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PRIME MINISTER
January 1997 TRANSCRIEPT OF THLE PRIME M. LISTER
THE HLON. JOHN UOWARD MP
SIEECU AT IT'' LE OPENING OF TUlE ELECTORIATE OFFILZE OF
TRISH WORTH MEP, FEDERAL, MEMB3ER FOR ADELAIDE
IE& OE
Thank you very much Trish. To Martin Cameroni, the President of the Liberal P~ lty in
South Australia.. to Amanda Vanstorte, R~ obert Hill, Tan M~ cLachlan, my other state and
Federal Parliameniaxy colleagues, ladies and gentleicn. I1h ave reflected on a niimber of
the rcsonances; with a year ago as I travelled here this morning the short distance from the
hotel. It was cxaciy a year ago that I opcncd that campaign office. It was about thc
same time that T think I opened a campaign office for Andrew Sotdcou. I remember to
the day of course as so many of us do, the Satuday of the Australia Day weekend last
year, when the election was called and can I say, Trish that ifs alys a pleasuic'to be int
Adelade about this time of the year and it was very nice of you to gi've me the
opportunity of saying a few words at the opening of your office.
We are on the eve of Australia Day, a day that has grown in the affections and the
commitmnent of Australians to celebrate over the last ten or 20 years. When I was
growing up people sort of struggled to celebrate Australia Day. It was called -Aruivemsary
Day I1th ink then-It certainly was in Sydney, and I guess it was the samne all aroun. d
Australia. And we sort of went through the motions of celebratirng Australia Day but
over the years. and particularly over the last decade, the celebration of it bas become a
focal point of people thinking about and reflecting on those things that bind us together.
One of the credos that I have always tried to live by in political life, both inside my own
party and also within the community is tbat we ought to focus more on the things! that
bind us together rather than or the things that might pish us apart
And onc of the most visible demonstrationis, the most powerfuil pieces of evidence of the
success of Australia will be that tomnorrow, around our country thousands upon thousands
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Fax from' Of People will become Austr-alian citizens. They will come from literally the four corners
of the Earth. They will pledge themselves to put the interests of Australia against the
interests of arny other coutrny, not in the sense of r-epudiating the countrics from which
thev have come but in the sense of embracine, an overarching commitment in common
wilh those who are aLready Australian citizens. to the future of our country and to the
' values that we share in common. And it's a very powerfii reminder that that great act
across the counucy, it's a very powerful reminder of what a magnet of tolerance this
country is to people from so many parts of the world. And it cuts through the clatter. it
cuts through the neg-ativism, it cuts through the tendency of somec Australians to see this
country as other than a ' very robust, democratic, open, tolerant and diverse community. I
think it is a source of tremendous pride to all Australian~ s, whether they were born in this
country or whether they have becomec Australians by choice, it is a reminder to all of us
ofjut how high in the esteem of thc rest of the world our country stands in terms of the
values that men arnd women around the world regard as important-
Over the Christmas holiday period I always try and read some books and I read a very
densely, and I don't mean dense in a pcjorative sense but dense in terms of size, history
of what was called the short 20th century, it was called The Age of Extemes and it traces9
the history of the 20th century from the-beainning of the Great War of 1914 to the
collapse of communism in the early 1990s. And it contains right in the mniddlc of it a
reminder that only eight courttries, if you coun sepaineiy Treland and the United
Kingdom only eight countries have been continuoU5ly democratic during that period and
Australia is one of those eight countries, the others bcing of course the United Stes,
New Zealand, Canaa the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Now many
countries of c ourse lost their democracy and their freedom not through choice but
because of the invasion of others and that should always be kept in mind. But it is a
reminder to all of us ofjust how successful Australia has really been. And the greatest
measure of somebody's estem in the community is what others think of him or her and
the greatest mark of the esteem of the nation in the eyes of the rest of the world is what
the citizens of other countries think of that nation, and the desire of so may people to
become citizens of this country and the willingness of them to do so is a very powerful
reminder to all of us of what this country has achieved and what it really stauds; for.
Dfish, can T say on a more personal note that 1 have a very strong affinity with the
electorate of Adelaide. I bave experieniced some ins and outs I have got to say in recient
years, I am delighted to say a lot more is than outs. I think your achievemnt in winning
the electorate of Adclaide in the ti place was a remnarkable tribute to your cminpaigning
skils, it realy was. And the service that you have given to this very diverse electorate, it
i3 an cleetorae that of course embraces the heart of the city of Adelaide, it is an
electorate that straddles a very widc group of socio-econonucally speakig, of
AuStralians. It includes amongst its constituents people of very diverse backgrounds, It
has a very important educational base. It has one of ihe most important sporting bases off
course, both surnmer and winter sports, of any city in Australia and you represcnit it
magnificently and your achievement in increasing your majority at the last election and
the work that you& do as a Member of Parliament the contribution you make to the
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understanding of some of the cveryday problems of l ife is a very, very good examplec to
your colleagues.
Onle of my best recollections of Trish and a demonstration of the sort of person she really
is was the day ofthat quite disgraceful attack on Parliament on the I % h of August and
after the demonstrators had been, shall we say, I say it quite unashamedly, repulsed by
the police who behaved in an absolutely magnificent way, and other security people, in a
very difficult situation. I went around as soon as possible to inspect the diamage and
there was Trish resumning her profesion for the moment of nursig and caring for one of
the police officers who had been assaulted by several of the demnonstrators. And that is
typical of the caring role That she plays out, both as a Member of Parliamnt and as a
member of the community. It was a vivid reminder of the kind of person she is and the
fact that shes never forgotten that she bas a caring role in the commiunity as a citizen and
her trining as a nurse was very much in evidence on that occasion.
This office will be of course open and will be a vehicle of support for all of the citizens
of the electorate of Adelaide. Although in the nature of politics only slightly over haw, or
in some electorates, immn'ensely over half of de community votes for you. once you' re a
Member of Parliament you have an obligation a'nd a commitment to serve the people who
voted against you as well as the people who voted for you. And I know that Trish winl do
that and I imow that anybody, irrespective of their politics, who comes to this office can
be assured of a good hearing, can be assured of a persistent etTort to help them in sol-ving
whatever problem that they might have and I think that it is appropriate that there are so
many community leaders here.
So ladics and gentlemen, as T reflect on the last year I do so as leader of the Liberal Party
with very great pride at what has been acieved, not in any triumphal sense. We were
given the great privilege of being the Goverrnment of Australia. We have wiorked very
hard and I have been very ably assisted as Prime Minister in a very, very powerful
Ministerial and Parliamcniary contingent from South Australia. T think T have said before
that I1 cant recall in the history of Federation, certainly not i the post-war period, where
there have been four Cabinet Ministers in the Government of this coLmtry from South
Australia, which is the case at the present time and they amo ably surrounded by a very
powerful contingent of very hard-working Senators and Members, and I am delighted to
say at the opening of this office how much T appreciate the contribution of South
Australians to my Government and to the Parliament generally. It has been a very
exciting year since I was last here. It's almost a year since the change of Government
We have achieved a lot but we have many challenges ahead of us and the new year has
brought a number of reminders of continuing challenges. The new year has also brought
somc: new challIenges which willI engage the energics and the goodwilJI and th e
commitmnent and the application of anl of us.
Fax from But ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to, with great pleasure, to declare Trish's new
electorate office open, to wish her well, to thank her for the care that she gives to the
people of Adelaide, to thank her for being such a magnificent member of our
Parliamentary team and to wish her many, many years of service to the cause of the
people of Adelaide and to the Australian community generally.
Thank you.
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