Subjects: Centenary of Federation, history of Australia
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Thank you very much Anne-Marie, acting director general of the archives, your Grace, Tony Eggleton, my Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. I share the enthusiasm of the acting director general and the Archbishop for the importance and the relevance of this gallery and most particularly this exhibition in the context of the celebration of the Centenary of the Australian Federation.
That wonderful advertisement which is resinated around the country which depicted the young boy asking his father the identity of the first Australian Prime Minister has served two great purposes. Firstly it's made a lot more Australian's aware of the name of our first Prime Minister, and secondly its driven home to many Australians a quite remarkable and precious thing about the birth of this country constitutionally. And that is that that birth was achieved not through revolution or blood shed, but was achieved in peace and relative harmony. And history records, and I've had it reconfirmed over the Christmas holidays when I read Jeffrey Bolton's magnificent biograph of Edmund Barton. History records that the only area of real contention between the then colonial Governments and Joseph Chamberlain the colonial secretary, acting on behalf of the British Government about the form of the Australian constitution, was indeed the circumstances in which appeals might lie from the soon to be established federal supreme court of Australia, to be called the High Court, and the privy council. And it was resolved in a way that was not originally the desire of the leaders of the Australian colonies that fell well short of what was originally wanted by the British Government.
But when you think of it it was a quite amazingly small area of dispute and difference, and of course over the last 100 years at various stages along that journey there have been important documents, important acts of Parliament which have been sign posts and expressions of change. And so it is that the galleries of our, charters of our nations this exhibition comprises seven charter, or foundation documents of the Commonwealth of Australia. The royal assent of Queen Victoria, dated as the acting director general said, on the 9th of July 1900. An event that was commemorated in July of last year during the very successful Centenary of Federation visit to London by myself and most of State Premiers and the Speaker and the President of the Houses of the Australian Parliament. A wonderful week which drove home to many of us the importance attached by our British hosts to the shared link between our two societies.
The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act itself, which as my quick recollection serves me, was in fact first repatriated, or exported, or however one might describe it to Australia in 1990. And it was brought here by the then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Jeffrey Howe, at the request of my predecessor Paul Keating, my predecessor Bob Hawke as Prime Minister of Australia. The letters patent constituting the Office of the Governor General, and the proclamation of inauguration day 1900.
But they are all documents of course dated 100 years ago, but three other very important documents are included. There's the statue of Westminster adoption act of 1942, which some 11 years after the passive of the statue of Westminster by the British Parliament saw the incorporation of the provisions of that act which declared the essential equality of status between the member states of the then British Commonwealth. The constitution alteration act of 1967 which gave expression to the desire of 90% of the Australian people to right an historic wrong done to the indigenous people of this country through their exclusion from the census of the Australian population and the hither to inability of the Commonwealth Parliament to legislate for the indigenous people of this country. And it did demonstrate that decision the desire of the Australian people overwhelmingly quite remarkably given the indifferent record of other attempts to change the Australian constitution to determination of the Australian people to address that wrong. And finally the Australia Act of 1986, which put beyond argument whether there was any residual right of the British Parliament to legislate in relation to the affairs of Australia. Although it would have to be acknowledged but in pragmatic political real terms, any capacity to do so had long since expired by the changed relationship between our two nations.
They are therefore seven very important documents. They record the legal experience and the legal marks to the present state constitutionally of Australian nationhood. But importantly they're part of the historical record of this country. And one of the really exciting things about Australia is the growing interest of this country in its history, and it's occurring in all generations in all parts of Australian societies.
I spoke today at the presentation of awards in the Young Australian of the Year ceremony of the emotional impact on me of the time I spent on Gallipoli Peninsula, ANZAC day last year. Moving amongst the some 12 to 15 thousand young Australians who were marking that particular occasion, the crowd that was probably 10 or 15 years earlier no more than 500 or 1000. A vivid demonstration of just how there is a growing respect, a growing curiosity, a growing desire to learn and to understand on occasion properly to question but most importantly of all to feel that as part of our history and it's part of heritage.
And I think this gallery will make an important contribution, but of course it will serve to remind us that important those documents may be, important but, thought the written letter of the law may be, ultimately the values and the practices of our democratic society are of infinitely greater importance. And the robustness and openness with which we practice parliamentary democracy in this city in the national capital, may on occasions draw criticism and adverse comments, but in the end it is one of the great board walks of our freedom. The strength of our commitment to the rule of law, the incorruptibility of our judiciary and importantly also the openness, the scepticism, the criticism from time to time of our media. All of those three things are very important guarantors of the ongoing liberty of the Australian people and the ongoing strength of Australian democracy.
I congratulate the archives of Australia and I congratulate the council of the Centenary of Federation for its initiative in bringing this exhibition together and its initiative in supporting the Federation gallery. It will be one more reason for Australians in their increasing numbers come and visit the national capital, the growth of interest in the Centenary of Federation, and the contribution that this gallery and this exhibition will make are very important further landmarks in the role of Canberra of our national capital.
So ladies and gentlemen I have great pleasure in declaring open the Federation Gallery and the exhibition, Charters of our Nation.
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