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

I am sorry. We will do it another day, then. The barons were thinking of themselves, not history, and the king was thinking of survival, not of fundamental rights; yet from this mix of expediency and self-interest emerged a document that has echoed through history. As Winston Churchill once remarked, the English-speaking world owes more to the vices of King John than it does to the labours of many virtuous sovereigns. But such is the alchemy of history. When a disparate group can fight a principal in common, self-interest can become an engine of human progress. The words of the original document, including the 1297 version on permanent display in this parliament, have faded but they have been renewed through time in other documents of liberty: the American Declaration of Independence, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in constitutions and judicial systems around the world.

Modern Australia has an Indigenous heritage and a multicultural character. We also have a British foundation, which in small measure we honour today. We salute those whose struggles have led to our enlightenment and we acknowledge our indebtedness to a history from which we learn and to a legacy upon which we build.

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