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Prime Minister, Madam Speaker, Lord Chancellor, Mr Speaker, Madam President and particularly do I also acknowledge the presence here today of two former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Baroness Margaret Thatcher and John Major and the presence of four of my predecessors, John Gorton, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke. And also the Premiers of five of the Australian States and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
Can I say to you Lord Chancellor that you and Madam Speaker have done us a special honour in relation to this reception. It is an opportunity for me to express my gratitude to you Prime Minister for the generous welcome that the British Government and all associated with it have given to us in connection with Australia week here in London. It does observe one of the three great symbolic milestones of Australian Federation. The first of them was the passage of the British Act which gave legal force to a constitution that had not been forced upon an unwilling group of colonies by the Westminster Parliament, but a constitution which had been voted on and embraced by the people of Australia in a series of referenda. And as a consequence this particular event is a very important, symbolic milestone in the march of the Australian people a hundred years ago towards Federation and towards nationhood.
But we also celebrate here this week the scale of the Australian achievement over that one hundred year period. It's an achievement that has seen Australian cleverly, in my view, preserve the best of her inheritance and the best of her history - preserve those things inherited from the past that have been worth preserving. But perhaps move on from others not so worthy of preservation and to embrace new and different attitudes and new and different traditions.
Australia is a remarkable amalgam of history and modernity. It is a remarkable achievement that we can preserve the best of the history enshrined in this building yet mould it to the particular needs of a contemporary and diverse Australian society. And can I say one of the special pleasures and privileges of being Prime Minister of Australia is that we can feel a sense of ownership of the values that are here today, but we can also feel a sense of ownership of different ways in different parts of the world. And so we have come, a group of us, to London this week, to mark that very important event. To honour the Australian statesman of one hundred years ago who negotiated with Joseph Chamberlain, the then Colonial Secretary, I might say who was not an unwilling partner in the birth of the Australian Federation. Indeed the history of all of the relationships between the former Colonial Governments and the British Government and then the Federal Government of Australia after 1901 was not of a reluctant United Kingdom trying to hang onto constitutional power. Indeed the Statute of Westminster was enacted by the British Parliament in 1931 but it was not until 1943 that it was formally ratified by the Australian Parliament during World War II. The relationship constitutionally has always been a true partnership.
We celebrate history today, we also celebrate a shared present. And that shared present gives expression in the very close commercial links to which the Prime Minister has referred. The great equality of the cultural exchanges between our two societies. No Londoner can but be impressed by the impact of Australians on the cultural and artistic life of this city. Be it the opera, be it the ballet, be it painting, be it literature. Australian names and Australian achievement and Australian excellence is to be found everywhere.
But most importantly of all, what we honour and celebrate today in terms of our shared history and our great partnership are the values that we hold in common. The great worth of societies are always measured by the values that those societies have and the values that those societies are prepared to defend and what they are prepared to do in order to defend those values.
I said last night at the Guildhall the great contribution of Britain and Australia to the world has been our joint willingness when needed to sacrifice much to defend those principles of individual liberty, of the rule of law, of a civil society, of respect for difference and a tolerance of difference. They have been the special contributions of our two societies to the world. We owe much to Britain and we thank Britain for what she has given to Australia. Britain in turn owes much to Australia. It has been a very strong and robust partnership.
We honour it today, I thank you Prime Minister. I thank you Lord Chancellor and Madam Speaker. Australians are very much honoured by this occasion and we thank you very warmly.
Thank you.
ends