PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVU EMBAGOE .1 4N. Lf
SPEECH BYt THE HONOURABLE R J L HAWKE AC MP
PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
AT A BANIQUE IN HIS HONOUR IN HARARE,
23 OCTOBER 1991-ZIMBABWE
Your Excellency President Robert Mugabe
The First Lady Amal. MIugabe
Honourable Vice-President,
Honourable Ministers,
Your Excellencies,
Your Worship the Metyor of Harare,
Ladies and Gentlemon,
Yesterday nearly all Commonwealth Heads of Government were
still here in Harare for one of the most successful and
constructive meetings of the Commonwealth I have attended.
The success of thits CHOGM is due in no small part to the
wonderful hospitality extended by you Mr President, and the
Government and people of Zimbabwe. That is the public side of
CHOGH. But may I also say that success is also dependent on what
happens in the privacy of the Executive sessions and here
your expert chairmanship did much to create the conditions
where a very diverne group or Heads of Government could work
constructively and harmoniously together.
It says something, Hr President, of your capacity for work
that, rather than t: aking it easy atter the massive
responsibilities 01! hosting CHOGN, you invited me to undertake
a separate bilateral visit.
I believe our time together also says something for the
particular relationship that has developed between Australia
and Zimbabwe since 1980 and of the seeds of that relationship
during your strugg] Le for independence.
On a personal note, may I say, Robert and Sally, how much
Hazel and I have enjoyed our time in Zimbabwe, especially the
many private moments in which you have shared with us some of
the unique experiences of your lives, We now appreciate a
little better what the long years of strugq14 for the
independence of Zimbabwe have meant to you. 2499
2.
Mr President
Our two nations may be at opposite ends of the A-to-Z alphabet
of the Commonwealth, but we also have much in common, much
that we are working for together in the forums of the world,
including the Commonwealth.
Some parts of Zimbabwe even look like Australia.
I have been struck by the success our eucalyptus trees have
found here in Zimbabwe, with some 200 species of Australian
gum-t roes and wattles flourishing here under the Seeds of
Australia project.
Travelling around the cattle country of Zimbabwe, the
extensive, eucalypt plantings remind me of many parts of our
cattle country in Northern Australia.
This is a reminder that we are both countries of the Southern
Hemisphere, sharing the same tropical latitudes and climate,
and sharing some of the same industries mining, agriculture,
and tourism.
Like Zimbabwe, Australia has great natural wonders and an
abundance of unusual wildlife that in our case, millions of
people will travel thousands of kilometre. to see. we have an
economic interest, as well as a national duty to take
seriously the environmental consequences of this increasingly
vital industry.
Mr President
Australia was privileged to have played a part in Zimbabwe's
triumphant emergence to nationhood, through that crucial
meet~ ing of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Lusaka just
twelve years ago. Australian troops and electoral observers
wera here under Commonwealth auspices in the vital preelection
period in 1980.
It is only twelve years since the people of Zimbabwe were
engaged in a bitter but successful struggle for freedom and
equality in the land you have lived in for mare than a
thousand years.
It is just over eleven years since you achieved independence.
That is not a long time in which to reconstruct a country.
It is a remarkable tribute to the atmosphere of unity and
teiim-work which your leadership, Mr President has provided
that so much has been achieved.
Zimbabwe is characterised by a cheerfulness and optimism not
pressent everywhere in Africa. The struggle to become
independent has energised the people of Zimbabwe and given
them purpose.
There is no more telling example of the spirit of the people
of Zimbabwe than the resurgence, the renaissance, of the arts
2500
especially stone carving. I have made * a few modest but heavy
purchases which will stand as permanent reminders of our
visit. Mr President
Australia has always had a very close relationship with
Zimbabwe. Since the early days of Zimcord, when many young Australians
came to assist with that expansion of the education system
which has been one of the signal achievements of your
government, Australia has continued to provide practical help
to Zimbabwe.
Lately, our contribution has focussed on staffing, training
and commodities assistance, as well as support for the grassroots
development work. undertaken here with the support of
Australian non-governmental organisations and volunteers.
Today T had the moving experience of seeing the contribution
that can be made to the welfare of men, women and children by
things as simple, but as important, as water supply and health
care. I am proud of Australia's role in that project and I
congratulate World Viesion for their enthusiastic and creative
management of this important project.
our trade and investment links have been expanding steadily,
if from a relatively low base, with a healthy and broad-based
flow in both directions. Australian companies have already
identified and shown a strong commitment to significant
projects such as Hartley Platinum.
Australians and Zimbabweans enjoy many of the same things.
Sport is one obvious example.
For golfers like myself, your courses certainly provide
something unique in the way of hazards. in Australia you might
run into the occasional kangaroo, but they are not quite in
the same league as a troop of baboons, or a herd of buffalo,
as I had the pleasure of experiencing at Elephant Hills last
weekend. Y'our cricketers gave curs a run for their money last month,
and although your Rugby Union team had a disappointing World
Cup, it will learn from the international experience.
A~ nd Zimbabwean soccer seems to be on the verge of an
international breakthrough. Many experts believe the future of
soccer is in Africa. I look forward to the day when Zimbabwe
will make an impact on a future World Cup similar to the one
Cameroon made in 1990.
Frequent international competition is the only way for
national sports to prcogress. 2501
Ono or the useful by-products in this region of the gradual
re--admission of South Africa to international sport will be
increased competition in all the sports our two countries
play. Mr President
Zimubabwe emerged to independence in a manner which has etched
itself indelibly on the consciousness of Australians, and of
the world. It was an inspiring event not only for itself,
but for the hope it gave for the eventual achievement of a
Just solution to the uniquely abhorrent and intractable system
of institutionalised racism, oppression and exploitation in
South Africa.
Our two countries have co-operated actively in the collective
effort to speed the passing of apartheid, particularly in the
Commonwealth where our respective Foreign Ministers have
worked closely together in the Committee of Foreign Ministers
on Southern Africa.
All of us now hold firm the hope that the changes underway in
South Africa, stimulated by the action of the Commonwealth
this week, will lead rapidly to a democratic constitution and
tkae enfranchisement of all South Africans, and the removal-of
the injustice and disadvantage ingrained in South African
society by decades of apartheid.
at you know, we are providing practical assistance to
representative organisations and groups, including the ANC, to
upport that work.
May I also express the hope, Mr President, that the
inauguration of a democratic government so long awaited there
will be characterised by the same spirit of reconciliation and
forgiveness that you gave Zimbabwe in those climactic hours
after your first stunning election victory.
The challenges of the last decade of the twentieth century,
and those in the beginning of the twenty first century will be
very different than those of the recent past. The world has
changed utterly in the last two years. Trading nations like
Zimbabwe and Australia have to face up not only to a new world
order in politics, but also to a new world order in economics.
Where once, perhaps, both our countries might have been able
to rely on old friends to buy our products, these days we know
no-one owes us a living.
We discussed today our respective plans to restructure and
reinvigorate our economies. Your economic structural
adjustment plan is a bold and imaginative reflection here in
2; imbabwe of the world-wide trend towards recognition of the
role of markets in sound economic managenent and raising
standards of living. I congratulate you on the plan, and wish
i. t every success.
Vie have also discussed today, as we did at CHOG4 itself, the
vital links between economic development, good government,
2502
democratic institutions and respect for human rights. The
importance of those links was affirmed in the Harare
Commonwealth Declaration, and has been reflected in the
extraordinary events we have witnessed in many parts of the
world over the past two years.
Those events have shown how more and more people around the
world are coming to recognise that the universal aspirations
to freedom, dignity, security and prosperity can best be
satisfied through pluralistic democratic institutions and
market economies.
We have been particularly glad to see this growing realisation
in Africa, where command economics and undemocratic politics
have in so many cases until recently blighted the bright hopes
of independence.
of course every naticn must develop its own political and
economic structures t~ o meet its particular circumstances. It
is not the Commonwealth way to seek to impose our views on
fellow-members. But it is the Commonwealth way to recognise
and reflect on the enduring ideals we share, which were-set
out so well in the Singapore Declaration twenty years ago, and
re-affirmed here in Harare, and to encourage and assist fellow
members to find ways to meet those ideals more closely in
their particular circumstances.
For all these reasons I an delighted that at the historic
conference which you have hosted and chaired over the past
week, Mr President, the Commonwealth has dedicated itself to
help its members taket practical steps towards building the
institutions of good government.
I had a practical example of the role the Commonwealth can
play today, when I had lunch with the President of the
Australian Senate, Sornator Kerry Sibraa, who is travelling to
Zambia with other Auntralian and Commonwealth Parliamentarians
to observe the multi-party elections being hold there next
week. I wish his tesam, and the people of Zambia, well for
their election.
I am sure that the courage and foresight which you have shown
in developing and implementing your economic structural
adjustment program for Zimbabwe will also provide a strong
impetus for strengtheaning the democratic institutions which we
believe are, amongst other things, the natural and essential
complement to market-based economic institutions. In talking
about these vital isaiues in our long and warm discussion this
afternoon, I was heartened by your strong recognition of the
appropriateness of multi-party democracy in Zimbabwe.
Mr President
The emergence of a democratic South Africa will have a
profound effect on regional relations. I believe that in the
medium term it can be a source of economic dynamism, but it
will not be smooth sailing. 2503'
Australia Bees Zimbabwe as a lynch-pin in the emergence of a
new dispensation in this whole region a region which has
suffered so much but which has such enormous potential.
We look to Zimbabwe to give a lead in providing talent, energy
and creative solutions for the new challenges facing you and
your neighbours in the next decades.
Your land, your manufacturing capacity, and the talent and
energies of your people are rich endowments which can help to
carry not only Zimbabwe but this whole region of Southern
Africa to a prosperous and peaceful future.
Mr President, as free and independent nations we natural ly and
necessarily make our way in the regions within which we live.
We have in recent years devoted much thought and work to
regional issues, such as the processes of Asian-Pacific
Economic Cooperation, or APEC.
In tile light of concerns sometimes expressed by commentators
in this part of the world, I want to make it very clear that
APEC is not and will not become a trading bloc. On the
contrary, it is committed to promoting free trade both within
the region and between the region and other parts of the
world. After all, we too are a country of the South. As a commodity
exporter and in other ways, Australia shares direct interests
with tihe countries of the developing world, our position on
international trade and our initiative in promoting the Cairns
Group of agricultural exporting countries fully bears this
out. The dramatic and rapid changes of recent years make us
question the assumptions of the past.
I therefore welcome the new focus being proposed for the Non-
Alig'ned Movement, of which Zimbabwe is a distinguished former
Chairman and which is now led by one of our nearest neighbours
and most important regional partners, Indonesia. I should
also' like to express Australia's deep respect and appreciation
for the far-sighted role played by Zimbabwe as a member of the
Security Council, and as its President in February, at a time
when the world was faced with a major threat to international
security in tense and unprecedented circumstances.
The new world order, whether we like it or not, is now being
forged in the crucible of breath-takingly rapid change. None
of us can afford to be locked into old and obstructive ways of
thinking, or to limit ourselves solely to regional concerns.
We inust not be spectators: we must decide where to put our
weiflht, Blight as it all too often may seem, on the
international scales.
Australia looks forward to working with Zimbabwe, an old and
trusted friend, in the effort to ensure that the new world
2504
order is one that fulfils the long-term needs and aspirations
of our peoples.
As part of that proceis it is imperative that the statements
of Commonwealth principles be translated into the lives and
experience of our peoples.
Mr President, I look forward to the continuing development of
an even closer and more mutually beneficial bilateral
relationship between Australia and Zimbabwe.
May I in conclusion ask you all to join me in a toast to good
health and happiness of President Mugabe and First Lady Mrs
Mugabe and to the peace, prosperity and happiness of Zimbabwe
and all its people. 2505
lq