TEL: EMBARGOED AGAINST DELVIBRY
PRIME MINISTER
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON I' J KEATINGO Mp
AUSTRALIA DAY, ADMIRALTY HOUSE, SYDNEY
26 JANUARY 1994
Ladies and Sentlemien
It is traditional to make personal resolutions on the first day of the year. On the 26th day
We Australians could do worse than to imake out natinnal resolu. tions our collective,
Corporate resolutions.
By thc-26th January, we have had our break from work most of us. Mercifully free from
work and politics, we have had time to reflect.
On the fthMs In the bush and the backyard we have communed a little with the couguy
and our countrymecn and women. We have travelled the highways, seen a bit more of thi
place, got the fedl of It again.
We have watched Australians fuiously competing on land and sea and, who knows, seen
in them some reflection of ourselves or something we would like to be.
If we have 1xccn aniung the countlless thousands who use thc holidays to go to galleries,
theatrcs, museums and festivals of all decciptions, the chances are we have ever so
slightly re-adjusted our conception of what Australia memn and what it mea= to be
Australian. And in general I suspect that, whatever we have done, the majority of us have returned to
work rcncwcd in the belief that, on balance, there is no better place to live than this. Yet
it is also true that many Australians will go back to work this year uncertain of the future.
Many Australians will return unconvinced that we have made the most of what we have,
or that we can shape our destiny.
Thc truth is too many have reason to be unconvinced. And too many have no work to
rcturn to.
Ladics anid gentlicuz
The vicw from here, across the harbour to the nation's birthplace, can only inspire
confidciice. We can stand here and admiire the beauty of it, and all the symbols of our energy and
griuwth, and justly say that Austraslians havc created a great, vigorous and rich society.
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But this view Is not available to all Australians. Thc view varies from suburb to suburb,
town to town, workplace to workplace, farm to tarm across the continent. Too often the
view takes in hardsh~ ip, discrimination, and waste.
Thc view depends on the limits of opportunity it depends on the extent to which
communities and individuals have weathered change and the recession, the degree to
which they have it within their power to adapt and renew themselves.
It depends on industry and investmecnt, on employment and educational opportunitice.
It depend-s, thcrcforc, on the extent to which we all of us are prepared to say that, vast
and varied as the continent is, this is one nation and all are part of it.
It depends on the degree to which we are dcteined to balance the principles of freedom
and individuality with the principles of fairnes, cure and responsibility. In that balanc, it
seems to me, lies the principle of nationhood.
This year the lesson has surely never been clearer.
A3 thc New Year unfolded and we enjoyed all the traiditional pleasures of an Austra~ ian
summer, not for the first time we were stopped short by the spectacle of our fellow
Australians desperately defending lives and property.
71oz bushfires in New South Wales, like the floods in Victoria a few months earlier, were
a reminder that we live in a land which is plentiful and benign yet also cruel and
unforgiving. B~ ut Australians have known that since the first months of scttlemient across there at
Sydney Cove.
Thc rcal lessons of the fires seem to me to lie in our response.
Seeing the landscape ravaged by fire reminded us of our love for it.
Seeing mcn and women fighting to save lives and homes and all the products of their
labour remindcd us of the ties that bind Australians wherever they live.
And seeing them triumph reminded us of what we can achieve when we are moved by
thes affections and work together.
In the end It was a triumph of expczience and commitment, of the things we know and the
things we feel ahout Australia.
Thc rcsponw, was magnificent. T'he hindrances to effot and cfficiency in the normal
cours Of OUr affairs appeared to vanish.
State rivalries were put aside.
The bureaucratic black holes and red tape were replaced by dedication and urgency.
Suddenly thcrc was nut a hint of cynicism in the media.
And when it wus over, even as we counted the losscs, we knew the remarkable thin& was
how miuch had been saved.
It waIs a victory. And our faith in ourselves was stronger.
It scem~ s to mc that we can vcry usefully take the lessons into 1994 and beyond.
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We have been through a decude of change and through three yamS of economic recaion.
We now have in economic recovery a broad strons recovery and, because of our
effort,, before us liet an * era of immcnse opportunity.
We have on our hands whAt we haven't had for over a quarter of a cenaury a strong low
inflation recovery which gives us the potential to make the balance of the 19909 one of
thc best periods of opportunity this century.
But we should be in no doubt that this recovery was won by our own exertions.
We got here by virtue of out collcctive will, out collective faitht, our colloctive ability to
think and fight our way thiough it.
What we make of our opportunities in the nineties will equally be a product of out
collecive effort.
And I think there is another lesson we cannot fail to see.
As thim economic recovcry gathers strength we will beat sonie people begin to say in
fact we are already hearing them ever so faintly let's not worry about the unemnployed,
or the communities which are not doing so wel,.
Lat's not pause to take them with us or we might lose momentum.
We's leave them to take their chances in a reinvioratod market place.
Every time we hca this said, we should remember the bushfircs.
We can no more abandon the unemployed or strggling communities than we could have
abandoned those in the path of the fires.
Our sense of justice tells us that we cannot turn our backs on them, but so does common
sense, the sense which tells us that an Injury to one group ofT Australians Is an injury to all,
and that we are all strengthened when we act in concert.
This must not be a recovery for some and not o thczs.
It must not be a top-end-of-town recovery. It will not be for making paper fortunes at
the cxpense of productive investment which will deliver wealth and jobs in the long term.
The rccovery must reach into every community.
It must give hope and opportunity to all Australians.
It must give every Australian the chance to benefit and contribute.
On this Australia Day 1994, on the most sober understanding of the realities, we might
reasonably resolve to make this one of thc great ycars in our history.
Wc might rcasoiiably think that 1994 can be the year on which a future generation might
one day look back anid say tha~ t was thc year when the decision was taken: the year,
wvhen, without ceremony or fanfare, or any campaign to drive thcm, in government and
boardrooms, workplaces and communitics the people of Australia resolved not to waste
the chance which this economic rccovery offers us.-
It cain be the year, I'nm surc, when as a people and a nation we dcide that we will build on
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that we will make surn the burden of change and the burden of recession which the
country has borne will not be for nothinS oc for a few
that we Will not squandcrT Our energy anld wealth in corporate greed, or secional
interest, or bureaucratic Inefficiency of provinzcial rivalry
that we will uot rztreat from the future, Or fear it. but take it on aW shape it in the
image of our traditions, beliefs and affections for Austalia and all its peopl.
It cAn be the year in which we recognisc as rarely before in our history, the common caus
among us and pitch in for the future of Australia.
Ladles and Sentlen
Ou Australia Day we honour an Australian who by personal inspiration and effort Wa
made an outstanding contribution to the life of the nation.
It seems to me that the Award Of Australian of the Yea and Young Australian of the yeau
illustatcl the point I have been malcing today,
Thesc awards aire for great Individual achievement, but more often than not they go to
men and womnen whose eforts have been directed towards helping and inspiring others
We honour them on Australia Day because by their eXample they deepen our faith in
Australia and Strengthen tbc ties betwtcn us.
llank you.