PRIME MINISTER:
Prime Minister, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Ministers, Chief Justice, Papal Nuncio, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman. Firstly, can I say Janette and I are most grateful to you Helen for the great hospitality that you and your husband and others have extended to us on what is my eighth visit officially to New Zealand as Prime Minister, and the fifth occasion that I've participated, with three different Prime Ministers, in the bi-annual visit. It is important that we do not take our close friendship for granted. It's important that we work on it; it's important that we emphasise those things that we have in common; and it's important that we work away at those areas that might cause irritation.
It is a very long-standing, natural, and spontaneous relationship. It's a relationship, of course, that had it's most vivid expression almost 90 years ago on the beaches of Gallipoli, and it's a relationship that down through the years has seen our two nations continue to argue for and assert the values that bind us together - values that are important to both of our communities. The economic association is hugely important, and it gets stronger and better as each year goes by, and the opportunity I had last night in Auckland of meeting a large number of members of the business community from New Zealand was a reminder of just how closely integrated our two economies are at the present time, and how we share so very much in common. The opportunity I had this morning of talking to the members of the New Zealand cabinet about some of the challenges of social policy. It was a reminder that we, like New Zealand, have problems of an ageing population, of workforce participation, of finding the most appropriate way to speed the process of people moving out of welfare and into work, and doing it in a fashion that is fair and reasonable, not only to the individuals concerned, but also fair and reasonable to the general body of taxpayers.
We, of course, being two nations with deep historical and ethnic links with Europe, having proud, vibrant indigenous populations, but being in the Asian Pacific region of the world, we share a great deal in common in meeting the challenges of our region. And, of course, in recent times we have worked together to bring relief to the suffering people of Indonesia and other parts of those nations affected by the tsunami, and I had the opportunity just three weeks ago to visit Aceh and to go the ANZAC hospital, as we have dubbed it - the general hospital in Banda Aceh - and to see Australians and New Zealanders working together again was a heart-warming reminder of the continuity of that association. And, of course, working together in a country that is so very important to Australia's future, and may I say very important to the future of the fight that we wage in common against international terrorism.
There is no country, I suggest, that is as much in the target sights of international terrorism than is Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest Islamic country in the world. It is of moderate Islamic persuasion. It's recently adopted a very robust democratic form of government. It's the third largest democracy in the world, a fact often overlooked - particularly in Europe and North America - but something that it certainly not overlooked in this part of the world. If Indonesia succeeds then a long-term blow is delivered against the cause of terrorism. If Indonesia fails, the terrorism is able to point again to the failure of western institutions and western influences under the practice of modern Islam. And we all have a lot at stake in making Indonesia is a success, and I know that in that endeavour, and in providing that support, I know that Australia and New Zealand are working together very intently indeed.
Can I say finally, Prime Minister, that, in the end, those people to people links that you speak of are very, very important: the 400,000 New Zealanders in Australian, the 60,000 or 70,000 Australians in New Zealand. Without doing any research, as I was sitting here thinking to myself how many state premiers of Australia has this country produced, and I can think offhand of three. I can think of Rann, Bjelke-Peterson, and Fahey just offhand, and there may in fact be more. It's a timely reminder of the tremendous exchanges that go on between our free nations, and we have a rich history. We have our vigorous areas of competition, which are well known and well loved by the citizens of both countries, and, of course importantly, we do share a long-standing belief in, and practice of, freedom. Australia and New Zealand are two of only a handful of countries - in fact you could count them on the fingers of both hands - that remain continuously democratic from the beginning of the 20th century, and that is a remarkable achievement of which we speak not often enough, and in the end the most important thing to our way of our way of life is of course the practice of democratic freedom, and we've seen over the last few months some wonderful examples of that in countries that haven't always had it, or perhaps never had it. We had our last election on the 9th of October. On the same day there was an election in Afghanistan which was the first democratic election I think that country had ever had, and for the first time the women of Afghanistan were able to vote. We've had a wonderful example of democracy in the Ukraine, where in a completely bloodless way a fraudulent vote was overturned by the pressure of domestic and international opinion, and a legitimate government installed. And that was I think a fantastic sight to watch. I think I haven't seen anything as terrific as that come out of that part of the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall and all those wonderful scenes we witnessed at the end of the 1980s.
And then of course we saw the election in the Palestinian territories, and for the first time in years we have a real hope perhaps of getting a lasting settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis because we now have somebody of good will and good purpose leading the Palestinians; somebody who believes in the right of Israel, or will accept, at least, the right of Israel to exist, and as well as providing a homeland for the Palestinians. And finally and very importantly, we saw those inspiring sights of Iraqis going to vote in the face of the most appalling intimidation, and I haven't seen a more inspiring democratic sight for years, and people holding aloft their fingers dipped in the identification ink that was needed. Now, when you think that in many countries that don't practice or take democracy for granted you don't get a turnout of 59 percent. The turnout of the last presidential election was less than 59 percent. The turnout in the elections for the European parliament was about 40 percent, and I think the turnout in the last British election was only about 59 or 60 percent, and they got a turnout of 59 percent in those appalling circumstances. It really tells us how fortunate we are that we've this precious thing called democratic freedom and we've kept it for all those years; we've practiced it, and it's the most valuable heritage we have, and it's one that we share to the full.
And in that spirit can I thank you Prime Minister, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, and all of you for the very warm welcome that you've extended to me. I value the relationship between our two countries and I have worked hard in the almost 9 years that I've been Prime Minister to do everything I can to make it closer, better, and even stronger. Thank you.
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