Posted on 05/21/2006 4:22:47 AM PDT by naturalman1975
Mr Speaker, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Honourable Members of both Houses of the Canadian Parliament. Can I first say how deeply honoured I am at the privilege of addressing this Joint Sitting of the two Houses of the Parliament of Canada. I'm told that the only previous occasion on which an Australian prime Minister spoke to such a sitting was in 1944 when one of my Labor predecessors, John Curtin, on a visit to North America during the war, was extended that great honour and privilege. And I do want to therefore say I regard it as a great personal honour, and also a great honour to my country, Australia.
As your Prime Minister has said, the ties of history and of common practice between Australia and Canada are very great indeed. Both of our nations owe much to those nations of Europe that gave institutions and values and formation to our societies, to Great Britain, to France, to Ireland and to other nations of Europe. Both of us of course are nations of immigrants, not only from Europe and the Middle East, but in the case of both of our countries, in more recent years, from Asia. Indeed the constituency or riding that I represent in Sydney has an ethnic Chinese enrolment of between 10 and 15 percent. And the contribution being made to the modern vibrancy of Australia by immigration from Asia has been one of the many things that have meant that Australia is a confident, outward looking nation in the 21st century.
We are, as the Prime Minister said, kindred nations. We’re both in a sense children of the enlightenment, that period of rational inquiry, progress and modernity, which burst out of Europe, but indeed found some of its more fertile acceptance in the nations of the new world.
We share many values, we share the Westminster tradition of parliamentary democracy. We are both federations, Canada coming together in 1867 and Australia in 1901. We have shared many sacrifices in war. We remember the sacrifice of Australians and Canadians, particularly in those terrible battles of World War I at Passchendaele and elsewhere. And in World War II it will ever be to the credit of Canada and Australia and Great Britain and a small band of countries, that they stood together alone against the tyranny and horror of Nazi Germany for one whole year when all appeared to be lost. Of course during World War II many thousands of Australian airmen trained in Canada, one of them is an uncle of mine from Petersham, Sydney. He fell in love with and married a girl from Calgary and it is a link that is replicated in thousands of Australian families.
Since then of course we have fought together in the Korea, in the Middle East, in East Timor and now together, in response to the new and dangerous threat of terrorism, in Afghanistan. And I pay tribute to the enormous contribution of the Canadian nation to the effort in Afghanistan and I mourn the loss and the sadness of Canadian families in recent days. We of course are nations that have a lot of history in common. And perhaps if I can characterise our relationship I would put it this way; we have much in common but not as much to do with each other as we should. We’ve even followed different sporting paths. For reasons that have always escaped my comprehension and understanding, Canadians never embraced cricket, and ice hockey is not widely played in Australia. And on that subject can I congratulate the Edmonton Oilers on reaching the semi-finals. I wish them well as they do battle with those other teams from south of the border.
But the fact that perhaps we haven’t had as much to do with each other as we should’ve is a function of geography, as the Prime Minister mentioned. But I think, Honourable Members, that the challenges of the world in the first bit of the 21st century are really going to change that. Because many of those challenges I believe, if they are to be effectively responded to, will bring Canada and Australia together as never before in common purpose.
Globalisation presents to the world the most enormous opportunities and those countries that pulled down their trade barriers and opened their economies, and embraced globalisation are the economies that will thrive and succeed. And in that context let Canada and Australia work together to do what we can, as likeminded nations on the subject, to bring about a successful conclusion of the Doha Trade Round because Australia and Canada have interests in common at Doha. Not only have we legitimate national interests in common, but we have a legitimate interest in seeing barriers broken down so that the poorer nations of the world, that rely so heavily on rural exports, can gain access to markets that are closed to them at present.
There has, in the context of Doha, been a very generous offer made by the United States, one that went beyond many expectations of that country. And that offer must be reciprocated and if it’s not reciprocated then the prospects of a breakthrough in agricultural trade will be lost because the possibility of obtaining another authorisation from the American Congress for a new trade mandate is very, very dim indeed. We only have a matter of weeks to bring about a successful momentum in relation to Doha. And greater pressure must be applied to the Europeans and to other countries such as Japan and Brazil and India that are not seeing the opportunities that can be embraced in this latest negotiation.
Another area where I believe, because of our common interests, that Canada and Australia can work together is in the area of climate change. Australia as you know did not join Kyoto, not because we are opposed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, indeed we committed ourselves to reach the target set for Australia by Kyoto and we believe that we will achieve that target. But we do not believe that the greenhouse gas challenge and the environmental challenges that Kyoto was meant to address can indeed be accomplished or overcome rather, unless there is a full involvement of the major polluting nations of the world, the United States, China and India. And it’s because of that that Australia has become part of the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Energy, a partnership that brings together the United States, and Japan and Indonesia and China and Korea. It’s a partnership that seeks not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but to blend together the drive towards that and economic development.
In the energy area which is of course allied to climate change, Canada and Australia have much in common. We are the holders of the largest uranium reserves in the world and both of us must work together in relation to the recently proposed global nuclear energy partnership which seeks laudably to control proliferation, but we must as the holders of these vast uranium reserves, ensure that that particular partnership does not work against the interests of countries such as Canada and Australia.
Honourable Members for the first time in history the centre of gravity of the world’s middle class is shifting from Europe and North America to Asia, in a sense, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In a few years time there will be four to eight hundred million middle-class people in China and India. It represents an historic shift in the experience of the world and will have a profound and lasting impact on the economic growth and economic development of the world. We as two outward looking nations should not fear this in anyway. And in fact this development presents unique opportunities to both of our nations, opportunities that our outward looking societies, if we fully embrace it, can bring great benefit to our citizens. And this change and this development uniquely I believe suits the type of societies that Australia and Canada represent.
And these Mr Speaker are some of the opportunities of the early years of the 21st century. They’re opportunities that nations such as Canada and Australia that are built on an approach through individual liberty and freedom, and an approach to society that sees the worth of a person, not according to that persons race or nationality or religion, or social background, but according to that person’s character and commitment to the wellbeing of his and her fellow citizens. It presents to our two nations, imbued with those principles, opportunities that together I believe our two countries can embrace. They are the opportunities of the early years of the 21st century, but inevitably there are the brutal challenges of the early years of the 21st century.
And none of course is greater than the threat of terrorism. This new menace that knows no borders, that knows no morality, that knows no rationality, and defies in terms of ordinary behaviour, predictability. Terrorists oppose us not because what we have done, they oppose us because of who we are and what we believe in. And terrorism will not be defeated by nuancing our foreign policy, terrorism will not be defeated by rolling ourselves in to a small ball and going in to a corner and imagining that somehow or other we will escape notice.
My own country, according to all of our intelligence advice, was in fact a target for terrorism, even before the 11th of September 2001. And the greatest loss of Australian lives in a terrorist attack at Bali in 2002, in fact, occurred before the coalition military operation in Iraq. Terrorism will only be defeated by a combination of strong intelligence, military action where appropriate and importantly the spread of democracy particularly amongst Islamic countries. And in that last context, no nation is more important than Australia’s nearest neighbour and most populist Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. Indonesia in the last eight years has undergone a remarkable transition. A transition that draws less comment and less respect than perhaps it deserves. In eight years it’s gone from a military dictatorship to the third largest democracy in the world.
And what is at stake with countries, particularly like Indonesia and also Pakistan, which is also under moderate Islamic leadership, what is at stake there is fundamental to whether we succeed or fail in the fight against terrorism because if democratic modern Islam can succeed in the Islamic world, that will act as a powerful and enduring antidote to the menace of terrorism in those societies.
So in dealing with terrorism, of course we need strong and timely intelligence and I note with pride the decades of close collaboration between the intelligence services of Australia and the intelligence services of Canada. But it needs a combination of strong intelligence, military resolve and the spread of democracy. And none of us should imagine that we are immune from domestic terrorist attacks. We had a timely wake up call in Australia in the last months of 2005 when some 22 Australians were charged with certain terrorist offences and quite a large number of those were people who had been born in Australia and had grown up in our country. And just as the people of Great Britain were shocked by the backgrounds and the experiences of those responsible for the London attacks of July 2005, so many Australians have found it difficult to believe that something like that could happen in their country.
Whilst I am on the subject of terrorism can I say something about Iraq. I know that in relation to Iraq, Australia and Canada took different paths, and it’s not my point here today to dwell on that. I simply want to applaud the bravery and courage of the eight million people of Iraq who defied terrorism and physical intimidation to cast their ballots on three occasions in a democratic election. We in Canada and Australia who are used to voting in tranquil circumstances, whatever the passion of political rhetoric might be, should take pause to salute such an extraordinary act of courage and bravery.
Can I, Mr Speaker, in conclusion say something about the role of the United States in the affairs of the world. Australia as you know is an unapologetic friend and ally of the United States. We don’t always agree, we haven’t in the past, we don’t now on certain issues and we won’t in the future but I have always taken the view and the majority of my fellow countrymen are the same, that the United States has been a remarkable power for good in the world. And that the decency and hope that the power and purpose of the United States represents to the world is something that we should deeply appreciate.
The values for which the United States stands are the values for which Canada and Australia stands. They are values of spreading democracy, of individual liberty, of a society where free enterprise is the principle economic driver, but also a society where the less fortunate should be protected by a decent social security safety net. And they are values that I know that members on both sides of this House, as indeed on both sides of the Houses of the Australian Parliament share in common. And I would have for those around the world who would want to see a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some quiet advice and that is be careful in what you wish for because a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world. It will leave a world more exposed to terrorism and it will leave a more fragile and indeed dangerous world.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as I said at the commencement of my remarks, you have done me a great honour. To be invited to address the Parliament of a great nation such as Canada, a nation with which we have shared so much in the past and values we hold so much in common is for me, a veteran of 32 years of membership of the Australian Parliament, a tremendous honour.
To you, Mr Prime Minister, I know that I will not be departing in anyway from the bipartisan traditions of being a guest in your country, in wishing you well in the early months of your prime ministership. I remember the early months of my prime ministership in 1996 and I know that there will be some on this side of the House who may not wish an emulation of the period of time that I have been in Government, but whatever….but can I say Prime Minister you have brought to your office great vigour, great vitality, a commitment to do some new and different things in Canada. You lead a minority government, an interesting experience I’m sure, but one that thankfully I haven’t had to cope with, I don’t think I could. But I do wish you well but very importantly through you I bring to this Parliament the good wishes not only of the Parliament of Australia, but also the people of Australia. We do believe in the same things, we Australians and Canadians. We are people that do share so much common history and common experience. And in the new challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century I believe that with that shared history and shared experience there is more indeed that we can do in the future not only for the betterment of the people of Australia and the people of Canada, but for the betterment of all the peoples of the world.
Thank you indeed.
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