PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 28 JUNE 1988
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mrs Margaret
Thatcher, will be visiting Australia as a guest of the
Government for the Bicentenary from 1 to 6 August. Mrs
Thatcher will be having official discussions in Canberra,
and visiting Perth, Melbourne and Sydney and Expo 88 for the
British National Day.
Mrs Thatcher's visit, in this Bicentennial year, will serve
to underline the warmth and friendliness of the relations
between Britain and Australia and to remind us of the
enormous contribution to our country made by people from
Britain since the beginning of European settlement.
The British gave us, most importantly, our language and the
basis for the institutions of our free society:
parliamentary democracy, the law, and our system of liberal
education. Australian traditions and values strongly
reflect our British origins.
The British influence has helped make Australia a country
which has attracted other peoples from all over the world,
and people from Britain continue to make a major
contribution as valued immigrants.
I am delighted that the British Prime Minister is able to
visit in the year we commemorate two hundred years of
Australian achievement. 17510