E&OE...........
Well thank you very much Senator Kemp, Anne-Marie, Fran Kelly, Gough
Whitlam the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, Lady Nancy Gorton, Mrs Heather
Henderson, Senator Faulkner, ladies and gentlemen.
This is quite an important and I believe significant occasion in the
developing curiosity and growing interest of all Australians, not only
in this country';s history but also in the personalities, the strengths,
the foibles, the weaknesses and the capacities of the 25 Prime Minister
that we've had since Federation. And I do want to compliment the National
Archived getting this material together, I agree entirely with Anne-Marie
that it will become a much used resource, it will be an extraordinarily
valuable aid not only for discipline students of Australian history but
also for that growing army of Australians who increasingly find and not
to their surprise but in an increasingly natural fashion that people who
have risen to high office in this country have had the same capacities,
the same weaknesses, the same abilities and the same responsiveness to
times of challenge and particular stress as men and women who have risen
to equally high office in other countries. I would agree with Senator
Kemp that there is a burgeoning fascination and interest in Australian
history. We do things differently here because we are a different people.
We acquired our political independence in a different way from many other
countries and as a consequence we respond very differently than others
do, no less passionately and intensely in our own way and I think we have
seen in recent weeks in the wake of the awful atrocity of the 12th of
October a depth of national passion and unity in a uniquely expressive
Australian fashion, the like of which I haven';t seen in my lifetime.
Reflecting on the lives and the interests and the commitments of the
24 predecessors I';ve had in the office, I am now uniquely privileged
to hold, I';ve always found very fascinating. They were a group of
men, so far no women, I have no doubt that will at some time in Australia';s
future, many will hope not too distantly, also be right to say men and
women. They are a cross section, they';re very different, we all
have our views on them, I';ve known some of them very well, naturally
the bulk of them I didn';t ever meet, it fascinated me, most recently
I read David Day';s biography of John Curtin when travelling back
and forth to London earlier this year and needing the full length of both
plane journeys to do so. I found it a fascinating read, its insights into
the times in which Curtin lived, particularly his earlier years. Many
years I was fascinated to read Fin Crisp';s wonderful biograph of
Ben Chifley, the Prime Minister that I was first conscious of as a Prime
Minister. I was born during the first and very short lived prime ministership
of Robert Menzies and first became very interested in politics around
in the time of the 1949 election when Robert Menzies returned to office
and ended the prime ministership of Ben Chifley. Each has been different
and special in their own way. I have never forgotten those words of Tom
Hughes at John Gorton';s memorial service when he said that John
Gorton was both a larrikin and a gentlemen, something that I dare say
most Australian men would like to be described as at different stages
of their life.
So we have had, I think, a very rich and very special group of people,
this is of course not an occasion to start running political rulers over
them. Naturally with my own prejudices I have a long and abiding affection
for the contribution to this country of Robert Gordon Menzies our longest
serving Prime Minister and I';m very delighted that his daughter
Heather is here today. I remember the first weekend that Janette and I
spent at the Lodge after the election in 1996, we had the privilege of
inviting Heather and Peter around and we deliberately chose a drink much
loved of her late father to celebrate with them in a very personal way
our being at the Lodge. But his contribution was immense but I have never
been unwilling to acknowledge the enormous contribution to this country
of John Curtin during World War II in times of extraordinary stress, or
indeed to acknowledge the contribution in a number of areas to economic
change in Australia of the prime ministership of Bob Hawke. The most recent
occupants of the office of course have both been Labor Prime Ministers
and inevitably prior to myself, inevitably, we have been political opponents
and political contestants but I hope all of us who';ve been touched
by the office are generous enough and thoughtful enough of the national
interest to recognise the contribution of all irrespective of their political
backgrounds. When I first came into Parliament Gough Whitlam was Prime
Minister, I entered half way through Gough's three years as Prime Minister,
he was a very dominant parliamentary figure and certainly somebody who
represented an exponent of the art of parliamentary performance that had
a impression on me as a very young Member of Parliament entering in 1974.
The website offers some quite fascinating insights into the lives of
our Prime Ministers. Our longest serving Member of Parliament of course
was Billy Hughes, he served for 51 years, he helped found three political
parties and was expelled from all of them. Frank Ford must have been the
unluckiest Prime Minister, he was the shortest of all terms, eight days.
He apparently lost the ALP leadership ballot to John Curtin by one vote
in 1935 and lost his state by one vote in 1957. Bruce led the first all
Australian born Cabinet, Deakin refused honorary degrees from Oxford and
Cambridge, membership of the privy council and the title of Right Honourable.
Only the lives of Gorton and Whitlam I';m told spanned the lives
of all 25 Prime Ministers. That';s an interesting calculation, I
hope it';s right, but I';m sure I';ll be corrected by one
of the people I';ve named if I';m wrong. Only Lyons and McMahon
had children born while they were Prime Minister. John McEwen had to wait
33 years in Parliament before he became Prime Minister. He had the longest
wait before becoming Prime Minister of any of the people who';ve
held that office.
Ladies and gentlemen Australian history is encroaching more and more
on the affections and the interests of our fellow countrymen and the women.
The reasons for that are less important than the reality that it is occurring.
We have a special political tradition in this country, fortunately it
draws on the strengths of the heritages that have contributed to the modern
Australia without, I';m pleased to say, drawing on some of the weaknesses.
Our politics is fundamentally very egalitarian, our politics does by and
large reflect the views and the mores of the Australian people. We do,
to use that popular expression, have the political figures we deserve,
some of them, indeed most of them in my experience on both sides have
been very committed men and women, most people who come into the national
parliament in particular do so because they have pretty strong views and
pretty strong passions. Like any group of men and women in a professional
activity some do it rather better than others, and I think back over the
almost 29 years that I';ve been a Member of Parliament I';ve
been privileged to live through, to have an influence and ultimately to
shape many of the national political things that have occurred over that
period of time and it';s been an enormous privilege - so much has
happened since May of 1974 and now November of 2002.
One thing that has happened undoubtedly is that politicians now are infinitely
more accessible in a mass communications way than what we were 29 years
ago. We often lament the demise of the street corner meeting, I do, I
lament the demise of the Town Hall meeting at the eight o';clock
in the evening. I think many of us would be very happy to be able to incorporate
those sorts of things in our daily political lives, alongside the availability
that all of us must have to the media. The media occupies a special role
in political life, it';s often a role productive of tension and acrimony
but I have frequently said that the three great guarantors of liberty
in this country are not what is written in the Constitution or a putative
bill of rights but rather a robust Australian parliamentary democracy,
an incorruptible judiciary and a free press. If we have all of those operating
they will stand the test of time in protecting our freedom, we have those
I believe in abundance in this country and they are our unique guarantors
of the freedom and liberty of the Australian people.
Can I again thank the archives for this project, it';s a wonderful
use of our modest investment and I think it will be a rich store of information
and knowledge for years to come and I know as time goes by and people
reflect further on the history of Australia this website will be an important
part of that.
Thank you.
[ends]
The website is available at: http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/