PRIME MINISTER
SPUcZX Y Mn Pa! W IWRRTT WM8TINI " M NO F J'DAT o, U
" M bAIL
O~ ftZIWIO A& Y 20 S3PT= WRf : L103
Let me say it is a pleasure to be in the great city of
Dublin; a rare feeling, as ever, to be in Ireland from
vbenCe Came my own people, so many of my fellow
Australian& and so much of my country and an honour to
address the Dail.
I wanted to cone to Ireland as Prime Hiniater of
Australia for the good reason of history.
While I aim here, I will be talking to the Prime Minister
and other Mnisters end busineas people about tra*,
particularly in relation to the GATT Round. I will be
puttinq a particular point of view.
We are both now players in the international economy and
inevitably we have overlapping economic inttrsts.
We will be talking about investrnt in Australia.
I will be talking about the European Community an4-rA1BB
the forum for economic o-opratioh in the Asia-Pacitregion.
Noecssarily, I want to talk about related social issues,
particulaVy unemployent vhioh to a problem afflicting
both our cow* ttle-d virtually all the develgpe4
cOuntries of the world.
I Vfnt to bear Irish views an these watters and I want to
put my own.
But I am also here for the less tangible but utterly
inescapable and irresivtible attraction of hictory.
Pow. I have a feeling that the people in this chamb.. r
might inwardly gruan every tima a politician of Irish
ancestry a8mes through here and signals that he or she is
going to give them a history lecture.
it would not surprlse an it you are t" Intking here vO g
again, he is going to tell us about the Irish past, or
n J Il 1 C.
-our li~ terary tradition. we is bound to quote Yeats at us:
or tell Usn about 1700 or give Uas hie views on Our
. uaracter.
I would dearly like to $ pare YOU this.
A. s a vcet-colonial couP~ try OUrselv**, soe of us raawsh,-
the preamptions of visitor.
Vat the f at remains tikat Ireland in poasibly unique in
thie world for the hold it has on the conecioushess of
other countries.
I knewoi my rra~ cemsor, Rob Hawk*, e aul~ reesed this
Parliame~ nt several yas ago he spoke about the fseline
he had whan arrived at Shannon Airport he said he
felt he had come home.
Xnud Sob Hawk& is nowhere nlear as Irish as I am. if Bob
felt at homes, It o~ ust he I never left.
And wihen President Rh4" senn nat year made w. hat has
b-M aCluite famous tour of Australia, I fuii.& n myself
unconecioisy repentingq thin * hams at a luncheon in her
honour in Canerra.
because Austr-alian*. do~ feel unoannily at home with the
Irish.
They do feel a qreat arftinity whiah apparftntly transcends
ahetral connections.
Anad * bt see to " e to * peak of the immesane power and
Laportenca of history and semory and lanoquaqe and
culture.-I awk not talking about 9ona quaint showcase of the past.
i am not talking about museiums, Or curioUa 9iAMPsee Or
Cadad agwarian life, or even Coorgian architecture.
X couild ) Look at caargisun arahiteoture all day, myeelf.
3iat the attraotion of Traland is an elemental things it
tuifile a need in us.
It is 611mogt as if one can Say that It Ireland did not
siijat, eountrioa like Auetralla would have to invent it.
knd perhaps we should.
I politician, or oj~ arnu~ mants of all 6apl* exing and
bureaucrats and business people, all those of us in a
postion to inflmenc, pfii ey, xho5uld kniow what it losans
to J~ o'e hi& toi-y and heritage and language and culture.
Yet thoro 1.4 always a tondllnpy in political thought
tovarda' otthocoxy razher than tribes broad and less
readily definied oena* Ae-
SOOON 60: T I
On the way hors via the United States and Britain I war.
r". ding 2~& I O'?. olainow b. ook jh&_ jxj~ h betlevo jo_ or
nojt. At on* Doint. writingj about Wolf Tonia, he says;
one realm~ that his laughter * 1nd his huAianity WOU14
haVe blown all thee away ( he Deania ort~ xoxy,
sectarianism, pi~ rinteno, aant) would h~ ave defiled
Political 1 1be-ty not merely ln term~ s of rnnuart but
of gaiety and tolerance and a great pity and a free
mind and a free heart and a full lift,
OV-nIatin of ecoirse was talkin~ g about Ireland, wrtich I do
not mean~ to do.
X moanf to talk about my own rnouftry.
many ut the Irish who played loadilng parts in~ Tone's
rabe'klion of 1798 were transported to Australia -among
them premlnont lead-ore or the rebellion like Xiohaol
DvVov, . Tcoeaph Holt, James Meehan anld MKiael Hayes.
T might ^ t4d intar alta that a concentratlan of l7VV
veterns, took u~ p lend to tit* fouth-wast of Sydney in ouch
nunhoro a* to earn the place the name of Irichtown.
Yt In now nim11. od Unketown and It is where I was b~ orn,
qrew up andJ spent most of my life.
Zt is my hometown and tho heart of my volitical
oonstituen~ y and the most obvious * thn-to groups thoec
days axe Lebanese and vletname..
" Lo curious thin5 aboo~ it the 3.798 00oNViott in that! in the
Colony Ot NOWi BOUth W9le8 the . xp0Ctati0o that U1069g
Ftble would rebel was never really met.
The px-ofound opportunities for economic Indae" nne
Which Auatralia prnv( ded for mais and women of ordinary
mea&, combined with the liberal hulmanity of individuals
like Governor Macquario, put paid not just to their
rebelliounnoss, but to the notion that tne Irish wiere
born rebels -that they were .* aaa2 hostile to
society.
Or at least it MAU have put paid to tIC hOttn.
ka the Autraliai historian, Patriek O'Farrell, has said,
then myth of rebellion c. entinued but th) e reality vas
generally rather dirrerent.
In 1416 Nichool Hayes, wrote, " There is room here for
sonis millions if they were allowed to * migrate. what a
happiness It-wniid-b& to, the unfortunate Irish tenantry
woes they here to partielpato in tfluae blesQI1ae9."
It has' been' a those In the Correspondence or Miaraflta
ever since.
ekn. hundred years later a huge Oi~ n was erected in
London's AldvYch near the site of Auatralii mouse. it
said-" d tn Australia. you will have a hearty welaone, 4
97norous return tor your energy and enterprise and a
Climate that is the healthiest in the w'owld."
Astral. ia has always hold out this crest promise that
it c~ ould tftke the PoOr and the 6PPV6eSmd And give them
the liborty, eConOMic independence 0X% 4 the material
comforts denied in their own country mind beyond that,
by " onme OblevainquO, winnow troa their hearts and minas
all the ancient bittornae and unreason.
As if Australia could do what a Wolf 1kone. mieght have
done. if thaer has been a ipantinucium theme to Australian
history one MIfA~ tn" It to iperh. a 9! hl one. it there
is one, standard we have set ourselves, It has been how
vell ws have lived up this promis..
The th~ eme begins with th~ e British and Irish convicts. it
follows the trail of hLigration through to the present
4^ v. Tt tincludes not just the Irish but the Italionm andl
Croeke and the Lebanese and % Yews and Latvians and
Vietnamese and the Chinese an* Cambodians.
h'aople, in fact, from more thlan 150 countries or the
world. It has beon a 4ifficult ambition to live uip to.
consider the appellati~ ons the 0O~ mtr bAs gone by over
theyears. it has been known as tharlb~ tter neuntryft, tha
I~ ndof t~ bettor obahoem, the 0working man's
paradise", thte usoial laboratory of the world",
Ohmetravlina Unlimited", and, alkhimugh it was originally
meant ironically, " the LuoXy CountrWy."
Occupying a land * o vast. with such bountifull resources,
such a splendid climate, suoh tree inetitutiona being
heirs to a land seemingly so blessed, MAY be why
1AUozallano are sometimes rather severely melf-aritie~ al,
In MeOt, depending on which columnists one reads and
therm sems to be no consensus even amonj the several. of
Trish extraction one would think sozetim** that we
live in a diabolically Impoverished and inadequate place.
iseaconatant ofTpolitictal auiumt In Autralia and
cultural arcument tnAt we n~ ave ralked to cdeliver our
unlimited oentiali indeed, that our great good fortUne
in paaossln a vast continent had made 49 complacent.
There iA a view, I tninXc. that thome things5 we have
achieved might have been * ere the product or good jucX
than Eloeid wenagemotnt.
Tt Is not a view I share.
With rare OX~ e~ tions, we have delivered liberty. it
material prospeiotty has ocoasionally been hard to come
by, and there have bs~ n enough inetarleem Of Conflict to
indicate that the resentments were not entirely swept
away, kugtrali& has always boon and remains by any
standarda, both a prosperous country and a tolerant~ une.
1 do not know any way to measure the eXtent to Vhich an
i1migirant culture has been responsible for this? how much
it has both obliged us to practise tolaranee and provide
value then.
It's a famillear quetion for mistrais* s how uuh we
are a produot ot our iretzastanees, and how muoh we are
what we have made ourselves tobo
la truths by the ect of mirtion the country was mades
by that voluntary act, end bY then emigrants' ambitions it
was built.
An a politician 2 know that little of a lasting nature
happev'e by virtu& of some latent inoral or pdlitical
torce. AS a general rule we don~' t got blown where we
want to go we have to take ourselves there.
In politics, an in aueb else, it requirets imagination and
a politiCal will which In uy view is the sme as saying
a will to & mercis Political power. hnd that depanda ani
having not just the Irish rebel's sane of in3u. sties, but
the nIneteanth century Irish emjq rant'. ability to
izaqin. a better life. knO to find it.
Indeed I would like to thinc that I had more ot the
qualities of the emigrant.
better a politician who not only confronts an
unsatisfactory reality, but has the wherewithal the
will and the Skill to change it.
Better one willing~ to go toc sea buat not in a boat
withouat erm.
in Australia in the 19806 We embarked on.: voyage of
-conomic ceform. ife deregulated the Icoaomy and opened
it up to the wnrld.
Zn doing this we did what the emigrant does we
confronted necessity.
Had we not done this, tn* modern world and the
opportunities it otters would have pauced uA by.
it took political will. More than will, it took
persuasion and persistence and the ability to resist the
terptntion to turn back.
souetimes it doen feel as It one hau gone to sea in a
boat without oars. Sometimes there are mutineers.
ComettimeB one thinks it would have been vasier to stay
put in the first place.
Those nnnvict vasel* on which the rebels at 1798 made
their voyage sometimos took nearly twelve xuonths to gut
to Australia.
it nuct have felt like an eternity.
The process of economic reform can feel the sae way
one day flyin along with the sails threatening to rip
apart, the next day beaalmed.
And then, of course, theto are the days when the ship is
Lmaouilately on coutne and travelling at a manageable
rate and you are thinking not of home, nor even of the
journey, but of the destination.
The destinatioA wa and remainm an internationally
esmpetitiva Aconomy: which mena, * Uong other things,
one less deipendtnt upon our mineral and agriCultural
couoditi t and more eapaclo of nauufacturing products
for glonal marketw, particularly the markets of the
XaLa-Paifio region which is to say the fastest growing
markets in the world.
Anid we have gone a long way towards reaohing this goal.
Our 9oonomy has been completely transformed. Extprts
have doubled. Service and manufacturing exporti have
more than tripled and are now equal to rural exports.
Our economy is much ore diverce and the fastest growing
setor ot it by far is elaburately transforied
manlUfactures. A decade ago less than half of our exports went to our
own region. Today two-thirds go to east-haia.
Three-quarter* of all hustralian axporta qo to the
Asia-Paoific region, a region of two 1illion people
producing half the world's output and ngagerd in halt the
world's trade.
These Cigures basically desewibe Australia'w ruture.
CNr I.
.1
They marX the staqg OA the touarney toward3 an economy or
which it will never be possible to say they got it by
chance. It fell into thour 14p.
Zt will only he possible to say that, like the emigrant,
we recognisei necescity when we saw it an~ d we did what
had to be don.
Of course we were not the o nly country in the world to
reform our economy in the 19$ 06. Much that we did was
donle elsewhere in the world as countri.. reelisad that$
in the modern cra, if they d( A not change they Would rall
behind. There It A* o doubt that we have boon served well by the
* cenomIc -ef crmw we ma~ de.
And we are all the better for having Alan made Anial
A large eleaent of the Improved international
Compatitivenamn we achieved was got by mane of an Accord
between thu Government and the trad6 unions.
The Accord dramatleaily Iaduced induiitrial disoutation,
hold wage& to conpetitive levels, made a muajor
contribution to roducinel Iiflatlin to a rate oymong the
lowiet in the OECD, and sponeored a creative and
~ n-operativa eulture in the workrplace which is radigally
increasing level* of productivity.
rmplamenting the concelpt of the social wage in the 19809
mYIaflt that in the 1909 we have a first class h1ealth
system: a qoe. Ia net an extAnalve and sophisticated an
any in the world; legislation attectinij the rights and
well being of womon a* eduanced an any in the world: and
thr~ vugh poaltive government programsa assiating etnic
groaps and encouraging cultural diversity$ a
multicultural society of Infinitely more richness and
strength -including economic atrength.
In other uwds as tho Australian 0overnment has stepped
out of the market plane& in many reg~ ards, it has atepped
inXJj its sooldl responsibilities.
hs I said, we did not put to sea without oars. Or
lifeboats, and a safety net, or expanlded opportunity
including, AS of this year, an a~ t~ n~ ive system of child
oare and a home care allowance.
It i3 essentially for the same reason Lhat w9 have made
thte biggest effort in n'ir history to at last deliver the
baeis* of social-justice ror indigjenous Auatralians.
I seen the rcason of social unity and social justice oC
axtendMd opportimity which new world countrien like our
own are intended to provide.
? or the great casualty of immidgration waa Ahenriainal
kuatralia. " ae dostru1etion of this * xtraordinarl ancient culture,
and the brutality and Injusticee inn Icted an the firet
Astralians can nover really be sat to rights, any more
thaen the injustice and dispoegasslon which occurred int
this cuntry can be.
SUt we Can heal woun~ ga& nM & ar* now Vonaratione from the
hurt and bitterness of the pnot.
We anu Include Aboriginal Australia In the scial
* qasation as clu'ltOuBrieo rw;~ tidll~ be over so
alloh strongqer, and the self-esteem of all Auetralians s0
much greater.
2% seems to me a oarf act example of the fact that
nocasity des not or itself load to change.
There ham been a moral and 9ovial nactsity to rig~ ht
those wrong* Inflicted on Aborsiinal huftalin for
geaneration* what has I" d to chary. Im will. Will and
the imagination noceacary to conceive at uiniathing
bettiaw. Go this last decade of & ustv. allia's national lite has been
a decade of Quite remarkable chance. The newt docada
shows every & sii of keelping up the pace.
knd, if we have laarne4 a lesson in the onurea of the
Sourney# It is that tn* Dace will be best Ypairtairaed and
he ohanq* wilil ho nor& affective it the viaop2. avo
included.
No politloel principle van so thorauvhly confirmed for ae
in recant yea an thin nos that one suoaads boat by
trusting to the people's best feelings. I baslieve it In
thei aamenwtial w~ apn of the political reformer.
Chtange will never be made by hAIt. ng the negwi4~ ive the
cervatism, or myopia, or prejudice or pedantry which
eXists in any society. Then@ e prone tn " Arvvuenea Could
dictate to a ref orw agenda.
Chang vil2l be made by looping over the; ;. byataihing of
Soimething better. Of sill t~ he lesson* f & h emigrant for
the politician this is the moot Lrndmental.
And I bmalLeve it is the leascn conltain"~ in those wvrd* 2
quoted about Wolf Tone thtat political reform moans t6~
entlare 3L*.
It me&" s oftewriq an alterative to cant and narrow
orthodoxyv and a11thie debilIitating' conatre Into in Which
historiyI a fovr wrapping us, and to which o,% aorvative
edIt-interest alwIayt appeals.
Po'itioal reform Means otterinq tq the people wilat
migratlion oftered to the Irish in the hinetaonth
century, to Zurpanm after WorlS war Il, to CImbodian
and Vietnamese in recent tines I lan quite simply the
prosepect of a better life in a better country.
fkrnodm thIrien latnadke. s Me back in turn to those laboons we learn
That if we are drawn to Ireland by the hiatory and the
language and caulture not to Pay by the beauty oC the
Place then goverrments ignore these things at their
peril. Ana tor that reason there is a link between culture and
between the art& and reform, botwen the life of
the mind and refors.
It is Wny, I think like the extension of social policy
the * Xteneien Of policies encouraging cultural
Coveloiakent are eaaential In timac of dramatie economic
change. They feed the national iemainatlon, encouraqe people to
contemplate alternativan and Cf course they soothe the
savage boast in us,
you see vhat lesson& can be drawn from Ireland. seal,
hard, political lessons.
Not that we Vero thinking of Treland when we drw them.
The porallole only begin to present thiemeslves as we
approach the old snores.
Nor were we zninkinq ot Ireland when we thought of the
repubi. 1M.
Rather we vere thinking that we are a ocuntry separated
from these islands ) iy twelve thousand miles and 2Oo yeaiv
Ot experience.
That we era a people eomprisod of poe than 150
nationlities and Cor som tine now we have been
encouargint all of them to retain their cultural
identity.
That our mople live etraordinarily varied lives on an
* Wtr* 6Pinarily varied continent.
And that the time had come in this lae docade of our
first century a* a nation to put a border r'una tins
tapestry of our national li* t * ime e eftchrined the
Ltumigranto traditions ot couraqe and Cai( h together with
those traditions of democracy, tolerance, fair play and
ireatew opportunity uhiah are the haxA traditions of
Australia.
zt seemed to us that a ropibic might acknowledge and
enshrine the values of a people who have been willing to
imagine something better, vLllinq to conrrant the need to
change* to Make their way on a new frontier and who
have learned that these things are beut done together.
And to those Who went to hold back, who fear change, who
say it is not the right time to do this$ we might say
what if our forebears had said this? What if they had
lacked the imagination and the will? What if they had
stayed put?
Well, I would not be an Australian ard nor would most of
the 17 million others.
And I would not have had the extraordinary opportunities
my country has given ne among then the Immeasurable
privilge of coninq to the land of my ancestors as Prime
Minister of Australia and addressing this national
parliament. Thank you.