Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on 1 June 1944, less than a week before the Normandy landings, the great turning point of the Second World War where so many Canadians lost their lives in defence of freedom, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin addressed the members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate. This was the first address to the Canadian parliament by an Australian Prime Minister. It has taken 63 years to have a Canadian Prime Minister address the Australian parliament for the first time. Prime Minister, you are a truly welcome guest in our midst, and our only request of you is that it does not take as long next time round.

Prime Minister Curtin, speaking from the great darkness that was the Second World War, said of the Canadian parliament:

You, here, who come to this place, the law-making authority of a free people, witness the results of decisions of your citizens. They have their rights. They register their decision as to who it is, of those who offer, shall become their representatives in this great hall of legislation.

…         …         …

This principle of the sovereignty of peoples is integral to the cause for which all of us went to war.

So said Curtin. Prime Minister, welcome to this great hall of legislation in Australia, where the Australian people make laws.

It is no small thing that Australia and Canada are among the world’s oldest continuing democracies. It is, in fact, a great thing—a very great thing—something for which our forebears have fought and something for which our forebears, both Curtin and Mackenzie King, would have us ever remain vigilant in the defence thereof.

Prime Minister, we are both Westminster democracies; we are both robust federations, with all the complexities and challenges to which that can sometimes give rise; we are both close allies of the United States; we are both cofounders of the United Nations; we are both nations of the Pacific, the emerging centre of gravity for much which will unfold in this 21st century; we are both open economies; and we are both great, open societies, enriched permanently by the immigration that comes to our shores.

Prime Minister, we have so much in common, and Australia, under whichever government—that of the Prime Minister’s political persuasion or that of our own—looks forward to working with Canada and facing the great challenges of the Asia-Pacific century: the preservation of security, the preservation of the peace, the maintenance of prosperity and its expansion, the elimination of poverty, and the extension of the great tent of democracy wherever that becomes humanly possible. Prime Minister, you honour us by your presence here today.

See this speech in context