L AA
PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
RELOCATION OF COMMENCEMENT COLUMN
CANBERRA 12 MARCH 1988
Exactly 75 years ago today, the fifth Prime Minister of
Australia, Andrew Fisher Australia's second Labor Prime
minister laid one of the three stones set in the base of
what was planned to be a monument to the commencement of the
national capital.
It is an honour for me to stand here today and, as the
counterpart of my distinguished predecessor Andrew Fisher,
to play my part in this re-enactment ceremony.
Our presence here today serves as a tribute to those men and
women of 1913 who inaugurated the development of our
national capital. But we are here not just to commemorate
but to celebrate to celebrate the success of their vision
and the vigour of" the city they established.
It is hard to imagine what this site would have looked like
years ago. Federation was an experiment just 12 years
old, and during those years there had been more than enough
heated debates about where to site the national capital of
the new Australian nation.
4..
The limestone Plains must have seemed remote from the
existing cenElres of civilisation and the participants in
this ceremony had in some cases spent days journeying here
to this spot, apparently stuck in the middle of the bush.
The hills, trees, and wide open spaces an emptiness
scarcely broken by the few homesteads that had already been
built must have made even the most confident among them
slightly uncertain as to whether they were really
inaugurating the leading city of the nation.
But today, qf course, Canberra is an established city, a
magnet for national and international tourists, the
headquarters of many national organisations, and, quite
simply, one of the most superb urban environments for. a
quarter of a million residents. 005012
2.
It is highly appropriate that we should be celebrating
Canberra's 75th anniversary in the year of our Bicentennial
because the way this city has grown in size, stature and
style is illustrative of the way our nation has developed.
Canberra is the symbol of the success of Federation; a
fitting home for the institutions of our democratic life,
and an encouragement for our future national growth.
In May we will be opening the latest and in many ways the
greatest of Canberra's national buildings the new
Parliament House, in whose shadow we virtually stand.
It was the construction of that magnificent building which
created the need for the relocation of the commencement
column to this spot.
I believe Andrew Fisher and other participants in this
ceremony in 1913 had they known this site was destined
for greater things would forgive us for correcting their
judgement as to the best site for this monument.
So above all, today's ceremony is about vision and
confidence in the future.
Australia faces a different range of problems today from
those faced by our predecessors problems relating to
changing economic and industrial realities throughout the
world problems of matching needs to resources and
problems of achieving social justice in a changing and more
complex world.
But if we can meet those challenges with the vision,
confidence, and the spirit with which our forebears created
this national capital, we can be sure of success.
4. 005013