EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE~ PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J. KEATING MP
LAUNCH OF RODNEY HALL ' S NOVEL THE SECOND BRIDEGROOM
ADELAIDE FESTIVAL OF ARTS, 4.3OPM 6 MARCH 1992
Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm pleased -to be here today at one of the world's great
arts festivals.
My purpose is both to launch Rodney Hall's book and to
celebrate it.
It's a pleasure to be here because I know Rodney Hall, I
know some of his ideas, I know how much he cares about this
country, and I know he is going to make a great contribution
to our national life as Chairman of the Australia Council.
I also know that this book, which was published in hardback
last year, was never officially launched.
And any book which has enjoyed such magnificent acclaim as
this book has, deserves to be launched deserves to be
celebrated. I doubt if any book by an Australian has received better
reviews than this one.
Some of them are modestly repeated on the cover the
Financial Times calls it a modern classic
Rodney will forgive me for mentioning that the Financial
Times also gave me a good review recently, for a speech I
made in the presence of Her Majesty, and another I made in
the presence of Her Loyal Australian Opposition.
This does not mean the Financial Timesq is easy to please
it means they are discerning.
On the same cover you will see that Dinny O'Hearn says the
book is evenL better than the one before it, and the one
before it was a masterpiece.
This is the sort of language I have always liked.
In Frankfurt: they said Rodney Hall ranks with Garcia
Marquez. In New York they compared him with William
Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner.
In the Sidney Morning Herald Stephen Knight ranked him with
Patrick White.
And back to London where the Sunday Time-, said " in Rodney
Hall Australia has produced another great novelist".
For this extraordinary critical reception Rodney Hall
deserves our congratulations although I know he won't mind
my saying that you haven't really been reviewed until you've
been reviewed in the London tabloids.
" Hands orf our language, cobber!", they would have said.
Given the ex;. pert and international literary judgements that
have been made on Rodney's recent work, it would be
presumptuous of me to pass any judgement.
But I can saLy that I enjoyed The Second Bridegroom and
that it's a novel of great interest to anyone who has
thought about European civilisation in this country.
Anyone who has ever wondered what it means to be an
Australian. The novel rang a Celtic bell in me. Like most Australians of
Irish extraction, Celtic mythology and the Celtic
temperament has always seemed to me a powerful force in our
make-up, and in the creation of our legends and traditions.
This is a book with any number of political and cultural
implications for Australia.
For instance! it's a very powerful reminder that we have to
come to terms with Aboriginal Australia pre and post
European.
Until we do this until we start to make some real progress
towards closing the gap in both attitudes and living
standards I think there will always be a feeling among us
that maybe wre don't quite belong, that we're not serious,
that we're simply here for the view.
Or just here! to make forgeries of the Old World.
These are old themes in Australia: the Celticry and
Aboriginality, the business of being what Manning Clark
called Austral-Britons.
Or as Rodney, Hall puts it Australians became a race with
one foot in the ' air.
If I might tie allowed to use that phrase for my own
purposes, Rodney, allow me to say that I would like to see
Australians put the foot down.
These cultural cross currents are no bad thing, of course.
They have produced a lot of our intellectual energy. A lot
of our difference in fact.
And, contrary to the Les Paterson stereotype with which
someone recently branded me, I don't have any time at all
for the view that it's no good if it's not authentically
Australian. You're looking at someone who has a great affection for
Europe. Whoi counts among his greatest pleasures European
architecture and European music.
But I am not: British or French.
I'm Australian. It's the land I know, the people I know,
the resonances I feel, and my commitment to it happens to be
unequivocal, unambiguous and absolute.
If Australians are encouraged to think about it, I don't
think any of' them will want the cobwebs to remain. I don't
think they want their identity compromised.
These things really should not have to be said in a nation
which in truth is not so young any more.
But, as we've discovered in the last couple of weeks, when
these simplEt, unexceptional things arp said, they produce
responses Which are quite extraordinary.
They've been said, of course, by writers and artists,
they've been~ said on the stage and on film for years since
the turn of the century and before.
That, of course, is one of the great virtues of the arts and
why a country is healthier when they flourish. They can
provide us writh a truer vision of ourselves than politicians
or anyone else can.
That is one of the principle reasons why my government will
support the arts in this country.
It is also cone of the reasons why we are in favour of
appointing more artists to arts bodies, putting more of the
focus of arts policy on artists, and doing all we can to
improve the professional standing and income of our artists
and why I'm very happy to be able to announce today that
two great Australian artists, Carl Vine and Nanette Hassall
will shortly be reccomended to the Governor General for
appointment to the Australia Council.
There is no doubt that their knowledge and expertise will be
an enormous benefit, and their presence, inevitably, a
boost to the! Council's standing.
4
The arts of course play a variety of roles in this country
but the most significant I think is making us believe in
ourselves. I don't mean that patriotism is a prerequisite I mean that
books like the one that we're celebrating today helps define
us to ourselves and to the world, and that is very
important. I may as well tell you now, however, that I will not be
leaving it up the artists to do this you are going to hear
a lot more in the way of uncompromising belief, including
uncompromising reference to our history.
As I said there are some among us who intend to put the
nation's foot down.
Let me once again congratulate you Rodney, thank you for the
metaphor, and all of you for having me here.
ADELAIDE/ CANBERRA