The Loyal Toast and a Toast to Australia

25 January 1999

Whitehorse Australia Day Dinner

Remarks by Robert Clark MP

Member for Box Hill

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured to have been asked to propose the toasts to our Queen and our country tonight.

There is nothing like travel abroad to bring home to a person what a wonderful country to we live in, and why a certain airline has done well to adopt as its theme tune "I still call Australia home".

My wife, Karin, and I have just returned from a family trip to Singapore to visit Karin's parents. We enjoy our family holidays, and there is much to admire about the achievements of other countries. However, there is still a real sense of joy at homecoming as one watches that little aircraft symbol on the inflight movie screen move ever closer towards Australia. And if you are a nervous flyer like me, once you cross the coastline you can also console yourself with the thought that if the plane crashes at least it will crash on Australian soil!

Citizens of every nation properly ought to be proud of what their country has achieved. No country has a monopoly on wisdom, and no country can boast that it has nothing to learn or no room to improve. Every country has its contribution to make to the world community.

However, we in Australia are truly blessed with enormous gifts and benefits. We are a country which has a history of achievement and a potential for further great achievement.

Over the past two hundred years we have developed a new society from very small beginnings, through hard work, commitment and individual initiative. Despite the day to day problems we face from time to time, we have the potential to carry on this record of achievement. We have the natural resources, we have the space, and we live in a peaceful part of the world. We have an open and free system of government. Perhaps most importantly, we have our people and the knowledge, talents, experience and values which our people provide.

Our natural resources can be readily described - the enormous space we have to use, our mineral wealth, our agricultural capacity, the splendour and beauty of our landscapes. "I love a sunburnt country" the poem says, and while on hot and humid nights like tonight we might feel it is perhaps a little too sunburnt, we love it nonetheless. Even our humble quarter acre blocks are something that many in other countries, however prosperous they may be, can only dream of.

The second of our strengths I would mention is our commitment to the system of government which we have. In Australia our public life can be said to be based on three principles - democracy, tolerance and the rule of law.

The rule of law means that everyone - from prime minister to ordinary member of the public, is subject to the laws of the country. Every citizen has the right to act freely within the law, and if any public official infringes the rights of a citizen, that citizen has the right to have the dispute judged by a fair and impartial court.

Secondly, we have democracy. Given our love for sport, most Australians probably know that we are one of only a handful of countries to have participated in every Olympics. Fewer Australians would know that, young a country as we are, we have one of the longest records of continuous democracy in the world. Much as we like to bemoan our governments from time to time, and much as we rightly complain about deficiencies and look for improvements, we do as citizens all have the right to vote freely for the candidates of our choice, and freely to be candidates ourselves or play other roles in the political process.

We are at present having a debate about whether or not to become a republic. I expect that many here tonight have strong and passionate views on various sides of that debate. But whatever the outcome, we will all accept and abide by the result of the democratic vote and get on with our lives. And in the meantime, we are all still able to join together in paying our respects to our Queen.

Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, we have tolerance. Tolerance is not something which can necessarily be defined in any law, or upheld in any court. Tolerance is an attitude of mind. Tolerance means being willing to debate issues openly and genuinely. Tolerance means being willing to talk freely to others to try to resolve differences. Tolerance means not trying to hurt people, or to exclude people from social or business activities, because they have different political or religious views. Tolerance means accepting the result of elections. Tolerance means believing, as has been said before, that the things which unite us as Australians are more important than the things which divide us.

These three principles - democracy, tolerance and the rule of law, are the foundations of our government and our public life in Australia.

Our third strength which has made Australia what it is today is, of course, the diverse backgrounds from which we all come. This has been a feature of Australian life going back to the gold rush days in the middle of last century and has continued with renewed vigour since the 1950's.

Karin and I are perhaps one small example of Australia’s diversity. Our children can trace their ancestry from two opposite sides of the globe - from England, from France and from Wales on one side of the globe, and from the Kwang Tung province of China and from Singapore on the other side of the globe. Our children’s ancestors migrated for a variety of reasons - because of persecution, or economic hardship, or in search of new opportunities, or as the result of war. All of these factors have combined to produce children who are not only Australian, but are in a sense children of the world as a whole.

And of course our children not unique in this. As time progresses an increasing number of Australians will have children with a similar range of ancestry. In this way and many others, Australia is drawing on the traditions and the achievements of all the peoples of the world, and is bringing these traditions and achievements together into one diverse yet united Australian society.

I am truly honoured to be able to propose these toasts as we celebrate the last Whitehorse Australia Dinner before the clock ticks over to the year 2000. We can look forward with enthusiasm to the new century and the new millenium. We can have confidence in ourselves, our abilities and the contribution we can make to the world. We can be proud to live in one of the greatest countries on earth, we can be committed to play our part to make it ever better, and we can be joyful and contented to call Australia our home.

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to charge your glasses and be upstanding.

I give you our gracious sovereign, the Queen.

And I ask you to join with me in a toast to our wonderful country, Australia.