-fTinA I
PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 30 JULY 1976
Mr President, Mr Mayor, ladies and gentlemen,
thank you very much for your hospitality today. My wife
and I have had a wonderful time in the last few days in
the United States. We have been kept a little bit too
busy I think perhaps, but that may be our fault more than
the fault of other people. I would also like to pay
tribute to Professor Manning Clark who conducted a number
of the initial discussions with the University concerning
today's occasion, in the formative stages, and Professor
Derham who at the last moment and I know quite well at
some inconvenience to himself and his wife, came here to
be present at this occasion as Chairman of the Friends of
Harvard Committee which will be associuted with the Chair.
The Bicentennial of the American Nation provides
a fitting occasion for the endowment of a Chair in
Australian studies at this University.
For Australia was the un-intended offspring
of your War of Independence. And I have been advised
a] lready this morning that in the Treasure Room of the
Harvard Law School library there is a copy of an American
edition of The Trial of Thomas Muir for sedition, for
circulating Thomas Paine's " Rights of Man" in the wrong
places. And so he was sentenced to be transported for
14 years and sent to Botany Bay, as many other good people
were sent with him. He was later rescued by an American
ship, and after many adventures he died in France at a
later period. So, an unintended offspring of the American
Revolution returns to celebrate your Bicentenary.
But theo coiinections between the history of
our two countries extend far beyond our origins. They
encompass the political and social ideals that have guided
the development of both our societies. s. 9 / 2
-2-
The ideals inspiring your Founding Fathers
had a direct impact on the development of democratic
government in Australia. Your great revolution was
one of the pow~ erful forces that 75 years later helped
the Australian Colonies ' to become self gcverning and
to manage their own affairs within a highly democratic
political framework. Your revol-ution occurred in an age of
intellectual ferment when men such as Locke and later
Montesquieu, Rousseau and Humne were seeking to apply
logic and reason to understanding man and his institutions.
Harvard is amongst the foremost of the institutions
embodying this tradition of logical enquiry.
It is a tradition, of course, in which Australians
have shared, and to which we have made our own contribution.
What we need now, more than ever, is
knowledge that is of positive value to man in increasing
his understanding of the world, of himself. Our education
needs to impart not only technical skills, it needs to
impart a quality of judgement. The great challenge to
educators is to combine the teaching of skills with that
broader understanding. The view that the best education
need not be relevant, even on a broad definition of
relevance, condemns us to failure in our efforts to. cope
with a fast changing world.
Mr President, this Chair should certainly help
to extend further understanding between Australia and
the United States.
I hope also that the work which will be d~ ne
through this Chair will address itself, in part, to-some
of the major issues that must concern people in both our
countries. Mr President, I would like to take the
opportunity offered by the endowment of the Chair to speak
a little about challenges which I believe both our
countries face and about the contribution I hope the
academic world can make to meeting them.
Modern science has given mankind great power
and great strength. But it is evident that our knowledge
and our human skills in using that power have not increased
commensurately. In this world political leaders are being asked
to resolve the problems of societies undergoing rapid
change. New and insistent demands are made upon them. a * s/
-3
Old issues -issues with which your Founding
Fathers were familiar -are now facing us again. Once
more we are concerned with the relationship of our
people to their institutions. We are once again debating
how to reconcile effective government with the liberty
( or as it is frequently now put) the autonomy of the
individual. I would li. e to elaborate on one or two of the
issues related to these matters. While they particularly
concern the politician, universities will fail in their
role if they do not make an important contribution to
dealing with them. The issue I want to mention quite
directly is related to the role of universities.
Our education process has been designed to
encourage people to think for themselves, to question,
to search, to reuch their own conclusions.
It is not at all surprising that our people,
as never before are questioning their leaders and their
institutions. In these circumstances we need to ask ourselves,
as we never have before, how we maintain the cohesion,
the unity, the vitality, of democratic societies and the
effectiveness of democratic government.
We preach independence and diversity, but there
is also an essential unity without which any society
will fall. At the time of your revolution and in the two
centuries since, the problem of achieving unity out of
diversity was largely the problem of welding of different
states, regions, ethnic groups, into one nation. These
same issues have concerned us, though less forcefully, in
Australia. Today the problem has a new dimension. We are
not talking merely about regions and communities. We
are talking about individuals' demands for respect for
their own views, their own consciences, against the larger
society and its institutions. We are now talking about
cultures, attitudes and ideas, which are becoming increasingly
diverse. Government, to be effective, must earn the
respect of the people. In the age I have been describing
this respect is more difficult to earn than in the past.
How to achieve it is one of the most important issues of
our time. s e/ 4
-4
That takes me to the second issue that I
would like to mention.
In order that people may have the maximum
scope to decide for themselves the kind of lives they
will lead, they must be prepared to accept certain
restraints. It is true'that people's ultimate obligations
are to their own consciences. But that does not mean
that one is entitled to ignore laws with which one merely
does not agree. Such an attitude destroys the effectiveness
of our institutions and the possibility of effective social
reform. Laws after all flow from institutions which though
admittedly imperfect are the best form of government yet
devised. Without the acceptance of such obligations
people may become frustrated and disillusioned with
the democratic processes and institutions, and their
frustrations could ulitimately feed the ambitions of those
who seek undemocratic solutions to our problems.
That is why the practice of freedom and the
acknowledgement of social and political obligations go
hand in hand. There needs to be a recognition that some
freedom must be forgone to expand our capacity to enjoy
freedom. And here we come to a striking paradox. Not
only is this an age when people are demanding greater
personal freedom, it is also an age when the demands on
government constantly increase. In order to meet these
demands governments almost invevitably tend to dispose
of more of a iuation's resources and to further regulate
people's affairs. In Australia there has been for decades an
inexorable move of financial power to the Central Government,
destroying the independent capacities of State Governments
and making the States subservient to the centre.
My Government has begun to implement a major
reform of our federal arrangements designed to restore
a large measure of financial independence to the States
and to expand the financial base of local Governments
so that they can respond effectively to problems they
recognise in their own communities.
The capacity of Government to assess problems
accurately and to take into account people's judgement
of their own needs is essential to effective social reform.
More than ever such sensitivity is required to foster respect
for our institutions. We are all aware that some approaches
to social reform do more harm than good. Effective government
0
action requires a deep awareness of how that action will
be seen and evaluated by our increasingly active and
informed citizens. So often people have sought to solve social
problems merely by spending money, so often that is
only a small part of what is needed. Many problems
are related m~ uch more to the capacity of people to
adapt to a complex'society. A solution that relies
on providing funds but does little to encourage the
capacity to cope with problems can be a * most damaging
response to genuine need.
Our institutions can only maintain respect
if people can achieve their legitimate aspirations
within them in a democratic and peaceful way; if reason
and argument can lead to effective reform.
We have to make sure that our institutions
are as responsive as possible to the needs of those they
affect. Preventing these institutions from becoming
over-powerfull requires not only legal and constitutional
restraints but also a recognition on their part that they
have broader obligations to the wider community.
The contribution of the universities on this
continuing issue will have an important effect on the
response of other organisations of many different kinds.
And that brings me finally to the challenge to
democratic leadership in the kind of world our universities
are helping to create.
Despite the problems I have been discussing
it is obvious that democratic political institutions
have exhibited a remarkable capacity to adapt to change.
Ultimately however institutions depend for their survival
and respect on the quality of men who hold office within
them. The more rapid social change is, the more complex
issues become, the more essential it is for democratic
politicians to explain the problems they face clearly and
realistically. They in their turn need the tools for this
task. They need the knowledge bnd understanding that
it is in part a responsibility of universities to generate.
9 e e/ 6
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I have commented on the unparalleled burst
of knowledge in the Physical Sciences and the unmatched
power that they have placed in the hands of politicians.
It seems man can do almost anything so long as it involves
technology. But it is in our understanding of society
that we are now desperately in need of new knowledge.
Scientific knowledge has placed unaparalled
power in politician lhands. Our capacity to see that it
is used for good is scarcely better than it would have'
been if man had possessed that power two thousand years
ago. Our criteria for judgement are still so often
inappropriate to the circumstances. What does this say
of the way in which we have pursued learning and
understanding? What we need more than anything is an
adequate recognition of ourselves.
To understand and respond to present and future
challenges is a major task of politicians. The paradoxes
of our time are great. The possibilities of our time
are unlimited for advancing mankind through the use of
our resources in humarn and realistic ways.
We need to establish an environment in which
respect for institutions and theyvay they operate, for
the manner in which politicians go about their business,
leads to moderation and reason in public debate, where
violence and the extreme view are rejected, where rational
argument can predominate. We need to have it understood
that extreme ways of pursuing objectives degrude the
spirit of our democratic institutions. We need it understood
that progress and reform can be achieved through moderation,
that democracy is strong when people deal rationally with
each other, with compassion, and without hatred.
Universities do not exist in isolation from the
larger society. The values they teach or assume, the
knowledge they produce ' will profoundly affect the future,
and the way in which politicians, too, will be able to
carry out their task.
If the Chair endowed today can contribute
something to this broader purpose Australia all
Australians will be well satisfied indeed.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr President, to
present the endowment for this Chair.