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PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING, MP
REMARKS FOR REPLY TO ADDRESS OF WELCOME
COMMONWEALTH HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING, NICOSIA
THURSDAY 21 OCTOBER 1993
President Clerides, Your Majesties, Excellencies, fellowi Heads of Government,
Ministers, Secretary-General, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure and honour for me to be invited tc join my colleagues in thanking
you, Mr President, for your welcome to this Commonwealth Heads of Government
meeting. I am happy to see many familiar faces as I look around this room. I met some of you,
fellow members of the South Pacific Forum, recently oil Nauru, the smallest of all the
Commonwealth's fifty members and associates.
I am also looking forward to meeting others over the nfiXt five days.
For a newcomer to these gatherings, the diversity of the~ group is the most striking
thing about it.
The members of the Commonwealth come from every continent and border every
ocean. We are large and small, developed and developing, a very representative
sample of the community of nations.
The Commonwealth gains strength from its diversity, bu-cause its differences co-exist
with important things we hold in common the principl,-s and practices of our law,
administration and education; a shared commitment to democracy; a language even if
often a second language in which we can conimunicatt. directly with one another.
In one important sense, an Australian Prime Minister fe,'-ls immediately at home in a
Commonwealth meeting. Australia's population today includes citizens who came
originally from each of the forty eight countries represeaited here.
Our rich multicultural society drawn from more than 140 nations is a great asset for
Australia, just as cultural diversity gives the Commonw! alth its own distinct and lively
identity.
Mr President,
Australia like many countries has been going through a period of profound change.
We have been retooling our economy and reexamining ithe fundamentals of our society.
Our economy has been changing at an unprecedented rmte, moving from an inwardlooking
economy to one focused outwards.
We have moved from feeling somewhat remotely connected with our own region to a
commitment to economic, political and cultural engagement with our neighbours.
We have been debating the forms of our own constitution to have it reflect better our
national identity.
And just before I left Australia, my Government put in place the framework for historic
legislation which will provide greater justice for Australia's indigenous population by
recogni sing their original tenure of our land.
We have accepted that Aboriginal or native tradition and culture is a source of
Australian common law.
Australia is not alone in facing change.
Many of the countries represented here are undergoing economic and social changes of
similar magnitude. These changes reflect and respond to profound changes taking
place in the wider world.
The Commonwealth itself is not exempt from this process of change. Like every other
organisation, it needs constantly to re-examine itself to ensure that it is directing its
activities where they are most useful and deploying its resources where they are most
effective. It should not duplicate what others can do better, but u ie its distinctive advantages
creatively and well.
Mr President,
Some of the issues which we will discuss over the next five days will be new, some will
be old, some will come in different form.
One which is different is South Afica. The political change there is cause for great
satisfaction, despite continuing problems and obstacles.
The Commonwealth has had an important part to play in encouraging that change. We
need now to look for practical ways to help South Afiicans to entrench it.
All of us hope that at our next meeting we will have tile pleasure -of welcoming the
H-ead of Government of a non-racial, democratic Souith Africa as a new member of the
Commonwealth.
I offer my congratulations to Mr Nelson Mandela and President De Klerk on the award
of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a fitting reward, not just for them but for all those who
have had the courage to negotiate and work together in the interests of creating a new
South Africa.
Other issues will engage us at this meeting.
The challenges of development, remembering I hat more than half our
Commonwealth members qualify as least-deveoped or low income countries
The ways in which we can better use the talents of women and young people to
enrich our societies and economies
The ways we can strengthen the role of democratic institutions and practices,
as the Commonwealth has been successfu~ lly doing with its election monitoring.
One of the major challenges facing the world at present is the need to bring to a
successful conclusion the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations by the mid-December
deadline. Nothing would do more to increase world trade and expand the opportunities for
growth of all countries, developing and developed alik,.
It would mean a boost to the world economy of 213 billion US dollars a year.
The time is very short for us to prevent the Round's collapse.
Some " rich countries" still seem to believe that they cani avoid making difficult
concessions, but still reap the advantages of the Round.
I think they are completely wrong and are Riely to witar the opprobrium and
contumely of the whole world.
It is important that this meeting make every effort to examine what the Commonwealth
can do to help bring about an outcome from the Multilateral Trade Negotiations that
will benefit each of us, and the world at large.
Finally, Mr President, I want to say something about the special pleasure for an
Australian Prime Minister in being here in Cyprus.
More than 50,000 Australians have their family origins in Cyprus, giving Australia the
world's second-largest Cypriot community after this island.
Australian Cypriots have been an enormously energetic and creative community.
Among their contributions to Australian life, has been cne of my colleagues in the
Parliamentary Labor Party, Dr Andrew Theophanous, wvho left Cyprus at the age of
eight.
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Our meeting in this city, Mr President, is a reminder that the division of this island,
with all the human tragedy that has entailed, has continued for far too long.
Australian police, whom I met this morning, have beer! helping to keep the peace in
Cyprus since 1964. Their task should have ended long; ago.
We urge those who are not cooperating with the United Nations and its Secretary-
General in exploring a basis for settlement to enter intc constructive negotiations
forthwith. Thank you for your very warm welcome this morning. Like all of us here, I am
looking forward to five days of constructive deliberaticns as well as five days of
Cypriot hospitality.