E&OE...........
Thank you very much Mr Randall. A year ago yesterday, on the 10th of September, I met President George Bush for the very first time. I had spoken to him twice on the phone, but we spent together at different gatherings and in different ways three hours together on the day of the 10th of September. We attended a splendid ceremony at the Naval Dockyard in Washington, where the bell of the United States ship, Canberra, was handed over to Australia as a momenta of the alliance and friendship between us in World War II. Both of us at the ceremony reaffirmed the centrality of the ANZUS alliance and that particular ceremony was a way of marking, during my visit to Washington, the importance of the alliance to both of us. We then had a lengthy discussion in the White House. I was impressed with the President's extraordinary grasp of the whole range of world issues. And I was particularly struck, and I think it's important in the context of current events, at the commitment he had to building a very constructive relationship between the United States and Russia. And he spoke very warmly of his personal regard for President Putin. Later that afternoon, I went to the Pentagon, renewed my aquaintanceship with Donald Rumsfeld, who I'd met with Colin Powell when they came to Canberra the previous July for the Ausmin talks. And then, as many in the media know, I had dinner with Rupert Murdoch in Washington and a few people remarked that they thought that was going to be the story of the visit. But sadly of course, events unfolded the next day which have, although it's a clich to say so, it's nonetheless absolutely true, events that have changed the world. It's difficult to say anything new or different about those extraordinary events, but one must try.
To me, the two things that have left their deepest impression is that was in so many ways a very modern catastrophe. The most poignant reminders, and the Ambassador touched on it in church this morning, were those deeply personal messages left or conveyed by mobile telephone, that wouldn't have been possible a mere decade or two ago. And the fact that the attack on the Trade Centre in particular was an attack on one of the great outward manifestations of the globalised world. It's also an attack on a world that is very well known to the young, not only of this country but of so many other nations. Because the young have always been mobile, but I think the young of this generation are about the most mobile younger generation the world as ever seen. And there are none more mobile within that worldwide cohort than indeed the young of Australia, who are very mobile in every sense of the word. That is the first lasting impression it's had on me. I think the other of course is how it has driven home to us the vulnerability of all in the modern world to acts of unrestrained terrorism. And of course to an Australian, an attack on New York or Washington is not an attack on a distant, unfamiliar place – and I don't say that unkindly or disrespectfully of any other city in the world - I simply state the reality that because of the commonality of so many features of our culture, an attack on New York and Washington was bound to be felt more deeply and bound to be linked more immediately to the Australian psyche, than attacks on just about any other cities in the world. Not only have many Australians been to both cities, some have lived there for lengthy periods of time. But of course on top of that, we almost nightly see images of both places. But the revelation to all of us and if we reach into our hearts and minds and ask the question – did we really imagine, except in a very retrospectively theoretical sense, did we really image that something like this would have happened, I have to say to myself, I would have the answer was no. And that is why, I guess like everybody else, when I was told by Tony O'Leary, my Press Secretary, that the plane had hit, one plane had hit the Trade Centre, it wasn't of course until the second one that one began to grasp the concept that this was not a terrible accident, it was something far far more horrific.
I think the other thing that brought home to me the enormity of what had occurred is, I don't think I can recollect an event in my lifetime which, and my birthday is well publicised, in my lifetime which was more talked about for so long after the event. Many of us, of course, of my generation will say what were you doing when President Kennedy was assassinated? Older people might say, do you remember the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, the end of World War II, Australians will talk about the 11th of November 1975? But I can't think that any event goes near this in terms of the way in which it seized the consciousness of the world. And why is that so, because it was utterly devoid of any moral or political justification. It was a blind act of indiscriminate destruction and hatred. It needs to be said again that it was an attack as much on the decent values of Islam as it was an attack upon the decent values of Christianity and Judaism and all the other religions of the world. Barbarism has no ethnicity and evil has no religion. And it's a message that all of us should understand.
I think it's of course in the sense of fragility and vulnerability that it's induced that it's had it's most significant and lasting impression, not only in a personal sense but also in a political sense. It is now the case that no country can assume that another country possessing a capacity to inflict that kind of devastation on its citadels or indeed a group of people not necessarily belonging to a state. And indeed the masterminds of this particular outrage were, in proper senses of the word, stateless. It's a reminder of course that it can happen again. And it can have therefore very very significant implications for the willingness and the justification for nations taking action to prevent attacks of that kind being made upon their people and upon their assets. All tragedies of course bring forth no matter what their dimension is, bring forth good things and good deeds. The individual acts of heroism have been recounted time and time again. And the Ambassador gave us in his very eloquent way this morning, some examples of those.
I think the other benefit, if I can beg to use that expression, that has come out of the events of the 11th of September 2001, has been in many ways a level of cooperation between countries and within countries in the war against terrorism and the general bringing together of the nations of the world. I've attended, as you might expect a Prime Minister who's been in office for six and a half years, I've attended a lot of international conferences. I don't think I've attended one that was more impressive and more encouraging than the APEC meeting I attended in Shanghai in October of last year. This was a very special meeting for two reasons. It was the first significant international gathering since the 11th of September, or after the 11th of September. It was also, I believe, the largest international gathering hosted by the people of China since the communist revolution in 1949. And it brought to that great country, it brought the President of the United States, the President of Russia, the Prime Minister of Japan, the President of Indonesia and of course many others. And I found the sense of common purpose of that meeting so very ably chaired by President Jiang Zemin, I found the sense of common purpose and the identification of a common threat to very different societies. I found that deeply impressive, and none more impressive than the contribution of the Russian President who disabused in my mind any belief on his part that the terrorist attack was the automatic product of a particular dispute between two particular countries or groups of people in a particular part of the world. And he as a leader who had experienced, and continues to experience, the difficulties of terrorism within his own country, was left in no doubt about that.
The Shanghai meeting symbolised a very common determination of the world jumping over previous difficulties and barriers to combat terrorism. And subsequently of course in the campaign in Afghanistan to which our own defence forces have contributed so magnificently, and on this day as well as all other days, remain very much in our thoughts, the response of the world collectively was also very strong and very impressive. As indeed was the steady way in which the President led the American people to that response.
I think it';s also important to understand that in the wake of something of that magnitude, some previous conceptions and some previous attitudes were in fact changed and removed for all time. I think one of the things it has done is to encourage the world to have a somewhat better understanding of different cultures and different religions. And in the process of exhorting people not to scapegoat particular groups or particular religions, either here in Australia or elsewhere, I think all of us have benefited from a reaching across of previous cultural divides to bring about a better understanding.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I reflect – because being in Washington at the time did give a particular personal dimension to it – the sense of grief and identification I felt with our American friends was immediate and immense. And the sense of grief one felt for all of the victims of those terrible attacks was equally the same. When the President and I spoke on that beautiful morning on the 10th of September of the strength of the alliance and its resilience, we put it very much in a historical context. Neither of us had the faintest notion that within 24 hours we would be contemplating the invoking for the first time in its 50 year history of the provisions of the ANZUS Treaty, something that I discussed with the Foreign Minister over the excellent communication system in Airforce Two as we travelled across the Pacific with the American Ambassador Tom Schieffer, with his wife and their son.
So those personal dimensions are relevant but they are but a sidebar to the impact these events have had on the history of the world, the impact the've had on how we relate to each other within the world community. The've also of course brought forth a natural focus on the relationship between Australia and the United States. And I want to take this opportunity of saying that I will never apologise for the depth and the strength of the relationship between Australia and the United States. It is not a relationship which is the only relationship that matters to our country. We have many relationships that are deeply important and rich and greatly treasured by the Australian people, and there is no reason why a nation cannot have a whole series of relationships which in their different ways are very important. And I';m not in the business, and I think it';s a rather pointless thing to be in the business of trying to grade the intensity of the bilateral relationships that this country has.
But we do share with the United States a rich and deep history. We share with the United States, as we do with many other nations that are represented in this room, some common values and we share with all the nations of the world the universal human values of respect for life, respect for the individual personality, a belief that there is a difference between right and wrong, and there are evil deeds in the world which require an appropriate response. We share with the American people a comradeship in arms in all of the wars of the last 100 years. We share a belief that the worth of an individual is not derived from that person';s race, religion, ethnicity, colour or social background, but rather the innate decency that a person represents and the contribution that that person wants to give to society.
We also share broadly speaking a commitment to what I would please to describe as competitive capitalism - some would choose another description but I won';t get into that debate today – which is the foundation of the generation of national wealth. The United States has meant a great deal to Australia in the past. We have our differences, not just on the sporting field, but we have our strong differences on a number of trade and economic and political issues. But there are some shared values and a shared commitment to the sort of future we both believe in, that is enormously important. And I take this opportunity in the context of our nation';s reflection on what happened to America and to Americans overwhelmingly a year ago, to state the importance to me and my Government of that relationship.
It is impossible of course, and it would be delinquent of me as the Prime Minister of Australia on this occasion, not to address some remarks to the debate which is now developing over Iraq and her non-compliance with the resolutions of the Security Council. I start by saying something that I hope would be self-evident but sometimes things are not self-evident, and that is that we have no quarrel with the people of Iraq. We have no desire, and I can say based on the conversation I had with him last Saturday morning, nor does the President of the United States, have any desire to have a military conflict. I hate military conflicts and so does he. I was not speaking to somebody last Saturday morning who was eager to have a war. I was talking to somebody who was eager to go the extra distance to achieve some other solution, and I have no doubt that will be the thrust of what he has to say to the United Nations General Assembly within a couple of days.
We face the difficulty we do in relation to Iraq because of her repeated refusal to comply with resolutions of the Security Council. This is an issue that focuses not only on that but also focuses on the unwillingness to date of the United Nations to do its job. Australia has been a faithful, full fee paying member of the United Nations since it was founded in 1948. And in fact the first President of the United Nations, if my memory serves me correctly, was the late Dr Evatt?, who was then the External Affairs Minister in the Labor Government. And we have good credentials when it comes to faithful membership of the United Nations. We don';t always agree with it. We are highly critical of some aspects of its committee system, but we are nonetheless through Labor and Liberal Governments, we have been a member in good standing of the United Nations. And we will along with a number of other countries, I hope the great majority, look to the United Nations to do its job over the weeks ahead in relation to the Iraqi failure to comply.
People are asking the rhetorical question, what is the link between September 11 and the difficulties in relation to Iraq. The question of whether there was a direct link or not is something, to use the expression, on which the jury must be out. I don't assert it to be in the affirmative, I don't acknowledge that it is conclusively not the case, I simply join others in saying that one can't be absolutely certain. But what one can be certain of is that the fact that September 11 was able to occur, the fact that such an audaciously successful attack was able to be launched on the economic and military citadels of the most powerful country mankind has known, that must transform in the minds of all nations and not only the United States their attitude in the face of a potential threat which is not addressed. That is, in my view, the linkage that exists between the events of a year ago and the challenges that are now faced, not just by the United States, in fact, not primarily by the United States but, indeed, by the United Nations, by all of us.
It is not right, as the British Prime Minister said, that all of the responsibility should be on the United States. It is not right that the United States and her behaviour should be in the dock. I mean, what we have is an indisputable situation of non-compliance, repeated non-compliance over a number of years and against the background of evidence in the public domain of the possession of agents of warfare, both biological and chemical, and also an aspiration to develop a nuclear capacity which could be turned a reality if fissable material were imported from another source, take much longer if they were left to domestic sources. Now, they are the given facts. People can argue about some of the detail but they are given facts, attested to as recently as the report two days ago of the Institute of Strategic Studies in the United Kingdom.
So the world has a collective responsibility in relation to this issue and I've often said over the past few weeks and I'd repeat it here today that if over the course of the weeks ahead Iraq were to comply fully with the United Nations resolution and if there were inspectors allowed in again, under circumstances of where any requests made or instructions given became absolutely enforceable in a completely protected way then that would transform the situation overnight. And I think I would be expressing the collective prayer and hope of people around the world that that is what would happen. And I hope that in whatever way is chosen by the Untied Nations that is what is expressed or aspired to over the days and the weeks ahead.
That is our position in relation to this very difficult issue. It is not, in my view, an unreasonable position. It's not a belligerent position, it's not a militant position, it is a reasoned position. And I think it is probably the reasoned position of the great majority of people and I';m sure it would be the reasoned position of many nations in the Middle East and many nations that might have some differences with our country on a number of other issues.
There are just two other things that I would like to say before I sit down and take your questions and that is that I mentioned briefly my remarks about the Australian Defence Force. I do want to take this very public opportunity of thanking the men and women in the leadership of the Australian Defence Force for the role they have played over the last year as part of the Coalition Against Terrorism and the contribution that's been made. The leadership initially of Admiral Barrie, the then Chief of the Defence Force, and with him the now Chief, General Cosgrove and all of the other men and women of the Australian Defence Force, they have as always impressively and courageously represented this nation's interests. And they've gone abroad, as all Australian forces desirably go abroad, not in the name of the Government but in the name of the nation and the nation thanks him for that contribution.
Now, I also want to thank the many other people within the broad national security network of Australia for what they have done. The Australian Federal Police, the intelligence services, people working in the Protective Services and all the other Federal Government agencies, because a lot of things have changed over the last year. We do have to go through a lot more procedures, we do have to go through a lot more checks and it's likely to be that for a long time into the future. We have, of necessity, tightened our security laws. I believe through the great parliamentary processes that this country has I believe that we have got the balance right. There's argument at the margins. Nobody wants to take away people's civil liberties but, equally, when you live in a world that has changed and has been rendered permanently more vulnerable as a result of what occurred last year you do have to make changes. And for all of those who have cooperated in that I want to thank you.
And very finally, ladies and gentlemen, this is a day of sadness for many tens of thousands of people around the world, it's a day of sadness for the many hundreds of relatives and close friends of the 10 Australians who lost their lives and we have the opportunity, in a very moving way, at St Christopher's this morning hearing from a representative of them. But it's also a day, amidst all of the sadness, where the great capacity of the human spirit to recover and to soar above adversity is apparent. There's a lot of sadness and heartache and a lot of tears in the recollection but there's also a million stories of great inspiration. The Ambassador mentioned some of them this morning. One that always stuck in my mind and I'll always remember was the story of Father Michael, the Chaplain of the New York Fire Department, who went back into building to administer the last rites of the Catholic Church to a number of dying firemen only to lose his own life. And we all react in different ways to these things and different stories have different impressions on different people. That's one that stuck with me. It seemed to symbolise the unity of service and faith which are so very important ingredients of a decent society.
Thank you.
[ends]