E&OE....................
Thank you very much your eminence, your grace, my many friends and all of
you who have come along tonight particularly to demonstrate your support
for the cause of liberalism not only here in New South Wales but throughout
Australia.
Some very kind things have been said about me tonight and I particularly
thank my dear friend and former colleague as Deputy Prime Minister, Tim
Fischer. I have said before that if I were in a political trench I would
rather have Tim Fischer on my side than anybody else. And anybody who understands
the support base and the origins of the National Party, once the Country
Party of Australia, will understand how difficult it was for a leader of
the National Party to give the total and uncompromising support for the
gun control legislation that Tim did.
It was easier in the cities than it was in the regions and the bush. But
Tim has been nice, Alan's been nice, Michael Yabsley, Tony Staley, you have
all been very kind but I wanted in the few moments I'll speak tonight I
wanted to really turn it back on what has been said so kindly about me and
to say that because this is a gathering of the faithful in a sense and the
support base of the party here in Sydney and all of New South Wales and
because I joined the Liberal Party in New South Wales and spent more than
40 years as a member of the party starting here in Sydney that everything
I have achieved in politics has been due to the Liberal Party.
I would never have been a Member of Parliament without the support and the
endorsement of the party. I would never have become Leader of the Opposition
without the confidence of my parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party
and I, of course, would never have become Prime Minister of Australia without
the support of the Liberal Party. And I owe the Liberal Party a great debt
and I am ever mindful of that and I have never forgotten what the Liberal
Party did for me. I have never forgotten the political craft I learnt in
my early years in the Liberal Party and as a symbol of that I am particularly
happy that my dear friend, John Carrick and his wife Angela are with us
tonight.
Being Leader of the party is an enormous privilege. Of course to be Prime
Minister of our country is the greatest privilege that can come the way,
in my view, of any person in the democratic world. This country has assets
and talents and capacities and a way of life that is properly the envy of
the rest of the world.
Alan referred to that phrase I often use that we occupy a unique intersection
of both history and of geography and of culture. We are, in so many ways,
a projection of western civilisation in our part of the world but that is
not the full story. We have very close and enduring historic and other links
with the people of North America but here we are in the Asian-Pacific region
and having our own society nourished in a very positive way by the infusion
of hundreds of thousands of Australians of Asian descent into our community.
And that gives us a capacity to project that unique experience and that
unique inheritance in a way that no other nation on earth is able to do
in our part of the world. And that was one of the reasons why I believed
that we were able to do what we did in relation to East Timor. And we have
therefore not only a situation where we occupy that unique intersection
but we also have, with that, an enormous responsibility.
We now have the strongest economy in the Asian-Pacific region in terms of
all the overall economic measurements. If I had stood before you a year
ago I would not have been able to say with total conviction that we were
going to stare down the worst economic downturn the Asian-Pacific region
has seen. I would not have been able to say that. And I want to acknowledge
the contribution that many have made to that. I acknowledge the contribution
that Peter Costello, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and the Treasurer,
in the time that I have been Prime Minister the contribution that Peter
has made to that and I acknowledge the contribution of many others.
But the story of Australia at the moment is a story of immense achievement
of great strength and enormous pride. I don't think this country has stood
taller and stronger in the chances of the world than it does at the present
time. Economic strength produces political and diplomatic strength. You
are listened to with more attention and you are listened to more seriously
if you speak from a base of economic strength and economic achievements.
There are many things that we have achieved in the last almost four years
and I and others have spoken of them. This year has been an incredibly intensive
year. Taxation reform, industrial relations reform and above all the achievement
of bringing to the people of East Timor the freedom that they had the opportunity
of voting for and they voted for so overwhelmingly.
We were able to achieve in that diplomatic effort the assembly of a United
Nations peace enforcement operation with a speed and a decisiveness that
had not previously been matched in any other peace enforcement operation
carried out under the aegis of the United Nations. And that is a source
of enormous strength to this country and a source of very great pride and
it reflects enormous credit on the Coalition Government. The Coalition Government
was told - and I almost feel it that I shouldn't do it but I will introduce
a partisan note into this brief address - the Coalition Government before
it was elected was told that it didn't understand how to deport itself in
the Asian-Pacific region. We were told that the leaders of that region wouldn't
listen to us. We were told that we didn't understand how to make our way
in the region. I think we have demonstrated how totally fatuous and stupid
that assertion was because what we have succeeded in doing overwhelmingly
is to intelligently re-balance the relationships of this country with the
other nations of the world.
I have been a very lucky person in public life. I was lucky that I joined
the Liberal Party. I was lucky to have parents who taught me the value of
hard work, of loyalty to your community, of loyalty to your country and
of the importance of small business in our community. And I am delighted
to have two of my three brothers and their wives here tonight. As many of
you know, I have another brother but he belongs to another political party
and we get on very well but we have a standing arrangement that there's
anything involving me that doesn't involve a dollar for the Liberal Party
he comes, but if there's anything that involves a dollar for the Liberal
Party he doesn't. But I was very fortunate and I've had a very, very fortunate
life indeed in politics.
There are many people that I should thank tonight and the list is too numerous.
But I do particularly want to thank Janette, and Melanie, and Tim and Richard,
my wife and my three children who are the source of the greatest pleasure
and satisfaction and happiness in my life, and have been an absolutely indispensable
part of anything that I might have achieved both as Prime Minister and in
my other political responsibilities and I thank them very warmly.
Can I say just one thing about the future and that is that it's frequently
and rightly said that you judge the future prospects of a nation by the
projection and the values and the standing and the capacities of its young
people. I've had the privilege over the last week of mixing with two separate
groups of young Australians. Last weekend as you all know I visited Dili,
and I think I'm the first Prime Minister since John Gorton who is with us
tonight who visited our forces in Vietnam, to have visited Australian forces
in a theatre of military operation. And the privilege that it was of visiting
the committed young men and women, overwhelmingly young men and women, a
sense of professionalism, a sense of dedication and commitment and decency,
not only in pursuing their military objectives but also in winning the hearts
and minds of the people of East Timor. And that was an extraordinary privilege.
The other privilege I had last week was to spend a very happy evening with
arguably one of the greatest sporting teams that Australia has sent overseas
in recent years, the victorious Wallabies who won the World Cup in Cardiff
only very recently. They are absolutely without doubt in my mind as fine
a group of ambassadors to this nation as well as great sportsmen that one
could ever hope to have and to meet. And when I think of those two groups,
I see a young Australia comprised of decent, committed, capable, enterprising,
with the appropriate degree of recklessness and lack of fear that is the
stuff of a great a nation. And as Prime Minister it not only fills me with
immense pride but it also fills me with immense hope and immense optimism
about the future of our nation.
I was meant to finish my speech and I do it by very importantly thanking
all of you for the support that you are giving to the Millennium Forum here
in New South Wales. It is important but more than that it is critical to
the future of the Division here in New South Wales. I deeply appreciate
the support you have given. I congratulate Michael Yabsley and his incredible
energy, his incredible commitment. To raise money for a political cause
requires energy, cheek persistence, a willingness to take knock backs and
come back again, and Michael's got all of those qualities. I respect him
for it, I thank him, I declare the Forum launched and may it make a magnificent
contribution to the cause in which we all believe here in New South Wales
and all around Australia. Thank you very much for your support.
[ends]