Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to offer my thoughts on the condolence motion marking not just the death of Nelson Mandela but his incredibly remarkable life. It is remarkable to have lived and touched so many people across the world. We have seen that in the last few days in the vision of people right across South Africa celebrating his achievements and contributions, in the changing fortunes right across the continent of Africa and the people recognising that and in world leaders coming together and sharing their words of appreciation. But there are also many Australians who have been incredibly touched by these events and by the life that Nelson Mandela lived. I send my thoughts to the local South African community in Adelaide and to the ever-growing African community in Adelaide and South Australia. I know they particularly are grieving at this time. But I send my thoughts to all Australians who have been touched by this remarkable man.

I know that people of different ages and backgrounds have different experiences when it comes to Nelson Mandela. I listened with more than a little degree of jealousy to hear some of my colleagues talk about the opportunity to be present when Mandela spoke, to be hugged by the great man, to have interaction. My experience was a little bit different. When I had to do my first-ever piece of public speaking was when I first started high school. We all had to pick a topic and stand and talk to the class about something we were passionate about. This was in 1990 and I chose to speak about racism. Some could cruelly suggest that I could be a rather self-righteous teenager at times, always standing up and lecturing on whatever was my current cause of the day. My poor classmates had to sit through talks on cruelty to animals, on why we should free the circus animals and on a whole range of different things.

I will never forget the first-ever speech where I decided that I wanted to talk about an issue I was passionate about—racism. I went home and I was researching it, which is when I learnt of the horrors of apartheid. It was when I, as a 12- or 13-year-old, actually learnt about the life of Nelson Mandela and a life that had many, many chapters still to go at that stage. Particularly at the beginning of adolescence, when people can often think that the whole world is against them and that they have the biggest struggles that anyone has ever faced, I will never forget the inspiration I felt in learning about Mandela, in learning about the power of one person who was able to make such an incredible difference and stand up against adversity. What a truly inspiring story that was for me. It was a story of overcoming adversity, a story of incredible courage and a story of truly extraordinary leadership.

Since that time I have had the opportunity to travel to South Africa on several occasions. It has been a pretty special place for me. Most recently, when I was there earlier this year, I visited Robben Island. I saw the cell that Nelson Mandela called home for 18 of his 27 years in incarceration. I saw firsthand the absolutely true horror of apartheid and the true horror that Nelson Mandela had to confront. I took the tour and was shown around by someone who, themselves, had spent years as a political prisoner there. I saw some of the true evil that was in the day-to-day running of apartheid. I will never forget the moment when they held up the different menus, which divided the prisoners based on whether they were considered black, white, coloured or Indian, which gave them different rations, different amounts of sugar and determined whether they got jam on their toast in the mornings. This was a truly evil regime in the way that it treated human beings. To even imagine being subjected to that, to even imagine living your life for over a quarter of a century imprisoned in those conditions, is very, very hard to believe.

What also struck me from my experience on Robben Island and in South Africa was the contrast between what I saw and the stories that I was told by those who had been there and the story that Nelson Mandela himself told in his amazing autobiography, Long walk to freedom. In that book there are only passing references to cruelty, to beatings and to a range of things; they are not at the heart of the story, whatsoever. It struck me that there is probably a very good reason for that. With the extent of the huge injustice of cruelty, horror and evil that was happening on Robben Island, it may be that Nelson Mandela was man enough to forgive what happened to him. I really doubt that anyone else who read that book, or any other South Africans who read of his experience, could do that too. It was incredibly important to reconciliation that this great man not only overcame his adversity that was inflicted upon him but also led that nation to reconcile.

When I was in South Africa in February of this year I had an amazing man, Darryl Lea, as the driver who took me around. It was a winery tour that we went on, so I will not share any more stories of later in the afternoon. Talking to Darryl opened my eyes about how extraordinary it is and how far that country has travelled in just over a decade. To think that they have gone from a horrendous regime, to a place that has reconciled to a large extent, to the Rainbow Nation is truly extraordinary.

Darryl told me about his upbringing, how he had been considered one of the Cape Town coloured and, as such, had a range of restrictions on his life. He talked about after Nelson Mandela was freed, after they had their free elections and Mandela became president, about the little things that you do not think about. He talked about how he joined the Rotary Club. He said it was the first time he ever got to interact with members of the white community and see that they were working to improve the neighbourhood and to improve the conditions for people of all different races and backgrounds. This would seem like such a normal thing for so many people, but for Darryl this was the first time he had ever actually seen that white South Africans were out there trying to help him and many other families like his as well. This was the first time that they got to work together on community building projects. It was remarkable to hear from Darryl just how far they had travelled.

I know the time for this debate has gone and I know many people have made contributions, but I will wrap up by saying we have heard many of Nelson Mandela's great quotes. We have heard many of the stories, many of the inspirations. I think we should also mark that, unfortunately, we cannot all be the man that Nelson Mandela was, but it is fitting that the federal parliament reflects on how he did so much, even when he was powerless, even when he was imprisoned, he achieved so much. We are not powerless; we are the Parliament of Australia and it is right that we take some level of inspiration and try and have a smidgeon as much integrity, a smidgeon as much leadership as the great man, Nelson Mandela. One of the quotes that I really like from him is one that I have not heard in this debate yet:

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, must go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

When I think about that quote and about some of the debates before this parliament, I think we can raise the question: are we leading the Australian people in the right, new direction or are we sometimes just playing to the lowest common denominator? Nelson Mandela did not take the easy options. He did not say what the people wanted him to say but he in fact brought them along and achieved great results. So I like to think that we can think of just a few of the amazing things about this man—a little bit of his integrity, a little bit of his passion, a little bit of his humility, a little bit of his determination, a little bit of his intellect and a little bit of his humour.

I will leave the House today with just one anecdote. We have talked a lot about the remarkable achievements of Nelson Mandela. I would also like to place on record the humour of the man. One of the articles I saw over recent days was particularly good. Nelson Mandela had people fawning over him, talking about how wonderful he was. In 1997, Nelson Mandela had the opportunity to meet the Spice Girls, who decided to tell Nelson Mandela that what he had done for apartheid, they had really done for girl power. They had been on their own girl power quest. A journalist turned to Nelson Mandela and asked him how he felt about getting the chance to meet the great Spice Girls, to which he responded, 'I don't want to be emotional, but this is one of the greatest moments of my life.' He was a remarkable man. Long may his legacy live on, long may we be inspired and long may we try to replicate just a little bit of this man's greatness.

See this speech in context