( 7)
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P J KEATING MP
LAUNCH OF OUR NATION
SYDNEY, 20 JANUARY 1996
* CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY**
Even allowing for this years rel atively awful weather everywhere from here to
Bass Strait and beyond, there are things about Australia in the summer
holidays which never fail to remind us that to live in this country is to be very
fortunate. The long warnm days, the beaches, the barbecues, the family, the friends; the
sport, the arlts, the space it's generally enough to help wind down from the
year gone by and to wind up for the one ahead, even one which contains an
election. You stop reading the papers, give up on the evening news It is a
nag-free environment.
We take the good things pretty much for granted. But sometimes all of a
sudden its hits you, that we are profoundly lucky to have a country as good
as this a continent as big and wonderful, and a society as strong, free,
democratic, rich and unpretentious.
I think it's a time of the year when, in an entirely understated way of course,
we celebrate the country and the pleasure we take in being Australian.
There are even times when I think we should all stop and drink a toast to the
place, to the fact that we are here, and to our fellow Australians.
And just as quickly go back to whatever we were doing or not doing.
This may be an unconscious reflection of a Celtic heritage. The Celts love
toasts. But I don't think it's got much to do with the Irish. It takes a lot less time than
my family have been In Australia to develop a purely Australian form of
sentimentality. We might retain a certain self-conscious pride or interest in.
our ethnic origins, but after a generation or two it is not much more than a
hobby. Yet in an immigrant society the knowledge of where we came from is
knowledge worth having.
Even after several generations of experience has made us incorrigibly
Australian, we old Anglo, Celtic Australians retain a certain affectionate
curiosity about our ancestral seats, and almost certainly reflect a little of the
culture from which we are derived not to say the physical characteristics.
A hundred years ago there were plenty of people in this country who knew
exactly what Henry Lawson meant when he said: " I am Australian. I know no
other land".
And I have met Australians who migrated as children in the 1940s and
who would say exactly the same thing. Even as they eat dolmades and
gefillte fish and tabouli and toad-in-the-hole and tagliatelle.
Eve * n as they practise their traditional religions, observe their traditional
rituals and celebrations and display, in all sorts of nearly imperceptible ways,
their traditional culture and habits of mind.
In other words, we are all to a greater or lesser extent, Immigrants. And we
are all equally Australians. That is the reason for celebrating.
There have been many reasons advanced -for the success of Australia's
Immigrant sodiety. I think most of them are valid and none of them are
sufficient reason to be complacent about it. All of them put together are no
reason to be complacent about it.
There seems to me no doubt that the great physical spaces of Australia al so
create psychological space and this helps the cause of peace in a diverse
society.
And that is also a reason to bear in mind the need to plan our development in
clever ways which use the space and its resources optimally.
Immigration always teaches us things about ourselves.
The old democratic fabric and institutions of this country, and the egalitarian
traditions, have also helped us accommodate the cultural difference. The
Idea of the " fair go" has been a real force in shaping Australia, including
multicultural Australia.
And that is also a reason to insist that all Australians, and especially our
children, know -the-value of the democracy. and the democratic traditions they
have Inherited.
If there Is a third substantial reason for the success of multiculturalism in
Australia, it may be that we have been multicultural since the beginning of
European settlement. The First Fleet was multicultural and every generation
since has lived with significant cultural, religious and political difference not
the least of them of course the difference between the Irish and the English.
And that Is another reason not to be complacent our generations are not the
first to live successfully with diversity, we inherited a lot of our knowledge.
3
If these are three broad reasons for the success of modern multicultural
Australia the fact of our environment, the fact of our democracy, and the fact
of our experience in cultural diversity they tend to suggest that to keep
succeeding we need to keep working and take nothing for granted.
Above all, we should remember what all free immigrants to Australia had in
common and that was the search for a better life. Nothing so effectively
made the cultural differences seem unimportant as the common pursuit of
prosperity and freedom.
It follows that if we want this diverse modern Australia to remain harmonious,
productive and cohesive we have to maintain both the standards of our
democracy and the energy of our economy and our society. Whatever
sophisticated multicultural programs we devise, these are the most important
prerequisites of success.
I think the essential thing to understand about a society like ours an
Immigrant society is that immigration is a two-way street. It involves a
cultural exchange.
When I was'gowing up;, I worked for a while in Pyrmont and I would often go
down and watch the ships from P& O and the Orient Line come in and dock,
loaded with immigrants; families crowded to the rails looking at the city with
who knows what sort of feelings.
And who knows what sorts of feelings were felt by those of us who watched.
But 1 am sure that not all the fear and apprehension were on the other side of
the ship's rail. 1 am sure there was some kind of exchange of feelings. I think
whatever hope they felt was matched by our admiration for their courage in
crossing the world and, perhaps even more admirable, to have come among
US. In retrospect you can see how It was a leap of faith on both sides. That's the
great strength of Australia's post-war Immigration policy. It took courage on
both sides and I believe the experience has given Australia that much more
courage. It gave us many things and I don't think this audience needs me to tell them
what they are,.. But I do think-that-this.-is-a point worth making: when you
open yourself up to the world, when you are brave enough to look cultural
difference in the eye, you learn a great deal. And half of what you learn is
about yourself. And you are made stronger by that and more mature.
That is what I mean by immigration being essentially an exchange. For
everything we have given to the people from 160 countries who have come
here, we have been repaid. For a new start in life, they repaid Australia in
their energy, ideas and ambitions, in their skills and in their culture. But, just
as Importantly, In the greater maturity, self-knowledge and the courage they
have given us.
In the global environment we now find ourselves in, and amid the intense
competition, these qualities have a value for us which is beyond measure.
We can define multiculturallsm In any number of ways. Some people like the
concept but hate the word so much they would like to define it out of
existence. Yet, as I have said before, so long as it is not mistaken for an
ideology or a bureaucracy or a set of rules in political correctness, the word is
a perfectly accurate description of what we are, what we must be and what
we want to be.
I think we should live with the word and enjoy the reality. Above all, we
should recognise that this multicultural ism massively enlarges our democracy
and our democratic traditions, It adds to our freedom as well as to the
richness of our lives.
That Is why we should enshrine the principle of tolerance among our most
basic democratic principles.
And that is why the suggestion made in the statement we are launching
today, that we begin to think of our country in terms of a Multicultural
Compact seeifns to me ' such a good one, Essentially it gives expression to
thb idea of Immigration as an exchange.
The Multicultural Compact states that we share this land with the first
Australians, whose cultures are oldest of all; and that, as a result of
Immigration, we also share a wealth of diverse histories and traditions.
The Compact asks of all Australians, irrespective of background and
generation, that they Invest their main allegiance in Australia; that they
accept the basic structures of Australian society the rule of law, tolerance,
equality of opportunity, parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech and
religion, English as the national language and equality of the sexes and
races; and that they extend to others the same freedoms they claim for
themselves. And the Australian community is asked in exchange: to ensure equality of
access, opportunity and participation, unimpeded by barriers of race,
language or country of birth; to ensure that our institutions reflect and
respond to the diversity of the population; to ensure that the potential
-contribution of-all Australians is recognised, and to provide opportunities for
all Australians to learn both English and another language.
I will be writing to Premiers and Chief Ministers seeking endorsement by all
Australian governments of the principles contained within the Multicultural
Compact. A healthy multicultural society has no need for rules and sanctions. But there
is value In describing the logic by which the country works, and in defining
the minimum standards required in a civil society.
4. And this is the time to begin that process of definition.
Because in the last decade of the twentieth century, for the first time in our
history, we have a real chance to decide our own destiny to pull together all
the strands of Australian identity.
We have dismantled all the barriers which quarantined us from the rest of the
world and we are becoming ever more deeply engaged in our own region.
These are exciting times and we need Australians to engage in them. I
believe this statement will help that process. We have derived immeasurable
benefits from immigration and from the multicultural programs of the last two
decades. These days we tend to think in terms of the economic and cultural
benefits, and there is no question that they are immense.
However, I am inclined to think that the greatest benefits are literally without
measure; and that they go not only to governments, nations and communities
but to every one of us. They make all Australians, whatever their
backgrounds, a little bit richer and a little bit stronger.
In part, Our Nation is a response to the report of the National Multicultural
Advisory Co~ ncil, an&~ I would like to thank the Council for its work in
reviewing the architecture of multicultural Australia.
I want especially to thank Mick Young for his great work as Chair of the
Council. Mick comes from the same ethnic group as myself.
But and I'm sure you will excuse my using the word in this context we are
both thoroughly assimilated.
In his own way Mick Young is proof of the greatness of this democracy: in
not every country is it possible for a shearer to reach the highest rungs of
office; but then not every country produces shearers like Mick.
Mick is stepping down for health reasons; and I hope he will forgive me for
reminding him that everyone in this room wishes him well.
* I must also welcome the new Chair of the National Multicultural Advisory
* CounciyMr Neville Roach,. who is with us today..
I am now delighted to launch Our Nation.
ends