PM Transcripts

Transcripts from the Prime Ministers of Australia

Hawke, Robert

Period of Service: 11/03/1983 - 20/12/1991
Release Date:
23/06/1988
Release Type:
Speech
Transcript ID:
7343
Document:
00007343.pdf 10 Page(s)
Released by:
  • Hawke, Robert James Lee
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA THE HON. R.J.L. HAWKE, AC, MP JOINT MEETING OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS WASHINGTON - 23 JUNE 1988

PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
THE HON. R. J. L. HIAWKE, AC, NP
JOINT MEETING OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS
WASHINGTON -23 JUNE 1988
Mr Speaker
Mr President
Members of Congress
Friends By inviting me to speak today to the Congress of the United
States you honour not only the Prime Minister of Australia
but all Australians.
Yours is an institution which, down through tho yoars, has
reflected the views and aspirations of the American people
and taken its character from their character. From you I
hear the voico of the Amer ican people and through you I am
able to address the American people. I am most grateful.
Mr Speaker,
The concept of government of the peo-ple, by the people and
for the people is as potent today as it was two centuries ago
when that remarkable collection of farmers, lawyers, traders
and intellectuals met in Philadelphia to craft a
constitution. Although democracy is not the guiding precept
of government in most nations, it is, assuredly, the guiding
precept in those nations which have nuccessfully delivered to
their citiz. ens a decent quality ot lite and a higih standard
of living. As we approach the 21st century no nation can
fail to note that ioxample. The wn; turn democracies can 1h'ad
with self conf idence and have no oitcd of self doubt. " 145;--

To be exposed to the vigour of tho Australian political
process is to realise that the underlying values of our
political system are identical to your own. To say that
there is debate in our Par3. iamont, our media and among the
Australian people would be roughly the equivalent ot saying
that when the Redskins and the Cowboys get together all thats
involved is a friendly game ol. football a fairly
considerable understatement.
it is common values,, going to the heart of our view of
mankind and of society, which form the enduring basis of our
relationship. Social and political circumstances may change;
governments of various persuasions come and go; economies
adjust and transform; inte'rnational conditions ovolvo.
American and Australian views and interests may at times
diverge. But it is the values of individual liberty,
equality before the law and the supremacy of people ovor the
State to which we can always with confidence return as a
powerful uniting force.
If it is this that gives our relationship its ultimate
strength and stability, it is individual contact between
Australians and Americans which provides the special warmth.
There is an ease of contact1 a roadiness to trust and an
enjoyment of each others company which readily transcends
differences.
With the benefit of 200 years of hindsight I can acknowledge
a debt which Australians owe Americans, although it must
hardly have seemed something to thank you for at the time.
In denying Britain a convenient repository here for the
convicts overflowing British jails, your revolutionary
forebears of six or seven generations ago provoked the
decision to send convicts to Australia instead. it you were
founded by the Pilgrim fathers, the founders of Australia
were decidedly the prodigal sons.
But when the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788,
its human cargo of convicts and prison guards in fact began
the creation not of a prison but of a nation.
Our harsh beginnings required all the same grit and
determination which marked the exploration, settlement and
development of the United States. Two centuries later in
this, our Bicentennial year we have, like you, a nation
proud of the multicultural diversity of. its people and of our
national achievements. Our country is tho s. ize of the
continental United States with, however, only ( Alin population
of Texas. 1 know Mr Speaker, that, at Texan you would aqrc. v
of course, that that. iu ai any country needs.
We have also built a nation more acuttly aware than ever
before of the precious heritaqu of. the original Australians,
the Aboriginal people who populated the land tor 40,000 years
before the European arrival. 5) 3

The American contribution to our Bicentennial celebrations
has added a special dimension to our relationship. If I were
to describe it in all its dotail I fear 1 would be accused,
at least under Senate rules, oi a filibuster.
Let me just say that we greatly we]. come the opportunity to
celebrate with a very special triend.
Mr Speaker,
It is because of the deep similarities between our two
nations that my predecessor, Australia's wartime Prime
Minister John Curtint, was able to declare in 1944 that
Australians looked forward to " an uninterrupted friendship"
with the people of the United States.
Curtin said those words in San Francisco, on his way to talks
with President Franklin Roosevelt concerning the conduct of
the war in which Australians and Americans wore fighting side
by side in defence of liberty in the Pacific.
I wish to state clearly that Australia and the United States
are not just friends; we are allies. when my Government,
assumed office 5 years ago we determined that the ANZUS
alliance clearly served Australian interests. That alliance
is stronger, and the commitment of Australians to it greater,
for its having been thought about rather than merely assumed.
We never wanted the alliance to be merely an inheritance from
a past era, a piece of history gathering dust, but a dynamic
arrangement serving the modern needs of both sides. And it
does. The United States has every right to see alliances as two way
streets, to expect that allies will carry their weight. I
assure you that Australia is and will remain such an ally.
We welcome your ships and aircraft to our ports and
airfields. There is intimate co-operation between us in
joint exercises, intelligence exchange, defence science and
technology, communications and logistics, and training. we
are one of the top cash purchasors of defence equipment from
the United States.
we host joint facilities important to the central strategic
balance between the United States and the Soviet Union,
facilities which have additional significance in the new
phase of East-West relations through their contribution to
arms control.
We support a strong American involvement in Asia and Iho
Pacific, and believe that your bases in the Philippinuu makin
a crucial contribution to uteurity and vonlfidetico in our
region. " 14 54

4
My Government has conducted the most thorough review of
Australian defence policy in many years. Our policy
emphasises the shouldering of our own responsibilities
defence sel1f reliance, modurnisation, regional commitment and
the development of strong, independent military capabilities
within the framework 01. the allianco.
our economic relationship with you is also vitally important.
You are our second largest trading partner, supplying over
201 of Australia's total imports and taking over 101 of our
total exports. The trade relationship is about 2 to 1 in
your favour. You are our largest single source of foreign
investment. As our economy divorsiiies away from primary
production and we strengthen our position as an exporter of
manufactures and services, the business opportunities for
America in Australia will expand still further. So again the
benefits are very much two-way.
Mr Speaker,
You can therefore see why we believe our relationship
entitles us to a fair go in our-trade with the United States
and in competition with the United States in third markets;
not, I emphasise, special favours, but a Lair go.
This is not the occasion to make detailed representations
about particular export commodities. But it would be wrong
of me, here in Congress, to pretend that within our otherwise
excellent relationship trade is not an area of very real
concern to us.
I should say to you, with the frankness which I trust is
permitted to a friend, that some of the decisions made in
Washington intended to defend the interests of Americans have
turned out to hurt Australians.
In particular Australia's primary producers are unsubsidised
and are among the most efficient in the world, and yet we are
finding ourselves squeezed out ot markets by practices which
distort prices and levels of production. in agriculture we
find ourselves caught in the crossfire of a destructive and
counter-productive traits-Atlantic subsidies war.
The statistics are graphic since your Export Enhancement
Program has been operating, America's share of the world
wheat market has jumped from 29 per cent to 43 per cent, the
Europuan Community's share hav. fallen only a little irom 17
per cent to 14 per cent, but Aust~ ralia' s share has slumped
from 20 per cent Lo 1. per cent.
The subsidies war is costing us atigd I mean both oi us not
just. economically. Thorn in. isl; o an impact, a damaging
impact, upon the perceptions which Australians have of the
major trading powers, the linitud iincluded. 7
1 7

Australians must not be given reason to believe that while we
are first class allies, we are, in trade, second class
friends. Trade issues must not be allowed to tester, or to
erode our wider friendship or alliance.
I want to emphasise Australia's appreciation of the way in
which we have been able to express our concerns to you. It
is important that when we knock on doors In this city.
including in Congress, those dooru continue to open.
For the test of good United States/ Australia relations is not
that as individuals or governments we agree on everything.
It is, rather, that we are in accord on matters of basic
principle and that where we disagroo we do so with civility
and respeattfor the others point of view. I am proud to say
that the relationship between our countries is now regarded
on. both sides as being as warm, close and productive as it
has ever been. And our relationship has a greater maturity
than it has ever had before.
Mr Speaker,
All of us sense, I think, that the world we grew up with,
whose shape emerged after the Second World War, is changing
in some fundamental ways. New centres of economic power are
emerging; there is less rigidity in the Eastern bloc; the
familiar pattern of East-West strategic competition is often
overlaid by a new pattern of economic competition within the
West. Though we cannot yet soo the fine detail, the blurred
outlines of the 21st century now only twelve years away
are becoming sharper..
What sort of world will it be? When I look at the
international environment, when 1 talk to the leadership of
major powers like the United States, the Soviet Union and
China or countries in Australia's Asia-Pacific ioighbourhood,
I am generally encouraged by what 1 see. There have been few
enough times in recent decades when it has been possible to
permit ourselves a degree of optimism about the world's
future. But this, I think, Is such a time.
The Soviet Union is undergoing far reaching changes. The
domestic reforms introduced by General Secretary Gorbachev
are the most hopeful sign in that part of the world in the
period since 1917. Where they will eventually lead whether
they will even succeed we cannot tell.. L~ ike (.(! otioCmic
reformers Mr Gorbachov faces the classic dilemmna that the
pain always comes bviore the benefits. Hut the direction ini
which he is heading is encouraging. " 14 5I

Certainly we must withhold iinal judgement about the extent
of change in Soviet foreign policy. We want to see deeds not
just words. But there is unquestionably ground for hope. We
are surely better off with a Soviet Union which has accepted
that it must get out of Afghanistan than we were with the
Soviet Union which originally invaded that country.
We have seen the first ever arms control agreement which
makes real cuts in the nuclear arsenals of the two super
powers. We see and strongly support prospects for
further reductions. The West is now engaging the East in
dialogue across a wide range and at the highest leadership
levels, but not on the basis of naivety or weakness. I pay
tribute to the role which President Reagan has played with
the invaluable support of the Congress at the centre stage
of this process.
China's continuing economic growth and its leaders'
commitment to modernisation mark the emergence of that
country from a barren period of upheaval and introspection.
This is a development of historic importance, tremendously
beneficial to regional and global stability.
Significant parts of the third world, particularly in Asia
and the Pacific, are experiencing dynamic economic growth.
In parts of the third world there have, too, bon significant
advances for democracy. We acknowledge in particular the
victory over autocracy in the Philippines, and democratic
reform in the Republic of Korea.
And so, Mr Speaker, although competition between nations and
alliance systems will not disappear we believe in our own
values too strongly for that we can be allowed to hope that
we are entering a period when such competition will be
channelled into loss dangerous paths.
But no man or woman who has lived in the 20th century can
fail to understand how quickly, and how disastrously, change
can come. We still face many dangers and challenges.
Intractable and tragic conflicts persist in the Middle East
and Southern Africa; famine, war and disease still haunt
many parts of the third world; hundreds of millions of
people lack the freedom and human rights we Lake for granted
in our countries; recent events have even disrupted the
relative tranquility of the South Pacific.
So we must a] wayn remembuir t. hat iot. hinqg i! preordain id. The
future doe not ju; t. happon Lo t; We make the iuture. And
if we are to make it well, we need to remain engaged with the
world, willing to struggle with its problems and to take our
part in solving them. We live iii intirdp,! ndotnt world and
we don't have the practical uptioti or ind md thi moral
option of sittinq it out. I

That is why Austra] Ja concerns i~ tqelf with issues like arms
control and the obscenity of apartheid in South Africa. it
is also why we are members oi the alliance.
Mr speaker,
Some Americans seem to be apprehensive about the changes thoy
see around them in the world.
This is not surprising. Changes which alter familiar, and
comfortable, relativities in economic and political power and
familiar patterns of behaviour will always cause uncertainty
and sometimes resentment. And the international system as we
know it is very largely an American creation. The
institutions, alliances and programs which characterise the
system emerged from the generosity ot thi~ s country and the
farsightedness of your statesmen, including many members of
the Congress. The World Bank, the Marshal Plan, NATO, ANZUS,
modern multilateral diplomacy: all of thorn are, in part, and
in many cases in large part, your creation. We were all the
beneficiaries of that impulse towards internationalism.
So where change has come, it has often been because of the
success of American policies, because you have achieved what
you set out to do. It is because your policies worked that
Japan, Western Europe, the Republic of Korea and others are
now strong and prosperous.
In any case particular global changes have often been
overstated. Portraits of a ' declining' Unitod States have
drawn upon beguilingly simplo but very misleading indices of
comparison, whether of GNP or net indebtedness. Moreover the
trends have been portrayed as continuing inexorably. That is
nonsense, and un-American in its determinism. With the right
policies, this country will remain the world's largest and
moot important economy as far ahead as I or anyone else can
se.' I put it to you therefore that we need not and must not
pormit our view of the world to be conditioned by some kind
of creeping pessimism and dulling fatalism. As analysin that
would be deeply flawedf; as a policy prescription,
potentially disastrous. Put bluntly, the United States and
other Western nations, esp~~ cially the major actors on the
world stage, must not behave in way,, that could turn some of
the presently fashionable theories of decline into self
fulfilling prophecies.
Mr Speaker,
Nowhere is this more clear than at Lhoe vji. l intersection of
international economics and inLtilat. iorial utrategy. 7 4 U_

The cost of failure to resolve present economic tensions In
the world would be measurable not only in dollars and cents.
It would be measurable in tho acccntuation oL destructive
differences within the western alliance, and third world
instability. we must understand that t. Lronger world economic
and trade growth is a fundamental foreign policy objective.
It is ultimately a national security objective.
The greatest obstacle to that objective is the persistence of
large current account imbalances in the three major
economies; the United States, Japan and West Germany. This
remains true despite certain trade statistics beginning to
move in the right direction. The origin of the trade
imbalances lies in turn, to a significant extent, in tho
divergent fiscal and monetary policies pursued by the United
States on the one hand and Japan and West Germany on the
other through the 1980s.
Now I know that these issues of economic and trade policy are
contentious ones within the-United States, including within
this Congress. I have no intention of taking sides. You
have enough political candidates already in 1988.
But they are issues with demonstrable impact upon, and
therefore clear relevance to, other countries, Australia
included. It is in that spirit that I ask you to take my
comments. The inescapable reality is that adjustment of economic
imbalances will occur. It is only a question of how they
occur. The adjustment can be forced by market pressures upon
reluctant governments or it can come through deliberate
strategies to enhance world growth and maximise the
individual and collective trading opportunities of all
countries. It is clearly in the interests of all of us that the world's
major economies opt for strategies of the latter kind. And
this means a deliberate decision by them, the United States
included. to reverse the corruption I can use no lesser
word of the world trading system, combined with an equally
deliberate commitment to make appropriate adjustments in
domestic economic policies.
I am not saying that the burden ol. adjustme'nt rests solely on
the United States and I am not -sayitiy that you have no reason
for frustration and complaint about the trade practices ot
others. I can understand your objections to Lte barriers the
United States faces to iL!; exportsi in certain markets.
Australians can understand the pirub~) tms precisely because
we share them.
In the Uruguay roun~ d of multilateral trade neqotiations. the
vehicle is at hand to noqotiate a new, fairer and liboralined
environment for world trade. ' 7 It) 1

9.
This crucial negotiation confronts us with a test of our
collective common sense; whether we will rucognise that any
attempt to solve our national trading problems at the expense
of others, rather than through pursuit of the common
wellbeing. must ultimately be self destructive.
It is this same enlightened self interest which dictates that
we accept rather than oppose the need for adjustment in our
own economies. What a sad irony if, at the very moment in
history when we are seeing the belated recognition by the
planned economies of the need to accept the relevance of
market signals in their decision making, the Western nations
were to try to ignore and distort those signals, both at home
and in the international marketplace.
In Australia we have practised the doctrine ot economic
adjustment, not merely preached it.
We have pursued the domestic economic policies necessary to
cure our own external imbalance. We have converted a
prospective fiscal deficit amounting to 5 percent of GDP just
five years ago to a prospective, surplus of 1 percent or more
in the coming fiscal year. We have implemented reforms to
deregulate industry, lift productivity and innovation,
promote an export culture and encourage foreign investment on
fair terms. We are prepared to show the lead on tariff
reform. We will be cutting tariffs by about 30 percent on
average over, the next four years. Much larger reductions in
protection will occur for the most highly protected
industries.
Now you are practising politicians and so am 1. I understand
constituency interests. 1 know that the adjustment process
is not easy. But it must be done.
The costs of failure will be very high; the rewards of
success enormous.
Speaking to you as the closest of friends and allies,
therefore, my message is that United Status' action now can
play a decisive role in the future shape of the! world economy
if you grasp the challenge of adjuutmont at home and drive
with determination tor the liberalisation of trade on a
global basis. America cani do the world, and itnnfl, no
greater service at this time.
Mr Speaker,
I have not tho slightest doubt oL the unique capability oL
the United States for leader; hip, whether in wantaging the
pivotal relationship wit. h the Soviet Union, mainLaining the
health of tho western al] iaticu, forqing further agreemouts in
the essential area of arms : ont. rol. sceking solutions to
regional issuen such as the Middle East. a~ td Southern Airica,
or resolving international economic problems. ' Y/ i~ U)

If this sounds liko a tall order, and an unfair bur * den, we do
not look to tho United States to solve all the-se problems
alone or to mount the effort without the help of frionds. We
ask only that the United States continue to contribute the
strength, persistence, creativity and breadth ol vision which
to the immense benefit of mankind have boon the hallmarks
of the American character.
I ami confidont that it will be so. No nation in the world
surpasses the United States in justifiable pride in past
achievements, confidenco that problems can be overcome and
contagious optimism about the future. Neither oL us would
claim that our nation is without blemish. Neither of us
would claim that governments of our countries have always
chosen wisely or acted woll. But I do !; ay this: that when
all is said and done the United States of America is a great
and a good country; that the people of the United States of
America are a great and a good people; and that in Australia
you will have in the years ahead the best kind of friend
independent to be sure, forthright in defence of our own
interests certainly, but also firmly supportive and deeply
proud of our rich and enduring relationship.
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