Chinese Friends Of Labor Dinner Mark Latham - Federal Labor Leader

Speech

Transcript - 30 June 2004

That's why it's so special to have Gough Whitlam here this evening: the great patron and founder of the modern relationship between Australia and China.

And the Prime Minister who gave our country the true meaning of multiculturalism: ending the White Australia policy, promoting the virtues of tolerance and human rights, giving Australia new relevance and opportunities in our part of the world, finding our place in the Asia-Pacific.

We need to be vigilant in defending these values. We can never take them for granted, especially at a time like this.

The last thing Australia needs in 2004 is a repeat of the 2001 election, with the Coalition campaigning on fear and division - tearing Australia in two and then trying to pick up the bigger part politically.

That's the problem with Mr Howard. He's the first Prime Minister in our history who has tried to make himself look bigger by making the rest of the country look smaller.

Unhappily, it's the way of the conservative: always trying to plant the seed of insecurity and uncertainty, always feeding off the things that can go wrong in society, always wanting people to turn inwards, and then against each other.

The Howard Government campaigns on fear. The Labor Party believes in hope and opportunity. That's the big difference for the coming campaign.

Two competing views of politics. Two competing views of the Australian character. By nature, I'm on the side of the optimists. Those who say it is better to be positive and constructive in public life. Always reaching out to the better side of human nature: the Labor values of a cooperative and caring society.

This is not just an article of faith for the ALP. I regard it as the authentic Australian way.

As a people, with our larrikin spirit and our devotion to mateship, we tend to be upbeat and optimistic. We don't like whingers and negativity. We are more interested in the things that can go right for Australia, than the things that can go wrong.

That's how I'll be campaigning, every day, from now until polling day. Talking about the positive things we can do for our country: investing in our people, rebuilding our basic services, protecting the environment, our natural assets as we hand them on to the next generation.

And I believe that the Australian people will respond to this progressive agenda.

The Howard Government can have its fear and smear campaign, but I'll be talking about the positives, the passion and optimism that so clearly define the Australian character. That's the journey I want to take with the Australian people in the weeks and months ahead.

But ladies and gentlemen, let me talk about an earlier journey. Another great Labor campaign.

By a happy coincidence, this coming Friday is the 33rd anniversary of the most important international initiative undertaken on behalf of Australia since John Curtin forged our alliance with the United States during the Second World War.

That was the day, Friday, 2 July 1971, when Gough Whitlam crossed over from Hong Kong to mainland China and began the process that transformed Australia's relationship with China and Australia's standing in our region and the world.

I would love to be able to say that I remember it well.

I was in Gough's electorate - that's true - but I was only 10 years of age, working my way through primary school.

And perhaps even Henry Tsang, who was nearly twice my age and twice as clever, didn't realise fully the change Gough was making in all our lives: our attitudes, our prospects, our future.

I know that in this Sydney gathering, celebrating the success of Australia's Chinese community, I don't need to spell out the importance of what Gough Whitlam achieved in 1971, and all the years that followed.

But in an election time like this, when a lot of misrepresentations are going to be made:

• A lot of lies are being told against Labor - many of them, on the big issues like health and education
• Plus the scandal of political advertising paid for by the taxpayer - your own money spent on government propaganda night after night on television and by day in the mail - "personal messages from the Prime Minister" and all that stuff
• This unparalleled corruption of the democratic system taking place in Australia; literally before our eyes on TV
• In such a time, it is necessary to state and re-state a couple of basic and permanent truths about Australia - not just about our past but, above all, about Australia's future.

There's a fact of history that must never be forgotten.

When Gough went to China in July 1971 the Coalition Government of the time geared itself up to destroy him on the grounds that any friendly move towards the People's Republic was anti-American.

Laurie Oakes, who went with Gough on the visit, recalled on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of our relations with China, writing in The Bulletin:

"Hostility to China had been a rolled gold election winner for the Coalition for 20 years. In an act of great political courage, Whitlam, then Opposition Leader, led an Australia Labor Party delegation to Beijing. The visit had the potential to blow Labor's 1972 election chances out of the water."

Of course, what nobody knew at the time, least of all Bill McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia, was that five days after Gough left Beijing, Henry Kissinger, representing Nixon, arrived.

And until President Nixon announced the fact to an astonished world, the Liberal Prime Minister was making speeches around

Australia denouncing Whitlam and the Labor Party for their anti- Americanism.

And I state before you tonight, the representatives of the great and historic Australian Chinese community: no country in the world is better placed than Australia to work to ensure that the relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China remain fruitful, productive, creative and, above all, peaceful.

That was the idea, that was the great concept of a role for Australia, that inspired and motivated Gough Whitlam, when he first went to China in 1971 - against all the advice and caution of the political bean-counters of the time.

And, in 2004, it gives us an idea, a concept, a motivation to lift

Australia out of the tragedy of Iraq.

Like Gough, I want to make Australia count for something. I want to make Australia count for something in our relations with America, with China, and with the countries of the great region we live in.

Labor doesn't believe in positioning Australia as a 'deputy sheriff'. We believe in an equal partnership with our friends and allies. Real influence from a real partnership.

As Kim Beazley said recently: the Liberals have always given the Americans the ally they want. Labor believes in, and has always been, the ally the United States actually needs.

And believe me, no true friend of the Americans would ever have helped them get into Iraq. That's the truth of the past 18 months. Compliance feeding folly. And folly encouraging even greater compliance by the Howard Government.

If we think about what Gough did in 1971, could there be a more dramatic example of this basic fact in the conduct of Australia's international relations: that the true friends of the United States are not those who merely echo the line at any given time of the Administration for the time being?

The true friends of the United States are those who seek to influence that great democracy in using its unparalleled power in the cause of international co-operation, not least, in a truly international effort against international terrorism. And that's where we can really help America.

Australia is uniquely placed in our region to make a huge contribution to that effort because of our relations with both the United States and China.

Let me quote something Gough Whitlam said in Hong Kong just two years ago:

"As we chart the future course for Australia, we have two resources much more than 30 years ago: the presence in China of a vigorous and growing Australian business community and the presence in Australia of a vigorous and growing Chinese-Australian community. I sum up the approach we should take to our future relations with China in two sentences: we must resist policies which would purport to make Australia choose between China and the United States. We must resist policies which would purport to make Australian Chinese choose between China and Taiwan."

They are the wise words of the wisest among us. And they are the wise words of a great friend not only of China and the people of China, but of a great friend of the United States and the people of the United States.

And I will only add my small bit to what Gough has said in all his wisdom and experience.

• Just as we must resist all attempts to make Australia choose between China and the United States,
• Just as we must resist all attempts to make Australia's Chinese community choose between China and Taiwan,
• We must resist and reject, absolutely and completely, all the Coalition propaganda which purports to make our fellow-Australians in this election choose between Australia and America.