Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence on another matter: last Thursday night in Denver, Colorado, Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party as the candidate for the upcoming US presidential election. I would like to congratulate Senator Obama on his nomination. I would like to note the significance of his nomination, not least because it took place on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. His acceptance of the nomination was a milestone in US presidential election campaigns. We have an African American now as a presidential candidate for a major political party in the United States, more than 150 years after the Civil War.

This week there will be another milestone. The Republican Party will hold its convention and Senator John McCain will accept his party’s nomination as presidential candidate. I want to offer my congratulations to Senator McCain on his imminent nomination. It is a great thing to watch the workings of one of the world’s great democracies. We wish both candidates well and both their parties well for the upcoming presidential election. It will be hard-fought. But whatever the outcome, should the Democrats or the Republicans prevail, Australia will have a great friend in this upcoming presidential election because our relationship—Australia and the United States—goes beyond the partisan divide; it is a relationship which has endured through the generations and will endure for the generations.

See this speech in context