Thank you Dr Brady, Professor Carey, ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen.
The college does me a great honour in asking me to say a few words this morning and then I hope expose myself to as much questioning as you choose.
I don't think I need to remind an audience such as this of the extraordinarily close links between Australia and Ireland. Any cursory reading of Australian history will tell you that the impact of the Irish on the Australian character, the impact of the Irish on Australian politics has been remarkable. A very significant proportion of Australian prime ministers probably more than one third, would claim some connection through heritage with Ireland and the temper and pace of Australian politics does owe a great deal to our Irish heritage of which most Australians are not only aware but very proud indeed. And to have the opportunity of coming to this college which has brought forth such a wide range of people in so many walks of Irish and international life is a pleasure indeed.
But it is important, important though it is to honour and reflect upon the history of the relationship between Ireland and Australia, and to acknowledge with appropriate sentiment of nostalgia the importance of it, we do live of course in the first part of the twenty-first century and the relationship between Australia and Ireland must be seen in contemporary modern terms. It should be seen in the context of the challenges that face the world in the twenty-first century. It should be seen in the context I believe, of two things of more importance than any others. The first of which of course is to take full advantage of the extraordinary benefits that I believe globalisation is offering the world. There do remain of course some people who argue that in some way the forces of globalisation can be reversed or can be significantly mitigated in a protectionist way to the advantage of different parts of the world or to individual countries. I would imagine that those of you who have studied this issue more closely would see the folly of that particular course of action.
Globalisation has brought extraordinary opportunities and benefits especially to those countries in the world that have taken advantage of it. And indeed the economic story of Ireland over the last twenty years has been the story of a country which in economic terms has reached out, has modernised, has focused on her strengths rather than lamenting the poor hand that economic history may have handed her on earlier occasions.
Of course in the part of the world in which Australia is located geographically globalisation, the benefits of globalisation are quite compelling. For the first time since the industrial revolution we are witnessing the shifting of the centre of gravity of the world's middle class from western Europe and north America to the giant nations of Japan and China by probably no more than a generation and a half ahead of us, there will be four to eight hundred million middle class people in Japan and China and the extraordinary impact and the growth of that and the affect it has on the economic dynamics of the world is quite remarkable. And this is a reality and something to be both confronted and I believe taken sensibly advantage of not only by countries such as Australia, but countries around the world. I do not believe and I don't think any sensible study can suggest otherwise that the force of the globalisation or anything other than absolutely unstoppable (inaudible) forces that should be mobilised to the benefit of the advantage of all countries and I often think of where nations like Korea, many of the other nations of Asia like Thailand, where countries like that would be if they had not embraced globalisation. I think of the extraordinary way in which the Indian economy is now being transformed. A country which until the early 1990s tended to shut its face against the forces of globalisation and international trade and tended to seek refuge in a highly regulated, protectionist economy. One only has to visit India now to be overwhelmed by the pace at which the country is economically modernising and reaching out to the rest of the world and the way in which both India and China alongside Japan are taking advantage of course of world globalisation is quite stunning.
The second great issue of course that the world faces is how to come to terms with terrorism fuelled by fanatical radical Islam. There is no simple one size fits all response to terrorism but I do think there are unavoidably three ways in which it has to be dealt with. Appropriate military action in certain circumstances is something that is part of dealing with terrorism. Sometimes that's controversial and it continues to be controversial in relation to action taken especially in certain parts of the world. High grade intelligence is in my view the strongest, still the strongest weapon against terrorism but most importantly also, very importantly, also is the spread of democracy especially in those parts of the world that haven't been touched by democracy in the past. And again I think of countries near to Australia. I often think that the future political experiences of leaders like President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Musharraf of Pakistan both of them both moderate Islamic leaders. Each of them leading countries which are grappling internally with terrorism. The future success of those two leaders will in many senses tell us whether the campaign against terrorism inside Islamic countries is going to succeed or it's going to fail. Because in the end unless the example of moderate Islam is seen to succeed and does in fact succeed then unless that happens the capacity of terrorists to recruit new people to their cause of radical Jihad will be very greatly strengthened.
I think the fight against terrorism will be a long one. There will be many people in our societies who will from time to time throw up their arms in horror and say well may be it's all our fault in the end and may be if only we'd adopted different approaches and different attitudes it would not have started. That of course would be fatal and completely dishonest misreading of history. Terrorism of the type that we saw manifested in the United States in 2001 of course has been taken place in many parts of the Islam world long before it was launched against the United States. It's the type that saw eighty-eight Australians killed in Bali in 2002 along with some dozens of citizens of other countries and some two hundred Indonesians. That type of terrorism has been at work in other parts of the Islamic world years before it took place in Bali. So those who in some way think that in the understandable frustration and the difficulty of fighting with terrorism, fighting terrorism, imagine that perhaps in the end it is all the fault of those against whom the terrorism is directed would be completely misreading history and completely misunderstanding the character of the threat that is faced.
Dr Brady, I don't want to say anymore than that. So there's two reflections of mine on some of the challenges and the opportunities that face our society not only Irish society but of course also Australian society, and we are all part of a globalised world which has brought us all together as never before in the history of mankind. And again can I say how privileged I am to have been here and can I compliment this university's Australian Studies Centre. Can I say how very important it is to an understanding of not only relations between our two countries but an understanding of some of the issues of which I have spoken and I am very happy to announce that the Australian Government will contribute a sum of AUS$1.5 million towards the Cameron Chair of Australian Studies to maintain in the years ahead not only the study of my country but also a study of some of the issues of which I've spoken.
Thank you.
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