CANBERRA
E&OE.........................................................................................................................
Thank you very much David and Pru. To the members of my family
who are here, my wife Janette, my daughter Melanie, my eldest brother
Wal and his wife Gwen. To my Parliamentary colleagues, to Mr Sessions
and members of the Press Gallery, ladies and gentlemen.
It is an awkward moment in one's political career to launch
a biography. You reflect for a moment on what you might or might
not say, you wonder whether you will be a commentator on the book.
I have reviewed a number of books, I haven't been asked to
review this one. I reviewed Bob Hawke's book and Graham Richardson's
book and I have reviewed that marvellous biography of Alan Martin's
about Sir Robert Menzies. But, of course, I have read this with
absorption and, of course as David and Pru have pointed out, I spent
quite a deal of time with them in advising on facts and tracing
the sequence of events.
It is of course, more than a biography. It is also a chronicle
of Australian politics over the last, almost quarter of a century.
And we are constantly reminded of how things change. But when I
reflect that in 1974 when I was elected to Parliament, I reflect
upon the Australia of then and the world of then and the Australia
of today and the world of today, the changes are absolutely mind
boggling.
Not only have we seen in that quarter of a century the on set of,
arguably since the industrial revolution, the greatest economic
transformation brought about by information technology, but we have
seen the collapse of the most pervasive, authoritarian ideology
of the 21st Century, that is Soviet communism. We have seen the
rise, and now the turbulence and the trepidation of the Asia-Pacific
region as the fastest growing economic area in the world. We have
also seen a massive transformation of Australian politics.
We are now living in a far less tribal political state that we
lived in the early 1970s. We have also lived through a period of
time when elections have been dominated by economic issues. When
I was cutting my political teeth as a member of the Liberal Party
organisation and stuffing letterboxes in suburbs like Earlwood and
Campsie and Dulwich Hill and Hurlstone Park with people like Tom
Hughes, who became Federal Attorney-General in the Gorton Government
after the 1969 election, elections used to be fought, as Tony Eggleton
who is in audience, and there is somebody who shares, as well as
anybody in this audience, the ups and downs and the successes and
the triumphs of our side of politics over that period of time, the
issues that tended to dominate the political scene then were not
economic issues.
But I can't think of an election since 1974, I would say 1972
was the last election that was determined overwhelmingly on non-economic
issues, that was determined on what you might call historical, cultural
changes issues rather than economic ones. And from 1974 onwards
it changed and there was, of course, a reason for that, and that
is the enormous impact of all those economic changes that occurred
in the 1970s with the floating of the American dollar, the collapse
of the Bretton-Woods international financial arrangements and the
OPEC oil increases and all the other domestic changes.
So we are a world away from the political world of Australia that
I entered in 1974 when Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister and the
late Bill Snedden was the Leader of the Opposition. When Jim Cope
was the Speaker for a time to be replaced by Gordon Skulls, who
I might say in my view, distinguished himself as a Speaker of the
House of Representatives. I thought that Gordon Skulls was in fact
a very good Speaker and he had, for a person appointed as a Speaker
by the Labor Party, an extraordinary difficult moment in controlling
Parliament on the 11th of November 1975.
To have been present at some of those great and, at times traumatic
political events. To have lived through the circumstances of 1975.
To have lived through, as a junior Minister, the early years of
the Fraser Government. To have been trusted, unexpectedly with the
responsibilities of Treasurer, as David recounts in the first pages
of the book. To have suffered the fate of trying to keep pace with
drinking beer with Malcolm Fraser in the Kirribilli hotel after
I was sworn in as Prime Minister - and David correctly records that
I didn't do terribly well out of that, although the press conference
the next morning wasn't too bad.
To have gone through the difficulties as the years wear on of the
governments, which inevitably develops tensions. To have gone through,
in government, a few dark moments. And as I read the book I was
reminded of some of the internal difficulties. I think one of the
gut-wrenching experiences that I had was the enormous struggle within
my own party and within some sections of the broader community regarding
the very controversial anti-tax avoidance measures that I introduced
as Treasurer in 1982.
And ironically enough, and David won't mind me saying this,
David asked me in his afterlife, after he'd left Malcolm Fraser
as press secretary, in fact as part of his duties in Canberra, was
vigorously advocating with me, almost on a daily basis, and he did
the job extremely well to calls of those who objected very violently
to some of the measures that I was undertaking. I might say, not
on grounds of the principle of tax avoidance but what he regarded
as the very controversial and improper methods that the Government
had adopted in order to recoup to the Australian Treasury the tax
that had been so wickedly avoided by these people.
That was typical of the sort of exchange that David and I would
have at that particular time. David, of course, himself has been
present at all of these events as a commentator and as a journalist.
And as Malcolm Fraser's press secretary he was with him on
November 11th 1975 and he joined his staff when Malcolm became Leader
of the Opposition. And he stayed with Malcolm until after the 1980
election and he then became a consultant. Then after the defeat
of the Fraser Government he returned to the Press Gallery. And he
has witnessed all of those events. I have had a strong personal
relationship with him but it has never clouded the professionalism
of the job that he has done as a journalist and as a commentator.
And so to me one of the great values of this book is that it does
represent, through the experience and circumstances of myself in
the various roles that I have had during that 23 year period, it
does represent, as I said, a chronicle of Australian politics and
the Australian economy over that period of time.
There are many things about political life now which I have mentioned
which are so different from what they were 23 years ago. I have
talked about the detribalised character of Australian politics.
I think also it is fair to say that politics has become even more
volatile and even more unpredictable now than it was in the 1970s.
If I reflect on my childhood and the political experiences I imbibed
then, I guess the stability and the predictability at that time
is the dominant recollection that one has.
And if I look back over the last 18 months can I leave the thought
with you that, probably the biggest single change that has occurred
in the last 18 months, even more important than the impressive achievements
of my Government, of which David was kind enough to draw attention,
with which I won't too long detain you this morning.
But rather the most important thing that has happened over that
last 18 months has been, in my view, the very significant change
in the dynamic of the relationship between Australia and the Asia-Pacific
region. Not in the sense that I suggest for a moment that our fortunes
aren't forever committed and our destiny not forever tied
up with the future of that region. But the transformation brought
about largely, but not entirely, by the economic instability in
a number of the major economies in the Asia-Pacific region have,
I think all of both the dynamic and the psychology and also the
actuality of our relationship with that region.
We are no longer seen as some kind of anxious outsider clamouring
to be a member of this spectacularly successful club, rather we
are seen as a strong, reliable, dependable, better run, more successful,
capable of punching above its weight participant in the Asia-Pacific
region. And I think as the months go by the psychology of that and
the way it will impact on Australian politics and the way it will
reinforce the need for Australia always to be, in a political and
economic sense, a citizen of the world as well as giving priority
to our associations with our immediate region. And I think it is,
without doubt, the single most important change in the dynamic of
anything that has occurred over this period of time.
One of the satisfying things of political life can genuinely be
that when you have had a difficult association and you have had
struggles which have become publicly known, with some individuals,
that over a period of time that you can become reconciled to each
other and time and circumstances will alter attitudes. It is no
secret that Andrew Peacock and I over the years, inside the Liberal
Party, had the odd disagreement. It is also no secret, I think unfairly
on occasions, we together were blamed for the assorted ills and
sins and failures and inadequacies of the Federal Parliamentary
Liberal Party.
And I must say that I did find an immense personal satisfaction,
as time went by and particularly after the 1993 election in which,
almost by accident at first but then over a period of time, both
of us decided that it was rather stupid, this personal enmity which
was never quite as big, although some people in this room might
find it hard to believe given some of the circumstances that occurred,
that that should go on forever.
And I do say that one of the most pleasing appoints I have made
as Prime Minister was to initiate Andrew Peacock's appointment
as Australian Ambassador to Washington. Not only because I felt
it completed the process of reconciliation between two people who'd
been competitors in the pursuit of the same cause, but I think it
also has delivered to this country a magnificent Ambassador in the
United States of America whose great diplomatic and interpersonal
skills are very effectively deployed there.
There are many other people in this room that I could talk about.
I, of course, record unstintingly, indeed fulsomely, my affection
and gratitude towards my family who have been in their various manifestations,
commencing with my very devoted and loyal and decent parents who
gave to me a view of right and wrong as they saw it and as I believed
in. And they gave to me a sense of country and a sense of effort
and a sense of personal striving and a sense of humility, I hope,
although some might doubt that, and a sense of always trying to
do the right thing by people, for which I have remained grateful
during my life.
My father died when I was 16 but I have never forgotten his influence
and I have never forgotten his great decency and his quiet love
of his country and his commitment to his community and most particularly
to his family.
My mother was an immensely strong and influential person who fiercely
protected and promoted the interests of her four sons, of which
she became immensely proud. She of course didn't live to see
me become Prime Minister. She did live to see me become Federal
Treasurer and she died just a few weeks before I was ejected from
that office by the vote of the Australian people. But I owe both
of them, now long-dead, a very great debt of gratitude.
To my three older brothers, with whom I have always had a very
close bond. Wal, my eldest brother, is here today with his wife
Gwyn, and my next-eldest brother, Stan. Wal was the small businessman
in the family which followed Dad's pattern and he's now
very happily retired next to the Leura golf course which is a pleasant
existence. He's come down here. And Stan, who became a very
well known corporate lawyer around town and in Sydney, a company
director. And then of course there's Bob who is quite well
known on the other side of the political spectrum. Bob and I are
an interesting sort of commentary on what is the essentially egalitarian,
and I think likeable character, of Australian politics.
I won't tell that foundry joke again, Janette, but one of
the things that's always terrific about Australian politics
is that there is still an accessibility and a capacity to jump across
a political barrier in Australia that doesn't exist in many
other countries. Bob was once a member of the Liberal Party but
he left us, I suspect largely because of the Vietnam war, but not
entirely because of that, and he's now a very active member
of the, what he calls the nice left of the Labor Party in New South
Wales.
Thereby hangs a marvellous story when, was it Les McMahon who used
to be the Labor Member for Sydney? He was being challenged for preselection
by Peter Baldwin, and Peter Baldwin as you know was on the left
and my brother, Bob, was a member of one of the branches in Leichhardt.
And Les came up to me in the corridor one day and he said, "John,
do you think you could put in a word in the pre-selection ballot
with your brother for me"?
I said, "forget it mate, he's barracking for Peter Baldwin".
And of course, that turned out to be the case. Bob and Baldwin won,
Les lost but the point of all of that is Bob and I have remained
good friends and good brothers. When I became Prime Minister I rang
him up to invite him down to the swearing in because he'd worked
in a polling booth on Petersham Town Hall all day on election day.
I said, "you ought to come down to the swearing in". He
said, "I'll do that". He said, "what's
the order of proceedings?" I said, "well, the order of
proceedings is that I get sworn in as Prime Minister and then we
all go in and I sort of introduce my Ministry to the Governor General,
and they are all sworn in one in turn". He said, "I tell
you what, I'll strike a deal with you". He said, "I
will be there for your swearing in". He said, "we can
then have a photograph and a cup of tea" but he said, "I
don't think I could hang around for the rest of your mob".
So I thought that was a very decent compromise but it's never
fair in those circumstances of course to leave unacknowledged the
enormous contribution that the two of my brothers who voted Liberal
and remain very bright and clear-eyed on these matters and have
been very, very staunch and loyal supporters in every sense of the
word, of my political aspirations.
And of course, to my three magnificent children with whom, as the
years went by I have grown ever more fond. I didn't think when
I was dumped as Leader of the Opposition in 1989 it was all that
flash but one thing it did do was that at a critical time in the
ages of my children it meant that I spent a great deal more time
with them.
One of the great pieces of mythology in bringing up children is
the belief that it's when they're sort of in their late
teens that you've got to find more time for them. The fact
is that by the time they're in their late teens they're
not particularly interested in you finding a lot more time for them
and it's really much earlier than that and of course I got
dumped at a time that neatly coincided with that. Over the years
they have been very good political advisers, down to my son, Tim.
When I was talking about the necessity of preparing for the second
debate against Paul Keating in the last election he said to me,
"Dad, you've got to do something about those shoulders".
He was referring to the fact that I tended, when I was trying to
make a point, to do something with my shoulders and keeping that
in mind, keeping Tim's admonition in mind, I did precisely
that. I can see Janette is looking at me saying, John, this is going
on just a little bit too long, and it is but you don't launch
your own biography every day, do you.
Can I thank David, with assistance from Pru, for their friendship.
It has been a friendship over a long period of time. David has acute
and impeccable judgements on most things, although a few things
where we do disagree rather violently. He has a wealth of political
experience and understanding and both David and Pru are people who
understand not only the mechanical side of politics but also the
human side of politics.
And it's of enormous importance that people with that treasure
trove of experience have the opportunity of putting it down and
whether you agree with it or disagree, or reject it or accept it,
it becomes part of the written history. As we approach the centenary
of the Federation of Australia we are going to get increasingly
interested in what's gone before us and I think over the next
two or three years we are going to have an explosion of interest
in this country in what we have achieved, particularly over the
last 100 years.
Of course as we get to the Centenary of Federation, we are getting
to that moment when there would be so few, if at all, Australians
left who participated in some of the great events that have shaped
this century and shaped the first 100 years of the Australian nation.
It won't be long before there will be nobody left alive who
served in World War One. There will be diminishing numbers of people
who experienced the rigours of the Great Depression and as we get
towards the centenary of our Federation, we are reminded of all
that experience and all that history. Everything is a
contribution to that so I am very, very grateful to all of you.
I want to conclude by saying that it's not only a chronicle
of the 25 years in Australian politics. It's also a chronicle
of the ins and outs and the successes and the triumphs and the failures
and the losses of the Liberal Party of Australia.
I joined the Liberal Party of Australia 40 years ago. I owe it
an enormous debt. I would not have been a Member of Parliament had
it not been for the Liberal Party. I would not have been leader
of the Party without that gift from it, and I certainly would not
have been Prime Minister, and I have a deep love of the Party with
all its weaknesses and I think it is a great institution. And I
remain profoundly in its debt as I am in the debt of David and Pru
for this excellent production.
Thank you.