinguished guests, Andrew Hoy
the great Captain of the greatest ever Olympic team Australia has yet seen, ladies and
gentlemen. It's a tremendous delight to welcome you Mr President to the oldest, the
most fantastic, the most colourful and certainly the most diverse city in Australia.
Sydney represents so much of the success of the Australian dream. Sydney is
connected with the early beginnings of the penal settlement in New South Wales.
Sydney has grown to be the largest commercial centre in Australia. Sydney has
witnessed the great transformation of the make-up of the Australian community,
particularly since World War LI. And as you look around you Mr President, you will
see the diversity of the Australian community. You will see the old, you will see the
middle aged, you will see the young. You will be reminded of the historical links
between this part of our nation and the earliest beginnings of politics and everything
else that European settlement brought to Australia. You will be reminded of the links
between modem Australia and the indigenous people of Australia. You Will be
reminded of the great waves of migration that have changed for the better the face of
Australia. After World War 1I thousands of people carue to Sydney and settled from countries
like Italy and Greece and more recently the vibrancy of Sydney has been enriched by
the settlement in our city of tens of thousands of new citizens from Asia and those
people have given a particular vitality and a particular lustre. They provide an
extremely valuable link to the region whose future we together are so bound up with
and that is the Asia Pacific Region. The history of our two countries is a very proud
one. The Philadelphia was the first trading vessel to come to Australia in 1792. The
Premier has already spoken of the visit of the great white fleet in 1908. It was at a
little French village in LeHamel on the western front in 1918 that for the first time in
history Australian and American soldiers fought together under the command of the
great Australian Field General of World War 1, Sir John Monash. karo m21/ 11/ 96 17: 44 Pg 1
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In more recent times the commercial investment of American entrepreneurs in Sydney
and in Australia has played a very major role in our economic development. This city
and this nation of ours now hosts the regional headquarters of many large American
companies. And together all of us are working towards that great event in September
of the Year 2000. Mr President, if you do choose to return I shall be delighted to
welcome you again as Prime Mnister of this country. And it is great to have an
American leader with us. As I said in the Parliament yesterday the President of the
United States is always welcome in Australia and always will be welcome in Australia.
He brings with him a reminder of all that we have in common and the most important
thing that we have in common is not bricks and mortar or dollar investments, but the
most important thing that we have in common is a shared sense of values, a shared
belief system, a shared commnitment to the liberty of the individual and a shared
optimism and hope about the future of mankind. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the
President of the United States of America.
ends