Nicholas GreinerPrime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Lord Chief Justice, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
First, may I thank you, Prime Minister— “Premier” you call them here, don't you?—First, may I thank you, Premier—I am not used to these French words! (applause)—First, may I thank you, Premier, for your tremendous welcome, your hospitality, for your marvellous speech and for the most excellent speech of the Leader of the Opposition (applause). May I agree with you that there is no better place to be in this bicentennial year than here in Sydney, the birthplace of modern Australia (applause). Indeed, the words of Captain Arthur Phillips' despatch to Lord Sydney recalling his landfall in 1782 are the beginning of Australia's story. He wrote:
“We got into Port Jackson early in the afternoon and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect security.”
Now, 200 years later, that harbour and its bridge are the public face of Australia the world over, the picture of your country that millions of people carry in their minds.
You were kind enough, Prime Minister and also Leader of the Opposition, to say quite a number of very kind things about me and even to quote me. I find that somewhat alarming! I think I must have been in power quite a bit to be quoted and I hope that I will live long enough to quote you on a similar occasion! (applause) But I just wonder, as you referred to the time when one had to try to turn round attitudes, for which you need to capture the mind and heart as well as the soul of a people, if I might give you a quotation which I found very useful at that time, because when you embark upon that—and, indeed, Mr. Gorbachev has also embarked upon it—you come across many difficulties and they tend to show themselves first before the benefits, and so I used to think back to another anniversary. It was the anniversary, of which I reminded you this morning when you very kindly gave me the specially-minded coin of the Bicentennial and I gave you a small silver plate, a copy of one which dates back to the Armada in 1588—and I mention the Armada because it is your heritage as well as ours.
The quotation which I wish to give you was one of the great admiral Drake:
“When you embark on any great endeavour, it is not the beginning, but the continuing thereof until the task be well and truly finished which yieldeth the true [end p1] glory.”
I had occasion to remember that many times and I am sure many others who embark upon a great endeavour will do so. It is not the beginning but the finishing of the same which yieldeth true glory.
Yes, I also accept that the heritage of parliamentary democracy, freedom under a rule of law, is a heritage which yes, it is a common heritage of Britain and Australia. It is a common heritage which we have shared with many other countries, some of whom took it from our country to many distant fields and developed it, each in their own way as suited the pioneering spirit in their country, as befitted them, some in countries far greater than ours, and I must confess that one of the wrong decisions taken in the Cabinet Room of the house which I occupy was the one which lost us the American Colonies! (laughter) But then, as I do say to our American guests when they sometimes come, they did not have women prime ministers in those days or it might have been very very different if they had! (applause)
So yes, we have made some mistakes but you know, the dawn of parliamentary democracy which in fact was asserted in 1688 for the final time—it was the end of the beginning and the beginning of parliamentary democracy (sic). The birth of parliamentary democracy, founded upon freedom under a rule of law has given people a chance, a quality of life that they have never enjoyed under any other system (applause).
It was, strangely enough, a kind of birth which came from Europe. The idea of democracy came from Europe. The idea of human rights came from Christianity in Europe. The idea of freedom of choice gradually extended further and further as the history of liberty became the history of taking power from the few to give it to the many. This had its birthplace in Europe. The enormous renaissance of the arts had its birthplace in Europe, and the enormous harnessing of science for the benefit of people had its birthplace in Europe, and then, fortunately, people went out far and wide from Europe and took those great things to the world.
Why do I mention it at the moment? I mention it for two reasons:
First, you mentioned 1992 when we are part of the European Economic Community and there will be changes then, but they are internal changes. There will not be changes between Europe and the rest of the world, but we cannot deny our geography as part of Europe anymore than you can deny yours as part of the Pacific and you find a great many of your trading relationships in the Pacific. And you know, we are both stronger as friends if we do not deny our geography, but we accept our geography and we accept our common heritage and we have a fundamental friendship and trading relationship founded upon the future (applause).
I mention the origin of this tradition for another reason. For most of my life, we have been in a position believing passionately in our way of life, but being in a position of defending it—defending it in the First World War, defending it in the Second World War—and my goodness me, Australia was right up in fighting the battle for freedom in both!
Things have changed more in the last few years, more to our advantage, more to the advantage of freedom than at any other time. I had not expected to see, so rapidly as it came, the change of heart in the Soviet Union. I had not expected to see a man of such boldness and courage as Mr. Gorbachev saying: “Look! The system we have had for 70 years, of governments not serving people but governments controlling the lives of people and telling them what to do, has yielded neither any prosperity nor has it yielded good [end p2] social services, nor has it yielded good technology. It has only yielded military might and that is not enough for the people of today!” and so he went on and said—it is a message we have been preaching over the centuries— “We want more personal responsibility, more personal initiative, people work for themselves and their families!” I had not expected to hear that with such boldness, such courage and so much hope so soon.
What is its significance? It is this: that for the first time in my lifetime peace is much more secure, but will only be secure if we keep our defences strong. But for the first time in my lifetime freedom has gone on the offensive. We are no longer only on the defensive. It is our way of life which in so many other countries—your way of life and mine and those who have espoused this great democracy, this great heritage—your way of life and mine that is seen now the world over to be best for the peoples of the world and best for mankind (applause).
We are very fortunate to be living at such a time with such great opportunity, when perhaps people can see that their security lies not only in their defence—although that must always be there—but their security lies in coming to terms with other people through hard negotiations, watching all the time, but with more hope that our children will never have to go through the battles that we have fought.
Now, may I turn, briefly, to the relationship between ourselves and Australia.
For us, the Bicentennial is a very emotional time, almost as emotional as it is for you, as we remember the great things which you have done for us, but it is emotional for another reason: because we see that you have come to a full consciousness of your own nationhood, your own strength, your own importance, and that gives us enormous pride and the great opportunity to build a future together.
I think it has been said—and perhaps rightly—that we have not perhaps cherished as much the friendship as we should; we have taken it for granted. You know, people do tend to take the best things in life for granted until all of a sudden they realise they ought not to do so. And so, perhaps Prime Ministers have not been here enough, perhaps Ministers have not been here enough, and we are setting out, also, to remedy that, but we are setting out, I think, to try to have a closer relationship, a relationship of investing in one another, because as every Premier and Prime Minister and President will tell you, the world economy is really shrinking. We no longer have separate economies—we have global economies—and what happens in one country matters very much to all of the others.
We even have Economic Summits now. I am fortunate enough to attend them and I have seen some of the tremendous differences between the first cycle of seven Summits and the second cycle of seven. I have been throughout the second cycle of seven and I was at the last two meetings of the first cycle and the economics of the first cycle were those old-fashioned economics that if you wanted expansion and you wanted to get rid of unemployment you had better have a little bit of inflation and you had better increase your deficit and you had better do a bit of fine tuning; if that did not work, you had a little bit more inflation and a little bit more deficit and so it went on until the end of the first cycle.
Then all a sudden, at the beginning of the second cycle—if I were just a little bit cynical I would say they found “Thatcherism” —that those things would not do, but if you wanted in fact to build a better world, you had to start off with human nature. Human nature will work extremely hard for a better future, for themselves and for their families. Indeed, that is perhaps the greatest engine of prosperity, the desire to give one's family a better life, and so you had better start off by governments having sound financial policies, you had better start off by giving people the incentive to enterprise [end p3] and then they will do it, and then you will find that you create the wealth before you distribute it (applause), but if you do have the incentives, you will create the wealth and if you give the incentives, people will work hard, and then you had better concentrate on getting the background law right for the spirit of enterprise to flourish.
Now, all of this has been the history of the second cycle of Economic Summits and that is one of the reasons why in the last six to seven years the world has gone into a period of expansion as each country has run its economy on a sounder basis, and when you each run it on a sounder basis you get very much better cooperation, and that is what is happening and it has affected all of us and many of the countries who are not within that Summit but are so important to it have come to similar conclusions.
The other thing that we must do, as we have learned from that Economic Summit, is we simply must keep open trade. If you cannot submit your industries to effective competition, you will soon have inefficient industries and that will cost the consumer a packet, and so, too, that Economic Summit tries to get ever more open trade—freer and fairer trade—and in connection with Europe, the barriers that are going down are internal barriers; there will be no external barriers put up—those will be negotiated down in GATT.
Now this is the whole background upon which we—very close to Europe—and you—part of the South Pacific—but believing in the same things, practising the same spirit of enterprise, practising the same spirit of public service in democracy, in which we face the future together.
What this Bicentenary is really about is people. It is about the individuals who built Australia: Captain Arthur Phillip and the Governors who followed him. It is about the pioneers who tamed the Bush. It is about the entrepreneurs who built up your wealth, and it is about, today, the boys and girls who are crewing “Young Endeavour” , Britain's bicentennial gift to Australia—and what marvellous young people they are! They came to No. 10 Downing Street before they embarked upon their great adventure and I was so pleased. We had this idea to give this gift, because it is not the gift so much as the opportunity it gives to others, and it is the same when it comes to relations between Britain and Australia. It is people who keep the relationships alive, who have the family links, who enjoy the sport, who watch the films—crocodiles, etc.!—(laughter) and I am told that the number of applicants from Britain to paint the Harbour Bridge here in Sydney has soared dramatically! And above all, it is young people who we must encourage to get to know each other's countries, and I was so thrilled today when I went into the Power House Museum that there were a number of schoolchildren who were visiting Sydney from my home county of Lincolnshire and even from my home town of Grantham. Wasn't that nice of you to arrange it? (applause) Absolutely terrific, and I said to them: “The young people from Sydney will come back? Yes! And you will bring them to London? Yes!” So that is all going to be very good.
But what impresses me most here is the enormous potential for the future of Australia and not only that potential, remarkable as it is, but the potential for Britain and Australia to do more together.
Of course, we are a long way apart. We have preoccupation with problems close at hand. Until now, we have not fully recognised the enormous strength of Australia's nationhood, but with the Bicentenary those hesitations can be put behind us. The world is getting smaller and distance is no longer an excuse. As we get up every morning, we look at the television screens to see what has happened in the stock markets of Sydney, Tokyo and Hong Kong during the day which for us is about [end p4] to begin, and I hope therefore that my visit will mark the start of a new period of activity in relations between Britain and Australia in every sphere: in business, in government and, yes, in sport—if there isn't anything left which you haven't beaten us at! And coming from a family which takes a lifelong interest in the game of rugby and marrying into a family which regards rugby football not as a sport but as a religion (applause)—golf is very similar!—I think the time has come for radical steps if we are ever to get on top. I think we should therefore recall to the England team Banjo Paterson's Rev. Molineux. You will remember it was said of him that he was “hard and wiry and full of steam, that's the boss of the England team!” Rev. Molineux. Kick? He could kick like an army mule, run like a kangeroo. We could do with him now!
And I cannot leave the subject of sport without paying a special tribute to one of the greatest sportswomen of all time—Dawn Frazer—who is now a Member of your House of Representatives here in New South Wales (applause).
Premier, Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a rather wonderful visit for me. I have spent longer, I have seen more, I have felt the heartbeat of this great nation and the pulse beats strongly—so does ours. Perhaps we can beat more closely together!
Will you rise and drink with me a toast to the friendship between Britain and Australia and particularly to the future relationship between Britain and Sydney and New South Wales! (applause)