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Mr Speaker, Mr President of the Senate, distinguished members of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Congress of the United States, may I say how very touched I am by the warmth and generosity of your welcome.
I appreciate very deeply the honour that you have extended to me today, and more importantly the honour you have extended to my country Australia. Can I on behalf of over 19 million freedom loving Australians convey to you their deep affection and their warm greetings and their sense of solidarity and friendship.
The bonds between Americans and Australians are as strong as they are genuine. And that is because we share so many values in common. A belief that the individual is more important than the State. A belief that strong families are a nation';s greatest resource. A belief that competitive capitalism is the real key to national wealth. And a belief that decency and hard work define a person';s worth, not class or race or social background.
My friends, let me say to you today that America has no better friend anywhere in the world than Australia. Australians and Americans enjoy each other';s company. We share a love of sport and in some of them we are fierce competitors. And we even from time to time share the Academy Awards.
When I last came to this great chamber of democracy on the 12th of September last year, the smoke still hung in the air over New York and Washington. Brave and courageous policemen and firemen with no regard to their own safety, searched in the hope of finding survivors. The scale of loss and destruction was yet to be fully calculated.
In seeking justice and not revenge, in choosing calm consideration over blind fury, in turning to friends before turning on enemies, the United States over recent months has led a great reaffirmation of all of those great values and principles on which both of our societies are based.
America fought back magnificently – and in the process has won the admiration of the world. You demonstrated to the world that where fundamental freedoms flourish, evil men can do their worst, cause death and devastation but in the end they will never win.
In his inaugural address, George Washington spoke of the destiny of the American people to preserve ‘the sacred fire of liberty';. That promise has been kept for more than two centuries – but never more so than since the appalling events of September last year.
Through these times Australians have shared your shock and anger and have been partners in your resolve. We have taken our place beside you in the fight against terrorism, because what happened last year in the United States was as much an attack upon our nation and the values that we hold dear, as it was upon yours. As we meet, Australian and American troops are fighting side by side in Afghanistan. And it is our constant prayer that they all return safely home to their loved ones.
In these past months President Bush has displayed the tenacity, the strength and the depth of character of a very great leader. And he is also applying those great qualities to the tensions in the Indian sub-continent between India and Pakistan and the intractable situation in the Middle East.
It is a special privilege for me to return to this historic place, to address the representatives of a great nation whose people we hold in such high regard and who we feel great warmth and affection towards.
Like you, Australia enters the new century strong and prosperous. Over the past decade, the productivity and growth of our economy has been ahead of most other developed nations. Our pioneer past, so similar to your own, has produced a spirit that can overcome adversity and pursue great dreams. We';ve pursued a society of opportunity, fairness and hope, leaving – as you did – the divisions and prejudices of the Old World far behind.
Like your own, our culture continues to be immeasurably enriched by immigration from the four corners of the world. We believe as you do that nations are strengthened not weakened, broadened and not diminished, by a variety of views and an atmosphere of open debate.
Most of all, we value loyalty given and loyalty gained. The concept of mateship runs deeply through the Australian character. We cherish and where necessary we will fight to defend the liberties we hold dear.
Australian and American forces fought together for the first time in the Battle of Hamel, in France, in World War I. The date of the attack – the 4th of July 1918 - was deliberately chosen by the Australian Commander, General John Monash, to honour your countrymen. One of the Australian units held in reserve for that attack was the Third Pioneer Battalion, and it had a young signalman called Lyall Howard. He was my father.
From that moment to this, we';ve been able to count on each other when it has mattered most. Let me say, and I know I speak on behalf of all of my fellow Australians, in saying that we will never forget the crucial help that America extended to us during the darkest days of World War II. Without that help, our history and our society would have been totally different.
Successive generations of Australians and Americans have fought side by side in every major conflict of the twentieth century – in the jungles of New Guinea, in Korea, in Vietnam, in the Gulf, in skies and oceans around the globe and now, in another new century, among the rock-strewn mountains of Afghanistan.
The ANZUS Treaty of 1951 pledged each country to come to the aid of the other if it were under attack. And so it was that in a United States Airforce plane made available to me on the 12th of September last year to enable me to return to Australia, and high above the Pacific Ocean, I informed the United States Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer that it was our intention for the first time in the 50 year history of the ANZUS Treaty, to invoke that Treaty in response to the attack upon America.
America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help.
My friends, both of our societies are built on a deep respect for the worth of each individual. “The worth of a state, in the long run” wrote John Stuart Mill in 1859 “ is the worth of the individuals composing it … a state which dwarfs its men in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes – will find with small men no great thing can really be accomplished”.
America and Australia are societies which extol the precious worth of each individual man and woman.
Like you I see family life at the heart of a nation';s existence. Not only does the family nurture and educate our children but it provides emotional anchorage for all of us as we travel through life. The strength of the family of course goes beyond the spiritual and the emotional. United, caring families are the best social welfare system mankind has ever devised.
Both of our societies draw great strength from the spirit of volunteerism. The huge, exuberant success of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 owed a lot to the warmth and infectious dedication of tens of thousands of volunteers. They gave the Games a sense of exhilaration and joy which contributed enormously to their success. Edmund Burke once called voluntary groups society';s “small platoons”. They are in fact the living tissue between the government and the people.
I think we would all agree that political life in both of our nations is undergoing great change. I find, as I am sure you do, that politics now is a lot less tribal than it used to be. Lifelong allegiances are looser and less frequent. Modern society has given young people infinitely more options than was the case a generation ago.
Governments must be decisive but also modest. Grand gestures without practical results help no-one. People want outcomes not political fireworks and constant battles. And above all, they want space from governments to get on with their own lives.
I';ve spoken much of our common values, our shared history and our deep respect and affection for each other as peoples. Let me say that we also share a common interest in spreading and better understanding the benefits of globalisation. The balance sheet of globalisation is overwhelmingly favourable to mankind. We must, however, better understand and explain its advantages to all of our citizens.
Trade reform and liberalisation have delivered benefits to people in many countries and I believe they can deliver much more. I understand that the demands of local constituencies and international responsibilities must be finely balanced.
As a true friend let me say candidly that Australia was intensely disappointed with the passage of the recent Farm Bill. It will damage Australia';s farmers. They are efficient producers with very little government support.
I know that the farm and export subsidies of, for example, the European Union are much greater than those of the United States. Indeed, OECD agricultural subsidies are two-thirds of Africa';s total Gross Domestic Product. The cost of these subsidies is at least three times all of the Overseas Development Aid to developing countries.
This only serves to illustrate the urgent need for global reform of agriculture within the World Trade Organisation framework. The challenge is to achieve a comprehensive Doha trade round. And that will require close cooperation and collaboration between Australia and the United States within the WTO.
American leadership will be crucial. May I respectfully express the hope that Congress gives the President full authority to negotiate new trade agreements.
At the same time, we in America and Australia have an historic opportunity to give even greater momentum to our bilateral economic relationship. And that is why Australia has proposed the negotiation of a free trade agreement between our two countries. A comprehensive free trade agreement, by boosting trade and investment between us, would add a stronger economic dimension to the very deep bilateral ties that are already there.
Turning for a moment to the strategic challenges of our own region, let me say that Australia welcomes and encourages a full and active engagement by the United States in the Asia Pacific. It is immensely important not only to the nations of that region, but also to the interests of the United States. There is no region in the world more dynamic and changing more rapidly than the Asia Pacific region.
For ourselves, Australia is proud of the leadership role that we were able to play in East Timor. And to share the great independence celebration of that tiny country of fewer than a million people only a few weeks ago, and savour for a moment their sense of hope and exhilaration was a very moving experience. We stand ready to work in partnership with America to advance the cause of freedom, particularly in our shared Pacific region.
Mr Speaker, Mr President of the Senate, ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, you have as I said at the beginning, paid a great honour and compliment to me, but more particularly to my nation Australia, in inviting me to address you today.
Our relationship has been long. The ties between us are strong. The bonds, on a people to people basis between Americans and Australians are deep and rich. This relationship is nourished by many things. It is nourished by shared history. It is nourished by common commitment to democratic ideals and values. And it is nourished by our deep and resolute commitment to the role of the individual in society and the place of the family in the national framework of both of our nations.
I express to you on behalf of my fellow countrymen and women a sense of commitment to the constant struggle to preserve democracy and freedom around the world. I say it with great warmth because there is nothing false or phony or lacking in spontaneity in the relationship between our two peoples. It is not contrived. It is genuine. We like each other and we don';t mind saying it.Could I say to you today that as we move forward into this new century, we do so in the knowledge that no matter what will happen - and there will be many paths of difficulty requiring courage and grit and sacrifice - we travel through the century in the constant company of a true and great friend.
May God bless peoples of America and Australia.
Thank you.