Thank you very much Doug, Bob Hawke, John Anderson, Daryl Williams, my other parliamentary colleagues past and present. Doug, you mentioned the football. Daffy Bowers, who I';m very happy to welcome here as a representative of the gallery that has spent so much time here, said to me as I walked in that he reckons the reason the Wallabies lost was that I didn';t barrack loudly enough.
But can I say that it is a great pleasure to share these few moments with my colleague and vigorous adversary, but nonetheless a person who has made an immense contribution to our nation, Bob Hawke. I agreed with just about everything Bob said. The passage of time has not dimmed his capacity to stir, nor has it in any way dented the extraordinary generosity of his spirit when it comes to speaking of his opponents, not least of course his party colleagues. But he is right when he says that the country has been well served by its political parties.
We have a great capacity – it';s part of our nature, it';s an Australian trait to denigrate and to mock anything that smacks of an established pattern or a tradition – but deep down we have an intrinsic democratic spirit, and our political parties are the expression of that. With all their faults, they';re incredibly important. I think all of us though have to take a reality check that the membership base of all of our political parties is now becoming too narrow. I mean we Liberals might like to think that at a certain level all of the problems in that department are on the other side, and the Labor Party particularly as it surveys its mastery of the state scene might think oh all the problems are on our side. The reality is that political parties today, their base of membership is narrowing to an alarming degree and all political parties have to find a way of relating more comprehensively with grassroot support.
We live in an age where people don';t automatically join institutions. People of my generation and Bob';s generation, which is roughly the same generation let me hastily say, we, you know, you automatically joined all sorts of things when you left school. People don';t do that anymore. We';ve got to find a way of harnessing them, and this is as important to the Liberal Party and to the National Party, as it is to the Labor Party, but even more importantly than that, it';s very important to the body politic because if you end up with political parties being run by people whose whole existence has been political, and have had none of life';s experience, you';re going to get a very narrow view. And I think it';s tremendously important that both sides of politics understand that.
Now as to these magnificent rooms, I love this old building. It was my impression and perception from the time I was a child of what national politics was all about. Now of course it was an appallingly overcrowded, decrepit building in which to work and there is no doubt that the new building is magnificent as far as the spaciousness and the amenities for our staff and Members generally are concerned. I think the comparison, the old debating chamber in the House of Representatives was a country mile ahead of the debating chamber we now have. There';s just something about the size. But you could reach out and touch, literally, you could reach out and touch people. And the intimacy and the interaction of the old chambers is something that I miss, and I spent what 14 of my 29 years in this building. But there are all sorts of other things about this place that you remember. I can';t but turn around there, but think of Alan Reid resting on the glass case and observing the comings and goings. I think you could sense a coup coming a little easier here, than you could in the new Parliament House.
The one party room that I haven';t, we haven';t sort of been to tonight was of course the Opposition party room, which I started in, left for seven and a half years, went back to, and remember mainly fondly – there was the odd occasion that I don';t remember quite so fondly. I think the two most dramatic moments I had in that party room were… one was in 1975, in March of 1975 when the Liberal Party chose Malcolm Fraser to replace Billy Snedden as its leader – a decision that had very profound consequences on the political balance, the balance of that particular political year. It did particularly displease one of Malcolm';s predecessors as leader of the Liberal Party, the then Member for Higgins who left the room and closed the door rather emphatically, and I';ve never quite forgotten that moment. And then of course I suppose the most exciting or harebrained experience I had in that room was going in thinking I was going to be voted out as Deputy Leader and emerging as Leader. But I mean they';re the sort of things that occasionally happen in political parties. Not the most, I think with the fullness of time, not the most ordered, sensible way of becoming a leader of a political party, but they';re the things you learn after a passage of time.
But it';s a building that will always be very much a part of my recollections and memories of my political career. I went into that Country Party room and remember that magnificent photograph after the 1972 election of all of the members of the Country Party, and being a smallish party, it had a great intimacy and warmth and fraternity amongst its membership of applauding I think it was the election of Frank O';Keefe on the final count as the Member for Upper Hunter in an election which didn';t go terribly well for the Coalition. But this building has, as Bob said, seen so many of those dramatic events that have shaped our nation. It was of course the building out of which Government and Opposition on occasions together worked during the darkest days of World War II. It was the building that I think this very great hall saw the principal celebration that took place at the time of our 50th anniversary of our nation, which I think if recollection serves me correctly coincided exactly with the very untimely death of Ben Chifley, one of Australia';s – whatever his politics – greatly loved and respected Prime Ministers.
So it is a building that rekindles in all of us a memory of so much of our history. It';s a building of course that was dominated for so long in a political sense by the founder of my party, and Australia';s longest serving Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies. So I am delighted to be part of this ceremony, to congratulate you Doug, and to say how warming it is that we are becoming so much more intensely interested in our history as a nation.
One of the really pleasing things for all Australians over I think the last 10 to 15 years is the way in which we are grabbing hold of our history. We';re realising that there is a richness and there is a warmth in the character of the people who played a major part in our history that is the equal and in many respects more enchanting and more endearing than that of any other country. We are in that sense becoming less and less derivative and more and more a group of people who know that we have achieved a lot, who are comfortable with who we are and who we relate to, and treasure very much as the years go by what this country has contributed to the world and what it means to each one of us.
Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for having me. It's a great honour to come back to this building as Prime Minister as to formally declare open the refurbished party rooms and to again thank the Old Parliament House Authority and you Doug for the magnificent leadership that you have given.
Thank you.
[ends]