Subjects: President of Germany; Australian-German relations; greenhouse gas emissions; Australian wine.
E&OE..................
Your excellency Johannes Rau, Mrs Rau, Minister, other members of the German delegations, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
It';s a special delight for Janette and I to welcome you Mr President to Canberra, to the capital of Australia, and to take the opportunity of expressing on behalf of the people of Australia the great warmth we feel towards our relationship with Germany and the German people.
Our two countries have much in common. We are both modern, industrialised nations. Germany is the world';s second largest trading nation and the third largest economy, indeed being in economic terms almost as large as the United Kingdom and France put together. Australia is the fourth largest economy in the Asia-Pacific. German investment in Australia is very important. It exceeds $13 billion. 50,000 Australians are employed directly and indirectly by German companies.
More importantly still, the personal and family links between our two countries are very strong and they go back a very long way. Something in the order of 500,000 Australians claim German ancestry. And I';m pleased to say that the very newest recruit, the very newest appointment to the Ministry that I lead in the Federal Parliament, Eric Abetz, was in fact born in Stuttgart. And it';s a reminder to many of us of the long history of the association between our two nations. A history that has been touched by tragedy and conflict, but a history which in post World War II days has seen a coming together in a mutual involvement in the democratic processes, a desire to tackle human rights challenges around the world, and a desire to work together in the building of a more harmonious and cooperative world.
You yourself Sir have had a very long and a very distinguished career in German politics. You were, I understand, for 20 years the Premier of Rhineland Westphalia. And you have served in politics for a much longer period than that, I think in the order of 41 years, which is a remarkable achievement. It';s certainly a sign of great resilience. After almost 27 years my mind boggles at the prospect.
But Mr President, you and your wife come to an Australian nation very confident of the various links that we have with different parts of the world. We are a nation that owes much of our history and our heritage and much of our origin to the peoples of Europe. Not only to the United Kingdom and Ireland but also increasingly since World War II to the hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of people who';ve come to this country from different parts of the world, and most particularly from Europe.
You come to a country that is proud of those associations and those links, but is nonetheless a country that sees itself as playing a very significant role in the Asian-Pacific region. And the immediate political and economic destiny of Australia does lie very much in our own region. And you yourself are no stranger to the largest country immediately to our north, and that is Indonesia. We talked this morning about the challenge of the political and economic transformation which is now occurring in Indonesia. And we compared our reminiscences of some of the key figures in Indonesian politics of recent times and the great importance all of us attach to a successful transition of the Indonesian republic to a democratic condition.
You have played a major humanitarian role within your own country in bringing about a better understanding between people of different ethnic backgrounds and different attitudes. You have been a peacemaker and a reconciler and a person who has reached out the hand of friendship to the less privileged within your own society.
There are many things which we share in a political and economic outlook with the people of Germany. We both value the importance of a strong private sector. We both value the stabilising social influence of a strong social security safety net. We both value the importance of world trade, we of course would like to see a slightly higher emphasis put on world trade in agriculture than does currently the member states, or do currently the member states of the European Union.
We spoke of that this morning. We spoke also of our common commitment to controlling greenhouse gas emissions around the world. I took the opportunity of informing you, Mr President, that Australia remains committed to the achievement of an effective world wide understanding in relation to greenhouse gas emissions. The domestic commitments we made following the Kyoto summit will be maintained by Australia. But we do share the concerns of a number of other countries including the United States that an effective world wide protocol on greenhouse gas emissions cannot be achieved without the involvement of the developing countries.
We also believe that the issue of sinks and the issue of tradeable credits must also form an important part of that agreement. I know the importance that your country attaches and the government of your country attaches to this issue. And I believe notwithstanding some differences of emphasis that we can work together very effectively.
Mr President, I want to say to you and your party how important it is to us that a relationship such as ours, which is now a very old and stable and mutually respectful relationship, should always be properly cared for. And the attention that is brought to it by visits such as your own. Only a few years ago the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Australia and not so long before that one of your predecessors as President of the Federal Republic visited our country.
Germany has contributed so much to civilisation, to the European culture of which we feel some kind of joint involvement and ownership along with you. The contribution of German people to probably one of our great export success stories - that is the wine industry - and I know that you shared reminiscences with the speaker, who represents the great wine growing district of South Australia, the Barossa Valley, during your encounter.
All of these things are reminders to us of what a rich and important relationship it is. But most importantly as with all relationships between nations the personal links, the exchanges of students, the exchanges of political visits, the common values, the common culture, the common commitment to the dignity of the individual and democratic institutions, those links are far and away the most important and your visit here reinforces those links.
You are most welcome. I know you are going to Melbourne after being in Canberra and you were talking enthusiastically of the possibility of going to an Australian Rules football match. I commend it very warmly to you, I know it is not widely played in Germany, but you may have seen it on television. It really is a remarkable game, a great spectator sport and I hope you get the opportunity of seeing a match.
But to you and your wife, welcome to our country. I hope you enjoy your time in Australia and I now invite Mr Kim Beazley the Leader of the Opposition to support my remarks.
Thank you.
[ends]