EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
PRIME MAINISTER
FOR MEDIA ' FRIDAY, 19 MARCH 1-982
THE INAUGURAL EDMUND BARTON LECTURE:
THE STRENGTH OF LIBERALISM
I am honoured to have been asked to deliver the first Edmund
Barton Memorial Lecture. I congratulate the Liberal Club
of the University of Sydney for establishing the lecture.
Edmund Barton deserves to be remembered, not only as Australia's
first Prime Minister, but as one of the founding fathers of
the Australian nation. In establishing this lecture the
Sydney University Liberal Club is drawing attention to one
of the greatest achievements of the Liberal movement in
Australia the Federation of the six colonies into one
vital and dynamic nation.
Barton was one of that select group of outstanding men who
had the vision, the character, and the persistence to bring
this nation of ours into existence: to draw up a
constitution which would make possible the coming together of
states, and the skill to put in place the first functioning
Commonwealth Government. It was Barton the acknowledged
leader of the Federal movement who made the famous declaration:
" For the first time in the world's history, there will be a nation
for a continent and a continent for a nation"
It was Barton's Government which established the machinery of
the Commonwealth of Australia itself. It is a measure of
Barton's quality that he had such regard from the outstanding
men in the Federal movement that he was regarded as the
logical and obvious man to first lead the new nation.
A modern Australian Prime Minister cannot but regard with awe
a man who could lead a Cabinet * which contained six past or
present state premiers William Lyne of New South Wales,
Sir George Thurner of~ Victoria, Charles Kingston of So. uth
Australia, Neil Lewis of Tasmaniaf Sir John Forrest of Western
Australia and Sir James Dickson of Queensland, and what
is more, encouraged them to agree to work together to
build up a Federal Government.
Barton was a man who believed in rational and sound argument
rather than the emotive displays of the platform orator.
As a leader of the Federal movement, Bar ton's--techniques
are described by his biographer as " quiet organ isation,
persuasion~ and argument". These techniques were effective c 2)
-2-
in realising the vision which moved Barton through the great
constitutional conventions. Barton's was a quiet passion, but
a passion it was nevertheless. As he said during a speech in
the New South Wales House of Assembly in 1891: " There is
one great thing which ranks above any others in my political
life, and will activate me until it is accomplished, and this
is the question of the union of the Australian colonies" 1
Barton's Liberal ambitions are reflected in the program
his Government presented to the first Parliament. It included:
federal old-age pensions;
a Commonwealth revenue tariff;
protection for-Australian industry;
a federal conciliation and arbitration law;
a transcontinental railway;
manhood and womanhood suffrage;
establishment of the High Court; and
the Commuonwealth Public Service.
With the exception of legislation for the White Australia Policy
which has now passed into history, we see in the legislative
program of Barton's government the ideals of a strong,
independent, developing Australia in which there was a
genuine concern for those in need. And the same ideals, have
continued to-motivate Liberal governments to the present time.
Some of the Barton government's legislative objectives took
several years to achieve but the lasting triumph of that
first Parliament was the building of the federal machinery
which had been the objective of the visionary movement for
a single Australian nation.
In 1903 Barton left the Prime Ministership to become a member
of the first bench of the High Court. It is a further
illustration of Bartonds stature that before resigning he offered
the Chief Justiceship to Sir Samuel Griffith, who accepted.
It is my belief that the Liberal movement, of which Barton
and Deakin, Australia's first two Prime Ministers, were
then the leaders has been the great constructive political
movement in Australia's history.
Not only was it responsible for the birth of Australia as a
nation, but it has been responsible for establishing our
institutions of government the Federal Parliament, the High
Court, and the Commonwealth Public Service, and for most of
the great achieveme-n ts which Australian governments have set
in place: ./ 3
-3
the arbitration system
the old age and invalid pension . schemes
child endowment and family allowances
health insurance
the Grants Commission and the financial agreement.
with the States
restrict~ ive practices legislation
But the claim of the Liberal movement in Australia to be the
great constructive political force does not rest only, or
even primarily, on these achievements impressive though
they are. The greatest contribution of the Liberal
movement to -the building of modern Australia has been its
ability to define and keep to a role for government which
permits the Australian people to express in action their
values and their abilities.
Liberalism has recognised what the Socialist Labor Party
has never recognised that Australia can be great, can be
strong, prosperous and humane only if the capacities
of the Australian people are used to the full. That does
not mean policies which lead to an inexorably rising tax
burden, constantly expanding bureaucracy, a growing
centralisation of power in Canberra, an ever heavier
and more costly burden of regulation the hall marks of
Labor's approach to the solution of any and every problem.
It does not mean the suspicion and envy directed towards
every expression of enterprise, achievement, and excellence
so characteristic of Labor's socialists whose ideal is a
nation where' equality means conformity and the Labor Party
and the trade unions reign over all.
Liberals, by contrast, have pursued policies designed to
let Australians as consumers express themselves through
free choices in the market place, streamline and make
more efficient the federal bureaucracy, encourage the
development, capacities and efficiency of the States,
reduce, wherever clear benefits are to be gained, the
burden of regulation, simplify and lighten the burden of
taxes, protect the public interest against the power of
sectional interestg, protect the rights of individuals against
both governments and powerful private interests.
Each of these policies has had as its aim the unleashing.
and mobilisinig of the talents and abilities of the Australian
people themselves, in the sure knowledge that this is the
one way in which Australia can provide a decent life for
all its people, maintain its independence and be strong enough
to make a constructive conLribution to the massive problems
of poverty, disease and oppression which exist in other countries. ./ 4
-4
The constructive achievements of Liberalism grow out of
a vision of what this country can be, and the belief that
it is only through Liberal policies that this vision can be
realised. Australians now find themselves, in a world in
which the strength that Liberalism can bring to a country
is more needed than ever. The world situation is
troubling on at least two counts. In the first place,
there is the relentless, militarism and opportunism
of the Soviet Union. The Soviet push concerns not only
the West but Third World states in and outside the Commonwealth,
and now other communist countries in Eastern Europe and China.
In Poland, and in the Soviet Union itself, the reasons for
Russia's reliance on force and coercion is apparent. Russia's
rulers are unwilling to accommodate change. Their economic
policies are impoverishing the communist nations precisely
because they crush that enterprise and initiative which the
institutions of the West encourage and on which Western
prosperity is built. Out of this impoverishment arise the
forces for change, demanding greater freedom. Poland,
before martial law, showed that evolution towards greater
freedom could occur in communist states.
But Russia's rulers are far too rigid to allow such evolution
to take place. In their inability to bend, they run the
risk of breaking when the winds of change blow strongeras
they surely will.
The second aspect of the international situation which gi ' ves
rise to concern is the world recession. Between 1963 and
1970, while the volume of world output grew at an average
rate of the volume of world exports grew by 8.6%
per annum. But during the 1970s, the growth of world output
and exports both significantly slowed and as a result
unemployment in many countries started to rise.
Even before the first oil price increase in 1973, inflation
had become more or less endemic in most industrialised
countries. Excessive growth of government spending and
inappropriate use of deficit financing played a major part
in this. The oil price increases compounded these problems,
making growing unemployment and growing inflation the order
of the day. Even then, most countries did not recognise what
was needed in terms of restraint of government spending, in.
terms of firmness of monetary policy and in terms of wage
restraint. Although there are now signs in a number of countries of a
determination to pursue more economically realistic policies,
natural ecoromric processes have run-atheir course. In Europe
and North Amterica, economic growth has virtually come to
a standstill. in the last two years and unemployment is
high, and rising. In France unemployment is 8 in the
USA it is in the United 1lingdom it is 11.7%. Because
of the interdependence, betwecn our trading countries Australia
cannot help but be affected by these trends. Nevertheless
Australia is able to regard the future with a confidence
not possible in some oter countries because we are now moving
into the seventh year of a period in which constructive liberalism
has once again guided national policy.
This inaugural Edmund Barton lecture provides an opportunity
to set out the ideals for Australia which motivate Liberalism
today to record the practical expression of those ideals in
concrete policies, and to sketch out some of the implications
of those ideals for the future.
1. The first ideal is one I have already mentioned, but
which I refer to again here, because it is at the very
heart of Liberalism in this country: a belief in Australia,
in Australians and in what the Australian people & an
achieve when government permits them to strive after
. the things they value, rather than trying to impose
some political ideology onto them.
It is impossible to think of a field in which Australians
have not recorded outstanding achievement, but there is one
field where achievement underpins opportunities in most
others the field of economic life. Government can and should
encourage and. provide incentives but excessively big government
can cause damage where it means to help.
our policy of' rei ning in government has had pro foundly positive:
objectives to * make room for the private initiatives so vital
to increase Economic growth, job opportunities, and real
incomes. one fundamental lesson can be drawn from the
experience of the last six years. We have shown that economic
growth can arid does take place when government expenditure
is reined in. More than that, economic growth in modern
circumstances requires restraint in government spending.
Until we argued this case in 1975 the Labor Party had
deceived itself, and attempted to deceive the Australian
people that it was government spending that stimulated
economic actiLvity.-/ 6
-6
In 1975, we set out to show the fallacy, the two fallacies,
in Labor's vi. ew of the worla. What had been forgotten, and
is still forgotten today by Labor, is that higher Government
spending can only come about in two ways; by higher taxes,
or be deficits and printing money.
The first leads to higher . wage demands to compensate : for
the higher taxes, stifles initiative and weakens the incentives
so essential to private enterprise and economic growth.
The second also leads to inflation and the two combined, taxes
and inflation, destroy profits, capital and jobs.
In doing so, such policies actually destroy growth, reduce real
incomes, and impoverish-the country. That was their effect
between 1972-75 and that would be their effect if ever that
philosophy were to guide government in the future.
In the last three years Australia has swum against the tide
of the world recession. Our economy has grown, real incomes
have grown and almost 400,000 new jobs were createa in the
three years to the December quarter, almost 90% of them in the
private sector.
This has taken place at a time when a tighter rein has been
kept on cjovernment spending in Australia than in probably
any other industrial country.
over the last six years Federal Government spending in AustraliLa
has grown in real terms by about 1.5% per annum, a rate
much less than growth in the economy as a whole. Over the same
time the economy has grown by about 2.5% We have shown the
key requirement for growth is not government pump printing, but
the creation of conditions in which business has the confidence
to invest, arnd in which individuals have the confidence to
spend. Australia faces the world recession with an economy which i s
far stronger than in 1975, in which growth is soundly based,
in which inflationary pressures are less, in which exploration
and development is pushing ahead at historically high levels,
aFnd in which the huge domestic deficit left by Labor has at last
been eliminated.
It is of the greatest importance for Australia that these gains
should be maintained and strengthened. That we should redouble
our determination to live within our means as a nation, and
reject the fantasy that letting spending run out once more will
stimulate the economy.
In the last si. x years a massive renovation in the economy ha~ s
taken place, and the cracks in the foundations repairedl. Sound
Iovernment has made it possible by unleasing the abilities and
enterprise of the Australian peopl. e themselves. / 7
7
2. A second ideal which motivates Liberals is a belief in
excellence.
We believe it is in the interests of everyone if individuals
are encouraged to achieve to their utmost according to their
abilities.
Many of our policies have expressed this ideal. In fact we
hav. e given such high priority to the pursuit of excellence that
there are a number of areas where we have actually increased
spending, within the context of our overall policy of restraint.,
to achieve this goal.
Excellence has had priority and we have transferred resources
to where excellence can be encouraged. The Government has
fully backed the great revival in Australian films. In sport,
we established and have funded the Australian Institute of Sport.
In medical research, NHMRC grants have increased from $ 14 million
to $ 26 million in the last two years. We have just announced
grants for centres of excellence in Australian universities.
Beyond this focussed support for excellence, in the field of
tertiary education more broadly, we have held a tight rein on
spending. Believing that after the rapid expansion of the
sixties and early seventies, a period of consolidation and
internal re-adjustment is warranted.
Here our priorities also show in the pattern of spending.
We have emphasised the expansion of opportunities for young
Australians to acquire the technical and other skills they
need to take full advantage of the resurgence of enterprise
and development our policies have encouraged. Since 1975,
Commonwealth spending on technical and further education and
on training schemes has increased by 83.2% in real terms.
3. A third belief which underlies the policies of modern
Liberalism and which has found expression in many ways is the
belief that the cultural and ethnic diversity of Australia-can
be a souirce of great strength and creativity.
This ideal has led us to try to change attitudes and perceptions
of Australia born ill the old days of A~ nglo Saxon dominance,
and to put in their place the ideal of a multicultural Austral~ ia.
Recognising the value of diversity is one of the main supports
of the Liberal belief in freedom and is in no way incompatible
with a common commitment to Australia on behalf of all Australians,
whatever their country of origin.
The ideal of the multicultural society has been expressed in
many ways in our policies. I mention here thc range of policies
implemented under the Galbally Report on migrant serviceswhh
we commissioned the establishmeiit of the Institute of Mlulticu] Aural Affair
./ 8
8-
which is helping people to understand the value of cultural
and ethnic diversity in Australian life, the establishment
of multicultural television, immigration from a
wider range of countries, including Asian countries;. the
National Aboriginal Conference and the Aboriginal Development
Commission, which are doing so much to promote the interest of
the Aboriginal members o~ f our community and self-management by
Aboriginals of their affairs.
I believe the scope of our policies in this area is wi ' thout
parallel in the world and Australia is undoubtedly deriving
great strength from the rich cultural resources now to be
found among the Australian people.
4. A fourth ideal which has motivated this Government is a
strong and safe Australia.
Strength and. safety are to a significant extent, of course,
functions of' defence and foreign policy. Our commitment to
the Western alliance, and to the modernisation and build-up
of our independent military forces is well known. We are
now in the middle of a defence re-equipment program costing
more than $ 5 billion. our priority here is shown by the fact
that defence! is one of the very few areas of the Budget that
is increasing substantially each year.
Beyond defence forces and alliances, our security as a nation
depends to a great extent on our unity at home and our ability
to arrive at a common assessment of international events.
It is not necessary for a government and an opposition to
agree on everything for there to be a substantial bi-partisanship
in foreign and defence policy.
I believe it is a matter of genuine national concern that the
Opposition alone among major Western socialist parties has
chosen to denigrate peace-keeping efforts'in the Middle East
( and to call Mr Begin the greatest threat to world peace).-
That it derides the Commonwealth, which represents a quarter
of the world's people, and attacks aspects of our relations withthe
United States.
The influence of the Socialist Left with its P. L. O. sympathies
on Labor foreign and defence policies is clear and damaging,
and has produced a divergence between the parties which is
unnecessary and troubling.
Our commitment to a safe and secure Australia is linked
to a fifth ideal which has motivated the policies of this
Government. The ideal of an Australia-which can do something
positive to help in relieving the terrible conditions of poverty,
disease and oppression wh~ ich exists for hundreds of millions of
the worl~ d's people. / 9
9-
In the last six years Australia has been , a leader among
industrialised countries in getting a fairer deal for developing
countries in world markets. It was Australia that helped break
the dead lock on the common fund. Through the Commonwealth
of Nations, Australia has been a leading source of initiatives
including the investigations into protection and into North-South
negotiating processes.
The historic Melbourne declaration camne at a strategic moment
last year before the Cancun Conference.
Australia has also become known as one of the leading opponents*
of racism, in South Africa and elsewhere. At home the Government
has bean a consistent and strong supporter of Aboriginal
land rights and of Aboriginal self -mangement. At home and
abroad every action of this Government has been aimed at
strengthening human rights and combatting racism. A Minister
who sought to qualify the Government's stand on these matters
was immediately dismissed.
That our constant pursuit of these ideals has had a great
effect on the understanding of Australia overseas was evident.
in comments made at the Commonwealth Heads of Government
meeting in Melbourne.
I will quote only one of these, the comment of President
Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: " Before this Government", said
President Eaunda,
" I personnally did not know what Australia was except,
as a country where there was indifference to suffering
people of th " e rest of the world. I am being very frank,
you l. ave brought us to an Australia that we never knew
of dEcent human beings an Australia with which we are
very proud to be associated".
Australia's capacity to help people in other countries as well
as at home is very much related to our economic strength. The
solution to proverty is not higher taxes and bigger bureaucracy,
it is economic growth and a proper concentration of help on those
in need.-
6. This brings me to a sixth ideal -reflected in the priori-ties
of modern Liberalism the ' ideal of an Australia where
economic strength enables ever improving Ipro vision for the
disadvantaged and those in needi.
As Liberali[ sm in Australia established the system of federal old
age and invalid pensions, modern Liberalism remains committed to
a strong and effective system of social security.
Our priorities are indicated by the fact that social security
and welfare spending is the largest single item in our Budget,
and amounts 1to $ 11.4 billion.
Despite economic conditions and despite the great increase in
social security and welfare spending in the early seve ' nties
we have actually increased the total real level of spending in
this area ( even excluding family allowances and unemployment
benefits) while concentrating assistance more on those in need.
The replacement of the tax deduction for dependent children
by the family assistance scheme was of direct benefit to
300,000 low income families and 800,000 children.
The income testing of the increase in the pension for those
over 70 is directly helpful in securing the concentration on
resources of those in need.
We have given particular priority to helping the handicapped
and disabled and in the last six years assistance has increased
34% in real -terms.
The principle of concentrating assistance on those in real need
is also expressed in the health insurance scheme, which provides
for completely free health care for three million Australians,
while giving incentives to those on higher incomes to insure
for themselves.
Australia has one of the most comprehensive income support
systems in the world. Practically everyone, other than those
who are able, buE choo'se not, to work are guaranteed an income.
This system has always been supported by Liberal governments and
always will be. Its maintenance and imiprovement has been, and
remains, one of the top priorities of miodern Australian Liberalism.
7. Liberal programs have expressed another ideal which is now
added to the list: The ideal of'an Australia which is
governed in the interests . of all,* in the public interest.,
and not on behalf of special-interests.
The pressure on government by special interests for privileges
is unceasing. A government which believes in ever more
regulation cr ever higher spending is particularly vulnerable
to such pressures. By conceding a privilege in the form of
restrictive legislation or a new concession, such a government
not only satisfies its philosophy but gains a client. In the
end the public interest is submerged as spending gets out of
control and restrictive regulations multiply inefficiency.
Most interests argue, and believe, that they are acting in the
public interest, but the truth is they are often acting in their
own. / 11
11
While we have been uncommonly successful in holding spending ill
check, these pressures remain and resisting them has I belive,
been one of the real achievenents of the Government.*
I believe we have had real success in spreading a greater
sense of realism in the community about what is possible and
desirable. A government which does not support and strengthen this sense
of -realism not only imperils its own survival but the health
and well-bein: g of the country it tries to govern.
Labor is of course, particularly vulnerable here, not only
because demands for more money and restrictive regulation are
music to its ears, but because it is actually the political
agent for one of the most powerful interests in the country,
the trade union movement.
8. This brings me to another of the ideas we have sought to
realise in government the ideal of a society in which
there is a balance in the power of the large private
institutions of business and trade unions, in which neither
is strong enough to dominate, and in which both are checked
by the power of government, the rights and freedoms of
individuals, and their own good sense and co-operative attitudes.
Up to 1975 Australia saw a great increase in the power of trade
unions in our society.
Under Labor, Government became a partisan on behalf of the
trade union movement, supporting massive wage increases and
the obstruct-ion of business profits, and granting new legal
privileges t~ o the union movement.
The Government believes that the excessive power of unions
relative to other interest groups in Australia was one of the
deep-seated sources of cost push inflation in Australia during
the 1970 Unions were encouraged to seek, and had the power7
to obtain wage increases far above those the economy could
afford. Righting the balance is a complex task because power has many
facets and sources. The ideal of achieving a better balance
has been expressed in many policies. Some have sought to
increase the relative Power of the arbitral authorities and the
courts, Some to increase the ability of union members to choose
leaders who will express more accurately the views of the rank
and file, s; omc to diminish the ability of unions to coerce
individua. members, non-members and third parties to disputes,
! some to incrcease the relative powers of employers in disputes,
and some to expand the relative powers of government in disputes.
12
The list of measures aiming at these objectives includes the
Industrial Relations Bureau to better sec~ re the enforcement
of aw ards and to act as an ombudsman, secret postal ballots
in union elections conducted by the electoral office, the
concept of conscientious objection to union membership, the
C. E. E. P. Act.
We are presently proposing measures to give employers the
right to stand down employees who cannot be usefully employed
due to industrial action, encourage-the formation of enterprise
and industry unions, and to assist voluntary unionism.
We are also addressing a number of industrial relations issuesin
co-operation with the States, including the options to
facilitate handling of demarcation disputes and the development
of a complementary industrial relations system.,
It is, of co~ urse, entirely predictable that Labor as a special
interest party has undertaken to repeal much of our legislation,
and remove t~ he checks and balances we are building into the*
system in the public interest.
A future Labor Government would mean a massive turning back of
the clock and the shelving of the ideal of re-asserting a
proper balance between the large institutions of Australian
society. In the Liberal view it is only under such conditions of
balance that we will see conflict more often replaced with a
spirit of compromise and conciliation. Such a willingness
to compromise and** co-operate is necessary if, for example,
there are to be realistic prospects of extending collective
bargaining in Australia.
9. Strengthening -the rights of individuals against large
organisations whether business, union or government -has
long been a Liberal ideal.
Apart from the measures in the trade union field I have mentioned,~
we have taken a number of historic measures designed~ to protect
individual rights.-
We set up the Comnionwealth Ombudsman and the Administrative
Appeal Trih-unal. We established last year the Human Rights
Commission which will help promote the observance of human
rights and our Freedom of Information Legislation will be
the first to come into place nationally in a Westminster system.
Our belief in ensuring that right-s and freedom are protected
and power is decentralised has particular bearing on our ideals
in relation to the structure of government itself.
Our ideal ' s clovernment which is strong, efficient, economical
and effective, but not centralised in Canberra; not bureaucratic
or dorainee:-ing. ./ 14
13
I mention two of the major ways in which we have given practical
expression to this ideal for government iri the last six years.
one is by returning to the states significant independent powers
in financial matters, and in the control of offshore lands.
Between 1975-76 and 1981~-82 the proportion of untied Commonwealth
payments to the States has risen from 51% to over 65%, and the
proportion of total Commonwealth Budget outlays accounted for
by-untied payments to the States has also risen.
The other has been through the most extensive ministerial review
of the functions of the Commonwealth Government in the history,
of Australia. The Review of Commonwealth Functions.
As a result the number of Commonwealth employees under staff
ceilings is now actually smaller than it was six years ago,
and many activities previously undertaken by Government are
now contracted out to private enterprise.
It is characteristic of Liberalism that it shoul * d always be
prepared to review the achievements of the past and to adjust
them to modern requirements.
It is evident from what I have said that Liberals in Australia
have aspirat~ ions for the country which are by no means fully
realised, but which are better and better realised as Liberal
programs of reform are developed and implemented.
The historic commi tment of the Liberal movement in Australia
to moderate and evolutionary reform has been an essential
element in putting together its record of constructive achievement.
The commitment of Edmund Barton to high ideals realised by
" iquiet organistion, persuasion and argument" epitomises the
Liberal approach to reform.
It is a realistic approach which builds on the achivement of the
past, while striving towards ideals yet unrealised.
It is appropriate in this inaugural Barton lecture to make a
few comments on reforms of the Constitution itself.
Liberal Governments have a good record of constitutional * refcrm,
Of the 17 constitutional amendments put before the people by
Liberal giovernments since Federation, seven have been successful,
and the Government I lead has introduced more successful amendments
to the Constitution than any Government in Australia's
history. I cannot refrai. n from saying that Labor's record has been
remarkably poor. Of 19 amendments placed before the people,
by Labor, only one has succeeded. There is a reason for this
contrast. / 13
b 14
Successful constitutional reform requires that the proposed
amendments express, or are not obnoxious to, the values of the
Australian pe! ople. The Australian people value the regime
of decentralised Federal Government bequeathed to us by
Barton and his colleagues, and have rejected again and again
Labor's proposals to concentrate more power in Canberra's hands.
Effective constitutional change can of course come about by
judicial interpretation and by new financial arrangements
between Commonwealth and'States.
Through deliberate amendment and by other techniques the
Australian Constitution has actually evolved so that it
differs in significant ways from the original intent of
the founders.. In effect, it is not the saime instrument now
as it was in 1900 because of the development that has taken
place. It iS proper that our Constitution should evolve
and that it should continue to evolve. It is unrealistic
to think it can change in any other way.
S There is no lorospect of a new constitution by 1988 as some
are suggesting. Nor is a totally new constitution in any
way required. The effort to achieve such an objective is
indeed one of the most divisive proposals that can be
contemplated in Australia. There are many real and pressing
problems and choices which Australia faces in the next few
years a ne-w constitution is not among them. It is a matter
which can only distract the nation's attention from issues of
substance. Alfred Deakin wrote of the immense di f ficulties in
producing the origjinal Constitution:
" Regarded as a whole, it is safe to say that if ever
anything ought to be styled providential it is the
extraordinary** combination of circumstances, per sons
and their-most intricate interrelations of which the
Commonwe~ dth is about to become the crown. To say it
was fated to be is to say nothing to the purpo~ ie. Any
one of a thousand minor incidents might have deferred
it for years or generations
" To thcse who watched its inner workings, followed its
fortunEts as if their own, and lived the life of devotion
to it day by day, its actual accomplishment must always
appear to have been secured by a series of miracles"
( Federal Story, p. 173)
In its day, the federal movement dominated Australian politics;.
We are fortunate that the founding fathers were so skilled
in their task that they achieved the intricate balance of
circumstance! s which our Constitution contains, and which
has been so instrumental in making Australia a stable,
prosperous and progressive nation. There are too many
other important issues for constitutional change to loom
so large again. A new constitution is hot a. priority nor
a goal for Liberalism in Australia. Our goal is a continuance
of the process of evolutionary constitutional reform where
change is needed.
15
12. This brings me to the last of ideals we have sought to put
into practice in the last six years the ideal of an
Australia which has the foresight to conserve its heritage
and to hand on what is of value to future generations.
In referring to conservation we automatically think of the
natural environment and our historic heritage. Our record
in conserving Australia's -magnificent natural heritage takes
second place to no Australian government, federal or State
at any time. Fraser Island, Kakadu National Park, the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park, anti-whaling legislation and many
other initiatives all stand as symbols of a practical ideal
realised, despite opposition in some instances from selfish
and powerful private interests.
But there is more to our historic heritage than our natural
environment, or historic artifacts and buildings. Our most
valuable inheritance from the past, and the most valuable
bequest we can make to the future is the heritage of humane
values and ideals, passed on to us by men such as Barton and
Deakin, and passe ' d down through their families by all those
who came to Australia seeking freedom, opportunities, and
self-respect for themselves and their families.
Those values are our real treasure. Tens of thousands of
Australians have died to defend them, and if we were ever
to lose them it would be because one generation failed to
re-commit itself to them. We who practice our policies in
the Liberal tradition believe that it is Liberalism whose
ideals and understandings can best realise those values.
Our political opponents believe otherwise. Because each
Australian generation has re-dedicated itself to those
fundamental values, and has passed on that vision of Australia,
you have the right to decide who is right, and you also have
the obligation to make a decision which will preserve for
your children the same right.