Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House record its deep regret at the death on 23 March 2015 of Lee Kuan Yew GCMG CH, former Prime Minister of Singapore, and place on record its acknowledgement of his role as the founding father of the modern Singapore and tender its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Lee Kuan Yew did not just lead his country; he made his country. In the mid-1950s, when he first came to prominence in Singapore, his country was poor and friendless. Today, it is rich and well connected. It is one of the great success stories of the modern world, thanks to the ideas, the drive and the judgement of Lee Kuan Yew and thanks to the talents of the Singaporean people which he unleashed. It is a remarkable economic success story. It is one of the most remarkable economic success stories in history. Within a generation, Singapore has moved from the Third World to the First World.

Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew blazed a trail that has been followed by other countries in our region—by Taiwan and by South Korea—and most recently it has been followed by China itself. He was once asked which of his decisions had made the biggest contribution to Singapore's success. 'Making English the common language' was his response. This not only defused ethnic tensions inside Singapore but also gave Singapore easy entry into the global economy. He also maintained Singapore's British based common-law legal system and ran an utterly clean and corruption-free administration.

One statistic tells the story of modern Singapore. In 1965, Singapore's gross domestic product per head was about one-third that of Australia. Today, Singapore's GDP per head is almost double that of Australia. In the 1980s, when Singapore was surging ahead and Australia risked stagnating, he said that we risked ending up as—to use that phrase—'the poor white trash of Asia'. That phrase stung because we feared that it might be true. I have to say that a quarter century of reform under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and then under John Howard and Peter Costello restored our position, but, if we are to avoid his prophecy, the challenge for this generation is to ensure that the age of reform in this country has been merely interrupted, not ended.

The relationship between Singapore and Australia is strong and growing stronger all the time, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew and his successors, especially his son, the current Prime Minister—and friend of Australia—Lee Hsien Loong, who should receive our deepest condolences today. Today, two-way trade between Singapore and Australia is some $30 billion a year. Singapore is our fourth largest source of inwards investment. Every year, some 300,000 Australians travel to Singapore, and every year about the same number of Singaporeans travel to Australia. Some 100,000 Singaporean citizens are alumni of Australian universities, and Singapore is a military ally of Australia. Under the Five Power Defence Arrangement, Singaporean forces regularly exercise and train here in this country.

We share a language and much institutional architecture with Singapore. Singapore and Australia are natural partners, and I hope that over time our relationship with Singapore will be as easy, as close and as familial as it has long been with New Zealand. And, if so, that too will be part of Lee Kuan Yew's legacy. He did not just build Australia but spurred this country at a critical time in our history to be better than we might have been.

Today we mourn Lee Kuan Yew's passing, but forever we will celebrate the life of this great nation builder and leader for our time. I acknowledge the presence today of the Singaporean High Commissioner, and I hope that he will pass on to his government and his country the condolences of the people and the parliament of Australia.

Honourable members: Hear, hear.

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