Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this condolence motion as a matter of great personal privilege but also as a matter of great responsibility on us as parliamentarians to acknowledge not merely the life of Nelson Mandela but also the role that he played as a prince amongst men. He was a prince of peace and a prince of his country, as he guided his country through the most tortuous circumstances to a better place. The death of Nelson Mandela leaves us all in a better place because of his humanity, because of his belief that there are, as Abraham Lincoln would have said, 'better angels of our human nature' that ought govern how we do what we do and why we do what we do.

In the early 1990s I had the great privilege of being the National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party. At that time, my party, under the leadership of Ian Henderson, the assistant national secretary, led a powerful and large campaign team to South Africa to campaign and work with the ANC on their campaign structures, to ensure that political organisation was in place to assure a solid victory for the ANC in that election.

It was a victory not simply for the ANC; it was a victory for principle. It was a victory for those Australian politicians who had always stood on the right side of this debate in Africa. It was a victory for Malcolm Fraser. It was a victory for the Liberal Party. It was a victory for those people in politics who take the business of politics and the aspiration of politics so seriously. Across the divide in Australia we unified to help support the election of a democratic government in South Africa, and we were able to do that because of the outstanding leadership and the moral quality and value that Nelson Mandela had brought to this world, to South Africa and to all of our lives.

I regard it as a great privilege to be able to make these comments and these observations in this parliament today. And I know that the teams who went to work for democracy in South Africa today feel grief but also power from the role that they played as a consequence of the events in South Africa over the course of the last 50 years. Thank you.

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today on behalf of the people of Braddon to pay tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela, adding this humble contribution to a sympathetic nation. Losing any life hurts but losing one of the good guys, someone who has made such a historic difference, someone whose inspiring spirit spread across our world, hurts even more. The story of Mandela's life will live in the archives of history, stories that will be retold in the days, years and generations to come. I encourage the retelling of Nelson Mandela's life, character and determination and encourage all of us to take these human lessons into our everyday lives and enact these human lessons to our friends, families, communities and the generations to come.

We need to embrace the same strength and belief in our communities that took Mandela from prisoner to President. But it is not only the strength, belief and determination Mandela possessed that should stand the test of time; it is the story of forgiveness—a story we will never forget, forgiveness of those who took his freedom and restricted his progression. Although it is hard to forgive those who take from us and restrict us, the life of Nelson Mandela, if nothing else, was an elegant display and practice of forgiveness.

While here in Canberra, it is important to develop good policy and fund great causes. However, we must never cease to remember that it is humanity, not currency or legislation, that has the capacity to foresee and change injustices. It is people who plug the holes of social imperfections. We will always need leaders of Mandela's character, ability and humility to stand in the crow's nest, spotting the next challenges we are to face. I encourage the people of Braddon to use the life of Nelson Mandela to identify for ourselves the example that all of us can be—to transform our own lives, our families and our communities for the better, and to be a part of a country that can revolutionise for the best.

Was Nelson Mandela a perfect man? No, he was not. I am sure that on reflection he would regret some aspects of his own life, just like all of us. The question is the way we respond to those regrets. The last two lines of a poem Mandela used to recite to fellow prisoners titled Invictus, hopefully, will glue my statement today to the legacy of the great man:

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nelson Mandela was an enigma—a man who achieved greatness and humility, a man who was hated, feared and scorned, and a man who is loved, revered and honoured. He fought injustice. He was a legend. He was unique. He was a freedom fighter, a student activist and a great leader. Nelson Mandela changed the face of the world, I would say. His moral leadership gave hope to many people and, as Ban Ki Moon said, the world has been influenced by his selfless struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom.

I can remember the days of apartheid. I can remember feeling how unjust it was, that just because of a person's colour they were treated as a lesser person. I can remember thinking as a teenager how wrong it was. I also remember when Nelson Mandela was jailed back in 1964 and feeling how unfair and unjust it was that a person who stood up and fought for injustice and for a fair system could be imprisoned because he took that stand. When he was released from prison in 1990, instead of being angry and bitter, he said:

… I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all. I stand … before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant …

That was 27 years after he was first jailed.

I have been to Robben Island; I have seen the prison; I have seen where he was held in that prison. I have experienced the really inclement weather on that island—cold and bitter. It would be a horrible place to be interned. Yet, after having worked by lifting and moving rock around the island and being treated in quite an inhumane way, he left there still capable of saying those words I have just quoted. It was an even greater tribute to the man to four years later be elected President of South Africa. As President he took people from both sides, black and white, and he said:

We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity—a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.

It could have been a very different scenario if, after he was elected, he had sought retribution. But what he did was to show true leadership.

He was a unifier; he brought the country together. Yes, there are still problems in South Africa; it still has a way to go. I have seen some of the problems that exist there, but it is a better place—and the world is a better place—because of Nelson Mandela's contributions. I would have to say that he is one of the people that I hold up as a hero. He is a role model for all politicians and all people who struggle against injustice. He showed that, if you stick to your cause and if you fight for what you believe in, then you can achieve. His achievements have established a place in history for him that few people will be able to enjoy. I will end with these words from Nelson Mandela:

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society … It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

That ideal came to fruition under Nelson Mandela's leadership. As the world pauses to remember his contribution, it is very important to reflect on those words. The world is not dominated by either white or black; and it is a world where, if you are totally committed to what you believe in and to the struggle for noble ideals, you can achieve. Nelson Mandela certainly achieved, and he will be honoured in perpetuity by history.

Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Greatness is not something that someone is born with. People come to greatness through many methods. Nelson Mandela certainly had some of the aspects of greatness from early on. He had great physical height, at six feet four, and he had a ferocious intellect, but unlike another great person who also came from South Africa—there must be something in the water!—Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela's genesis was not always peaceful. I think that we are ignoring his greatness if we seek to airbrush the history that was Nelson Mandela and not recognise the struggles that he faced to reach the position he achieved in the last few decades of his life.

It has been documented, of course, that Nelson Mandela was found guilty of treason at, among other things, a treason trial. There is discussion about that trial having been unfair and unjust. There were international reporters at the time who disagreed very much with the South African government, but they did feel that it was a fair trial. After all, Mandela did form Umkhonto we Sizwe, which is translated as Spear of the Nation. It was very clearly focused on violence. He advocated and formed Spear of the Nation with Walter Sisulu and Joe Slovo. Joe Slovo was a communist in South Africa at the time. In fact, it has latterly come to light that Nelson Mandela was a communist as well. He formed Spear of the Nation and was inspired by Fidel Castro. Initially his view of Spear of the Nation was that there should be sabotage alone and that there should not be any violence aimed at people or, indeed, any killing of people. He also said that, if that did not work, Spear of the Nation could resort to guerrilla war and terrorism. That is the person that Nelson Mandela was in the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, Spear of the Nation on Dingaan's Day in 1961 carried out 57 bombings in South Africa.

At the Rivonia trial Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for life. My father was a reporter with the Star newspaper at the time. He was not at the Rivonia trial, but he certainly was at the trial of Robert Sobukwe. I recall how he told me that Robert Sobukwe was a man of incredible intellect and great charm. My father was absolutely disgusted during the trial with the way that Robert Sobukwe was treated by the people that were guarding him, given that they did not have much in the way of thought about the country or anything else. They treated him as if he were subhuman simply because he was black.

I remember in 1978 going to my grandmother's place. Across the road there were some blacks, who had been drinking a bit and who were a bit rowdy, but they were not really causing a problem. They were just making a noise. I recall the police going there and beating them with shamboks and kicking them with their boots. I shouted out, 'Police brutality!' and fortunately they stopped. I think I got lucky that day, because I am glad to say that I was not thrown into prison. At that time I was not a Mandela supporter. I recall the Free Mandela campaign when I had an abortive year of engineering at Wits University. All I had to go on was what was written about him from the fifties and sixties. As I said, that was not something I agreed with. In fact, I supported the then official opposition, the Progressive Federal Party, which ironically with a name change is now the official opposition in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance. I recall chatting to people like Helen Suzman.

Mandela used his time in prison to think very deeply. He had spoken about it subsequently, saying that, when he gave up public life towards the end of his life, what he really missed about prison was the time to read and reflect. He clearly read and reflected a lot while he was in prison.

There are people in this place reflecting and speaking about sanctions having been the major factor in the South African apartheid regime coming to the conclusion that apartheid was not sustainable and that they had to change. I have to say it is a lack of understanding of the Afrikaner mindset. Remember, the Afrikaners are people that fought two Anglo-Boer wars. In the Second Anglo-Boer War, they were militarily defeated within one year but they continued for another two years with guerrilla warfare, despite their farms being burned and their children and wives being interned in concentration camps by the British. These are stubborn people and, when you push them with something like sanctions, to a certain extent they get their backs up even more.

The thing that precipitated a whole lot of things was actually the fall of the Berlin Wall. I can tell you that I remember from my childhood in South Africa that there was a communist seen behind every bush by the regime. They were absolutely paranoid about the 'kommunis gevaar'—the communist danger. The simple fact is that they saw communism as something that was the real evil, and they saw the Soviet Union as this all-encompassing power. It would have shocked them greatly to see the collapse of the Berlin Wall. In their view there was this incredibly powerful empire, the Soviet empire, which collapsed, and it would have made them realise: 'My God! We cannot actually hold the situation down in our own country.'

As a counterpoint to that, the other aspect of the Berlin Wall is that it precipitated a change in the views of Nelson Mandela as well, in that Nelson Mandela came to realise that communism and nationalisation of state assets were not the way of the future. Therefore, when he came to power, he did not nationalise anything, despite the fact that in his previous life—in the fifties and sixties and, indeed, going to 1989—he was very much of the communist view. So he was remarkable because, despite deep internal hurt and anger at what had happened to him over 27 years—some would say wasted years, but they were clearly not wasted with this man; he gave a lot of thought to what he did—he came out incredibly forgiving. There were people who had precipitated all sorts of things against him, yet he came out forgiving where he could have come out, quite frankly, like Winnie Mandela. What a different South Africa that would have been if he had come out resentful like Winnie.

What he did was that he healed the nation. He brought black and white together. Who can forget those images of the Rugby World Cup—believe me, I wish I could forget that first match between the Springboks and the Wallabies, where the Wallabies were trounced, but anyway—with Mandela in the rugby jersey talking about the rainbow nation, despite the fact that the Springboks in the apartheid regime were hated because the Springboks and rugby are very much an Afrikaner sport and an Afrikaner team. So the true greatness of Mandela is that he moved from a position in the 1950s and 1960s to the position he had in the last few decades of his life, of a peacemaker rather than a warmaker, of someone who was working at bringing people together.

Another thing that he did that was truly great in the African perspective—because until then it was almost unprecedented—was that he retired from office. He could have been President for life if he had wanted to be. The problem with most of Africa is that you get despots who cling to power for dear life. One need only look a little bit further north to Zimbabwe to see that with Robert Mugabe. So that was an admirable lesson that he gave not only to Africa but to the world. I would like to finish by saying that, if there is anything that Mandela taught us, it is that we should all strive to be our own better angels.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When we review the lives of the great men and women of history, the people who are remembered well beyond their lifetimes, their common characteristics are their commitment to justice and their level of connection with their own humanity. Whether they were politicians, preachers, peace campaigners, writers or entertainers, those who are remembered best are those who speak to the human soul. They slice through the political white noise of the day to appeal to the human heart.

Think of Abraham Lincoln, who taught America that slavery was an affront to humanity; Martin Luther King, who reminded his nation that real freedom required genuine equality; or Mahatma Ghandi, who taught India that the road to justice was also the road of peace; John F. Kennedy, who taught the world to ask what the individual can do for his or her country, not to ask what their country could do for them.

Nelson Mandela is the great voice of freedom in our time, a man whose contribution to humanity has no peer. He began his adult life fighting for freedom. He was so committed to freedom that he was prepared to endure 27 years in prison to demonstrate his commitment. The whole world watched when news came through that he would be released from prison. It was a time of massive celebration, as Mr Mandela walked free with the words, 'Free at last.' This was an extraordinary time. It is important, I think, to pay tribute to those people in South Africa, as members of the African National Congress, but also around the world: those citizens of Australia and the globe who campaigned for an end to apartheid. The labour movement, I believe, has much to be proud of for the role that we played. I well remember getting criticism for inviting Eddie Funde, the ANC representative in Australia, to speak at a Young Labor conference. It was seen to be controversial at the time in terms of support for the ANC. Eddie Funde, while he was here in Australia, was subject to violent attacks including a shooting at his home in Ultimo in Sydney. This was not an issue of consensus. This was an issue on which the forces of right, however, prevailed substantially and people from across the political spectrum—people like Malcolm Fraser and others—were prepared to engage in support for sanctions against South Africa, to send the message. And, not to send it in a rhetorical way but to send a message by crippling the economy and crippling those who gained economic advantage from the apartheid system, that they would not continue to be able to profit from the misery of the majority of citizens of South Africa on the basis of their race.

It was quite extraordinary that just eight months after his release, Nelson Mandela came to Australia. As someone who was active in the anti-apartheid movement, I had the honour and the privilege of meeting Mr Mandela face to face and having conversations with him at meetings that were held at Sydney Trades Hall and at the major event that occurred at the Sydney Opera House where people in their tens of thousands came to see this great man. What struck you, and everyone who met him, was his humility. He was genuinely effusive in his response to people. This was someone who had been locked up on Robben Island—and I have seen the cell in which he was kept for 27 years—who genuinely engaged with people and was prepared to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

He had an extraordinary ability to project a positive vision for the future, not just in what he said but in how he said it. When he danced onto the stage that had been established at the Sydney Opera House forecourt it made people cry with joy at being in his presence, at having that honour. To him, though, there were no airs and graces. He came to thank us for our support in the ending of apartheid. It was us who should thank him for making the world a better place by his example.

What I also think was quite extraordinary was that Mandela emerged from incarceration prepared to forgive his oppressors. In this building, where so many things that do not matter a jot inspire bitterness and division, his example is a lesson to all of us involved in politics, and to the world. The reserves of inner strength that this required! He could have emerged from prison bitter—most people would have, frankly, and it would have been very difficult to make any criticism of anyone who did. But Mandela was a leader, a great leader who examined his heart, thought about the future and came up with a better way.

He understood that the way to end decades of hatred was not to promote still further hatred but to embrace forgiveness and reconciliation. Mandela talked the talk but he also walked the walk. He walked all the way to a new South Africa. We can only marvel at his example; it is an achievement of the kind that we only see once in a lifetime. People of my generation came to adulthood aware that Mandela was in prison and bewildered by the institutionalised racism of South Africa. But we did not know Mandela until he was released, and it was only after he emerged from prison with his spirit of humility and reconciliation that we truly saw his greatness. This is because his life showed us that, even though some of our human instincts tempt us to respond to injustice with vengeance, ultimately anger gets us nowhere. The real answer to injustice is to work together towards its elimination. This was the genius of Nelson Mandela.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to speak on this motion, I want to say how compelling the contributions have been, from the Deputy Prime Minister in the House to all those who have contributed over the last few hours, including the previous speaker, the member for Grayndler.

It was a little over a half a century before Nelson Mandela's birth that Abraham Lincoln said:

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The life of Nelson Mandela is one that demonstrated humility and nobility. All of us, in speaking on this motion, are recognising a man who occupies pride of place in the pantheon of history's greatest peacemakers.

Many speakers have spoken of the adversity he confronted and, of course, he confronted it on the first day of his birth because he was born into a society built upon the bedrock of racism. At that time people's status, both legal and social, was of course determined solely by the colour of their skin. As a young man he exemplified the spirit of his favourite piece of verse, the poem Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

He was determined to be the master of his own fate and the captain of his own soul. He was accepted into the University of Fort Hare, an elite institution, and it was there that the first glimmerings of his concern for social justice became visible. He was expelled for participation in protests against poor living conditions.

After leaving university, as we know, he transitioned from campus activist to civil rights leader. He joined the African National Congress and was instrumental in forming its youth league. Put on trial in 1964, he made a statement to the court that I have heard many times in the last few hours in this debate. At the end, he looked the judge in the eye and said:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realised. But my Lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

His eloquence, as we know, was to no avail, and he was condemned to life imprisonment and would serve 27 years of that sentence.

During that time, as he languished in the prison cell, the world changed. The international community became increasingly intolerant of South Africa's apartheid system. During the seventies and eighties, a series of international economic and cultural sanctions were put in place, and by the mid-eighties it became increasingly obvious to the political establishment in Johannesburg that the system was no longer tenable. The changing tide of history reversed the dynamic between the imprisoned and the imprisoners.

In 1985 the government opened negotiations with the still-incarcerated Nelson Mandela about the abolition of apartheid and the transition of South Africa to democracy. But it took five more years until the newly-elected president, FW de Klerk, legalised the African National Congress and released Nelson Mandela from his imprisonment.

All of us will look back and remember that time. I vividly remember watching the late news that carried pictures live of the release. At that point, the story of Nelson Mandela's life, as we have all spoken about in these last few days, transitioned to another phase. In one fell swoop he was transformed from a prisoner to the apex of South African politics.

He won the presidency in 1994 in a landslide. He now had power, and the question was what he would do with it. And it is what he did that makes him so worthy of inclusion amongst the ranks of the world's greatest leaders. The previous speaker and many before, of course, have alluded to this, that the moral measure of the man—someone who was 71 years old and who had spent more than a quarter of a century unjustly imprisoned—was that he never succumbed to rancour or resentment. Rather than vindictiveness he displayed forgiveness, and from his first day of freedom he worked not for conflict but for conciliation. His calm words and his dignified demeanour helped to heal the gaping words in the social fabric of South Africa.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established under his presidency helped South Africa moved beyond the ugly past. He recognised the power of sport as a unifier, promoting the victory of the racially integrated Springboks in 1995 at the World Cup as a symbol of a reborn South Africa. In 1999, he proved true to his word, freely relinquishing power by standing down after a single term as South African President. As we know in this House and as the public reflect, as they have in recent days, by any measure Nelson Mandela was one for the ages.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, we celebrate the life and mourn the passing of Nelson Mandela, a man whose influence stretches well beyond the borders of his nation, South Africa, into the hearts and minds of every person who believes that this world can be better tomorrow than it is today. Mandela's story of moral courage and immense personal sacrifice in the face of oppression is one that has inspired people around the globe. Perhaps his most famous speech, given at the start of the 1964 so-called Rivonia trial, the trial that eventually saw him sentenced to life in prison, summarises what we hear so often about him. I want to quote the one sentence that for me is so significant. Mandela concluded his defence by saying:

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

These were the words that stirred many of my generation. Every person who cared about social change, social justice, social progress was moved. Indeed, many of the people on the progressive side of politics can attribute their political coming of age to Mandela's heroic activism. Tragically, this would be the last speech the world would hear from Mandela for more than a quarter of a century. But, during the 27 long years of his imprisonment, his battle never ceased—a battle that he waged even behind bars against injustice, tyranny and racism in its most overt form. As he continued to stand against the brutal regime that ruled his nation, millions around the world stood with him.

I am very proud to be part of the Australian Labor Party and the broader Australian union movement, both having played a role in opposing that regime. It was the Whitlam government that banned racially selected sporting teams from touring Australia. It was Australian maritime unions that played a vital role by enforcing and organising sanctions against the apartheid government. During Mandela's visit to Australia in 1990, the ACTU hosted an event for him at the Melbourne Town Hall during which he acknowledged and thanked the Australian union movement for the role it played in the liberation of South Africa from racial repression. Recounting the impact of the Australian union movement on the struggle in South Africa, Mandela said:

It was the labour movement of this country—

that is, Australia—

… in the early-50s which supported the dockworkers—

a decision which he said:

… created a great deal of excitement, and gave the people of South Africa in their struggle, a lot of strength and a lot of hope.

Mandela continued:

It was difficult to understand how workers, thousands of miles from our shores, who did take the initiative, the lead, among the workers of the world, to pledge their solidarity with the people of South Africa.

The feeling that we are not alone, that we have millions of workers behind us, is a factor which has prepared us, notwithstanding the most brutal form of oppression which we've faced in our country.

That day at building sites in Melbourne's CBD, the flag of the African National Congress flew proudly from cranes, symbolising the solidarity of the union movement with the struggle for a free and democratic South Africa. It was Australian unions that forged formal links with black African trade unions and directly with the ANC, assisting with funding the establishment of an ANC office in Sydney. Indeed, the ACTU's overseas aid organisation, Union Aid Abroad, played a role in helping exiled members of the ANC return to South Africa during the transition to democracy.

I would like to also acknowledge the work of Malcolm Fraser, who, both during his time as Prime Minister and in retirement, was a strong advocate for sanctions against South Africa and for Mandela's release from jail. I am very proud of the Hawke Labor government's role—the important role that they played in leading international efforts to impose financial sanctions on the South African regime. Those financial sanctions played a pivotal role in isolating the South African government during those crucial years in the late 1980s. Former South African finance minister Barend du Plessis later went on to say that the fall in investment that resulted from the sanctions was 'the dagger that finally immobilised apartheid'.

In recent days, there have been many brilliant tributes made to Nelson Mandela, but one that I would like to share with people today comes from John Carlin, in which he recounts Mandela's first day as President following his inauguration as the first black President of South Africa. Mandela came across an Afrikaner, John Reinders, chief of presidential protocol during the tenure of both the last white president, FW de Klerk, and his predecessor, PW Botha. Reinders was packing up his belongings and placing them in cardboard boxes in his office, when Mandela asked him what he was doing. Reinders responded that he was moving to another job, in the prisons department. To this Mandela responded:

… I know that department ve-ry well. I would not recommend doing that.

Mandela then set about persuading Reinders that he needed his expertise, and ultimately convinced him to serve in the role throughout his five-year presidency. Carlin writes:

Reinders, whose eyes filled with tears as he recalled that story … during the five years he had served at Mandela's side, he had received nothing but courtesy and kindness.

Mandela endured unimaginable personal suffering in the pursuit of justice for his country. That, after more than 27 years in prison, he found in his heart the capacity for genuine forgiveness and understanding of his former enemies and oppressors gives us all hope that, no matter how great our differences, peace and reconciliation can be achieved.

I had the enormous privilege of meeting Mr Mandela during his visit to Melbourne in the year 2000 as part of World Reconciliation Day and I do recall with great fondness receiving a very warm hug from Mr Mandela on that day. Asked about the need for an apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples, Mandela responded:

In Australia here, I have confidence in both population groups that there are competent and able men and women with experience who are able to resolve their problems, and to know how to resolve them.

Mandela's optimism about reconciliation in Australia was validated in 2008, when our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said sorry and Aboriginal people said thank you. One of those able men whom Mandela unknowingly made reference to in his answer was Australia's father of reconciliation, Patrick Dodson. In his remarks on Mandela's death, Dodson stated that Mandela's greatest lesson for us was 'to believe that there is goodness in all human beings, irrespective of their colour, their beliefs, their particular ideology'.

The legacies of Nelson Mandela's life will be many, and some will only become visible to us after the passage of time. But perhaps his greatest legacy, to borrow Patrick Dodson's wise observation, is to have demonstrated to future generations the capacity for peace and forgiveness that resides in the heart of every human being. Equipped with these lessons, people around the world will continue to pursue a better world. May he continue to inspire generations to come.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nelson Mandela needs no title; he needs no introduction. He is a household name right across the globe. His is a name etched in our history, in our memory and in our hearts forever. His was a vision of freedom, of equality, of justice. His was a vision which united a country—a deeply troubled and divided country—and is a legacy which gave birth to the rainbow nation we know today as the modern South Africa. It is a vibrant, though still at times troubled, nation but, nonetheless, a united country going forward as one.

To the world he was the iconic Mandela. But to his beloved rainbow nation he was Madiba. He was one of them. He was their leader. He fought the apartheid regime and he won. His was a South African nation made much better, more equal and more historic for his existence, and we should always be grateful for that. The Prime Minister eloquently told the nation last Friday, upon hearing of Nelson Mandela's passing, that he was 'the father of the modern South Africa', and the Prime Minister was right.

Born into the Thembu royal family on 18 July 1918, Mandela studied law, becoming a renowned anti-apartheid campaigner. He rose to prominence in 1952 during the African National Congress's Defiance Campaign. He was later jailed for treason and spent 27 long, hard years behind bars, all the while believing that the rights of his people in the nation he loved ought to be equal to those of the white minority. So committed and passionate a believer in equality was he that he once declared such a mission was a cause 'for which he was willing to die'.

During his almost three decades behind bars, Mandela and his wife, Winnie, never lost faith or sight of their dreams. No-one who watched those historic events upon Mandela's release in 1990 will soon forget what a day it was and what it meant for the world. Indeed, television stations right throughout Australia cut programming to cross to South Africa for his long walk to freedom, which back in 1990 was unusual for commercial television stations in Australia to do. I remember watching in Wagga Wagga and I am sure many of the other members in the chamber today also watched that historic event. It was such a moment of triumph, of belief, that one person could make such a difference—that one person could make such a passionate difference to his nation and, through it, to the world.

Along with then President Frederik Willem de Klerk, Nelson Mandela was awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993—very well deserved. A year later, Mandela was elected President of South Africa, the first black person to earn that title in his nation's history.

Following the announcement of Mandela's death on Friday morning, Wagga Wagga Wiradjuri man Hewitt Whyman recalled meeting the anti-apartheid campaigner while a member of the Aboriginal Legal Service on Mandela's Australian tour in 1990. Just the other day Hewitt recalled:

We were frightened to approach him but he put out his hand and said 'talk to me.' … I was nervous because I was meeting a great man … It was a moment in my life I will never forget.

Nelson Mandela inspired more than a community and more than a nation. He inspired people the whole world over to stand up for what they believe in and to have the courage of their convictions. He was a man who said what he meant and meant what he said. Although on the other side of the world, Hewitt Whyman says he felt a great affinity with Mandela because, like him, Mandela fought for a fairer deal for people. Hewitt said:

I related to him because he is a black man who served a political prison term because of his beliefs.

He gave me strength to fight for what I believe as a person—the rights of Aboriginal Australians—to achieve good outcomes for our people.

My choice was to stay in Aboriginal affairs and to work toward reconciling.

The world paused yesterday to remember this great man, this legend. His South Africa, his rainbow nation, is better for the 95 years Nelson Mandela gave to it. Here we lowered our flags to half-mast as a fitting tribute to what he did for the world. While we mourn the passing of a legend the likes of whom we may not see again in our lifetime, Mandela's is a story which will live on, in our hearts and in our memories, for many, many years to come. Whilst he is consigned to the pages of history, history will remember him very well, as it should. What a man, what a story, what a legacy! Though Nelson Mandela has departed this world for the next, no-one will ever forget the contribution that he made to our world and to our history. He is the father of the modern South Africa and his is a legacy which will endure for the ages.

Just before coming into the Federation Chamber to deliver this speech I bumped into Kay Hull, my predecessor in the electorate of Riverina. She spoke of the inspiration that Nelson Mandela had given her. Kay is a great fighter for social justice and certainly was in the 12 years that she was member for Riverina, and her great work in my community goes on. She got hold of copies of A Prisoner in the Garden, one of the books about Nelson Mandela, and had them signed by all the national leaders on both sides of parliament. She was a little bit worried because her brood of grandchildren is growing and she only has so many books. But Kay certainly waxed lyrical about the wonderful inspiration Nelson Mandela had given her in her time as a parliamentarian. That inspiration enabled Kay to do the great work that she did on behalf not just of the Riverina but of our nation as well.

Nelson Mandela is, sadly, gone, but his suffering is over. He has finally freed himself of his earthly shackles and he has left behind a better world for his having lived. May he rest in peace.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to make a contribution today in memory of the late Nelson Mandela. It was a long life that he lived—indeed, 95 years of it—but what a life it was and what a contribution Nelson Mandela made to not only his community but also the global community. Nelson Mandela, as has been said by other speakers here, is a man who led a struggle, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. It is a struggle that made him a global icon of resistance and sacrifice for the greater good. For Nelson Mandela that sacrifice was a personal one—one that saw him jailed for 27 years—but it was a sacrifice that he made for the greater good. That greater good was to free his countrymen and countrywomen from the inhuman oppression of apartheid. This was a struggle to free his people from the indignity and the oppression of the white-inspired apartheid regime.

In remembering Nelson Mandela we must, first and foremost, not forget what this struggle was. Apartheid, an Afrikaner word meaning separateness or apartness, was a policy of racial segregation devised by the minority white Afrikaners and seen by them as vital to the survival of their minority existence. It became official state policy in 1948 and its essence and purpose were to ensure the retention of a pure white race which sought to assert its domination in a country where some 73 per cent of the population were black South Africans. Its aim was to assist the separate development of the different groups and perpetuate white control and domination over non-white races, which were deemed to be at a less-developed stage of civilisation.

When Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Australia in the early nineties as part of the anti-apartheid movement I attended a public lecture he gave at La Trobe University at that time. I remember Archbishop Tutu describing apartheid as an immoral, vicious and cruel Frankenstein's monster. At the time the white South African government was under immense internal and international pressure as the impact of the global anti-apartheid movement took hold, including trade union sanctions and supporting boycotts. It was all beginning to take its toll on the government.

So the white South African government tried to placate this international outrage by attempting to reform the system of apartheid. I recall Archbishop Tutu putting the question to the audience: 'How do you reform a Frankenstein?' His response was: 'You dismantle apartheid. You do not reform it.' Some of the reforms that the white South African government introduced at the time, in an attempt to get international outrage and pressure off their backs, included the legalisation of black trade unions, given that the trade union movement internationally was at the forefront of a lot of the trade sanctions and other pressures that were brought to bear. These reforms, Archbishop Tutu told us, were marred anyway by the continual harassment and detention of union leaders. Part of the reform also saw the abolition of the pass laws, which had made it a criminal offence for black South Africans to move within their homeland without a pass. They also abolished the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act, which had until then prohibited mixed marriages and made sexual relations between blacks and whites a criminal offence.

But these reforms were inadequate because, as Archbishop Tutu said, the fundamental laws of apartheid remained. The new constitution of South Africa of 1984, although meant to be a reforming one, further entrenched and perpetuated white minority rule by making no mention of the 73 per cent of the population other than in a small clause that said that all black affairs would be dealt with by the state president by decree.

Nelson Mandela's South Africa was a country with a majority black population who were denied basic and fundamental rights—human rights and rights to dignity and respect. In their own homeland, they were denied the inalienable right to freedom of expression and freedom of movement. They were denied the right to education and employment opportunities for themselves and their children. Effectively, they were denied the right to live and walk freely in their own homeland.

White minority propaganda constantly described black leaders—and this included Mandela—as evil, with destructive intentions. The African National Congress, and in particular the ANC organisation Spear of the Nation, was seen as an enemy of the state. Police took free licence to shoot and kill at will. We are all familiar with scenes and reports of opening fire in crowds and killing children. All those who dared to resist were at risk. In an attempt to preserve its evil regime, the white South African government jailed people, from church leaders to children—children who were incarcerated without trial and put away in cells with hardened criminals.

The white regime actually gave rise to a struggle. Their actions gave rise to a struggle that they later characterised as evil, in order to justify their brutal response. Any regime that designs apartheid is itself not only a regime of evil but a regime of terror. This was the South Africa that Nelson Mandela struggled against. This was the South Africa that the world community joined his struggle against. In fact, Australia was—and many members before me have made reference to this fact—one of the countries at the forefront of this international struggle. My own party, the Australian Labor Party; the Australian trade union movements and trade unionists; and Australian sportspeople leant their support and activism to the anti-apartheid struggle.

In fact, from 1960 to about 1990, Australian unions organised and enforced trade and shipping boycotts alongside the official sanctions that were in place around the world against South Africa. They formed links with black African trade unions—particularly the peak organisation, COSATU—and helped establish and fund the ANC's office and representatives in Sydney.

The ACTU's overseas aid organisation, Union Aid Abroad, or APHEDA, as it is also known, was a leading agency in supporting the democratic movement, including providing assistance to the ANC during the apartheid years and later helping those in exile to return to South Africa during the transition to democracy.

When Nelson Mandela visited Australia in 1990, as the member for Grayndler so fondly spoke of a little while ago, he came here to thank us. He was released from Robben Island prison in 1990 and he came to Australia to thank us. I also had the privilege to see him and to hear him speak at the ACTU function hosted at the Melbourne Town Hall. I consider myself very fortunate to have seen and meet such a significant human being, one who, as President Obama said, 'now belongs to the ages'. Mandela thanked Australia. He was indeed a very humble man and he acknowledged that, without international community support, his cause may never have been realised.

During that time in 1990 he also thanked then Prime Minister Bob Hawke for maintaining economic and sporting sanctions against South Africa. Australia was active in the international push to have Mandela freed from jail. In fact, the push to dismantle apartheid and the push to free Nelson Mandela from jail became a defining world struggle. We in Australia joined in, as did other European countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, South African nations—basically all the nations of the world. In the words of then foreign minister Gareth Evans in March 1986, in response to a question on what progress had been made toward achieving the release of Nelson Mandela, Gareth Evans quoted from a letter he had written, which called for the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela and said:

On September 2nd last year the Australian Government called for the release of political prisoners, including the immediate release of Mandela as an essential step toward dialogue and negotiations leading to the end of apartheid and a transition to a united free and democratic South Africa.

Mandela's release was deemed essential to a breakthrough in the struggle against apartheid. We all remember the euphoria after his release, not only his personal euphoria but also the euphoria in his homeland and the euphoria around the world. With that came the challenge of uniting and healing a nation which had been torn apart by the struggle which had given rise to hatred and fear.

Mandela went on to become the first democratically elected black President in May 1994. At the time, the Australian said:

Mr Mandela's Presidential victory is the culmination of an odyssey that could easily have ended on the gallows in 1964 when he faced the death sentence for treason against the apartheid state. Instead he was sentenced to life in jail. Behind bars, he evolved into the world's most celebrated political prisoner and the standard bearer of the struggle for racial equality in the world's pariah nation, South Africa.

For those who proclaimed him a terrorist because of his support for armed struggle against the South African regime, or indeed as a communist, history has shown that he was a freedom fighter, a man who became the face of and indeed epitomised the struggle against apartheid. As President Obama described him yesterday at the memorial service, he was a giant because without him change may not have come to South Africa when it did or how it did and, certainly, without him the reconciliation and healing which followed that change may not have happened. For every human struggle throughout our history, the burden of that struggle has usually fallen on an individual who became the reference point for everybody else. There were many individuals who shone in this human struggle against apartheid, but Nelson Mandela was the tallest of the tall, a man born in a small village of Transkei, stood up and moved the earth.

Madiba's message was always clear and focused. In his later years he liked to visit school children. In one of his visits to SAHETI, a Greek school in Johannesburg—which my chief of staff attended, as she is South African born and bred, now Australian—Nelson Mandela's speech to the children centred on the nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Madiba, as he is known to South Africans, had a message for the children: never give up. If you fail, you try and you try again until you shine like a star. One of his most famous quotes was:

Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

That, I think, in many ways epitomises the humility of the man that so many of our members here today have spoken about.

In closing, just to illustrate what he meant to the people of South Africa—here we are in the Australian parliament talking about him, as they work their way through the 10-day mourning period—in a televised address President Zuma said that the man known as Madiba brought South Africa together:

Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.

…      …      …

This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.

Our nation has lost its greatest son.

Yet, what made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.

And in him we saw so much of ourselves.

Thank you.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I firstly thank my comrade here, the member for Calwell, for her great contribution this morning and for the very erudite way in which she explained the nature of apartheid and its impact upon all of us. I thank her for her contribution, and might I make an observation about the quality of the contributions made by all members who have contributed to this debate.

I regard myself as privileged to be participating and to offer my own words of condolence to commemorate and celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. I suspect, certainly over the last century, that he was the most formidable and the greatest political and moral leader over that period. There have been many others who have been significant, but I think he stands above them all. That includes such notables as Mahatma Gandhi.

As we can see from the contributions that have been made in this discussion here, he has been admired and eulogised by all sides of politics and by all parts of our community. I suspect I am one of only a few in this place who had the opportunity to meet and have a conversation with him over perhaps half an hour. I will come to that a little later.

I speak also as a child of the sixties and seventies, as an adolescent growing up during those terrible years of violence in South Africa with the anti-apartheid movement gaining such strength here in the late sixties and the seventies; being here at Manuka Oval when the Springboks were playing, with the demonstrations of people opposed to their presence in this country, and then through the Labor movement, particularly with my colleagues in the trade union movement, but also with great workers for the ANC cause from South Africa, including the great Eddie Funde, who traversed the halls of parliament and was known to many—not many who currently serve—of us who served at that time. He was a great man, who actually made a deal of difference to the way in which people appreciated and understood what was happening in South Africa.

We know that Nelson Mandela, who had been working as a policeman in 1941—before anyone in this place was born and I suspect before anyone working in its wider environs was born—dedicated his life to achieving justice and a nonracist South Africa, where the colour of a person's skin or the nature of their beliefs would be irrelevant. We know, too, that Nelson Mandela first joined the African National Congress in 1943. As we also know, he famously burned his passbook in protest of the grotesque restrictions placed on non-whites under apartheid. He opened the first black law practice in South Africa with his colleague, comrade and great freedom fighter, Oliver Tambo, in 1952. In 1956, he was one of 156 activists arrested and charged with high treason—a case which was to last until 1961 before they were found not guilty.

Despite the violence against anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, the grotesque massacre of 69 anti-apartheid protestors at Sharpeville and the passing of laws banning Mandela's political organisation, he and his comrades were not perturbed; they became emboldened in their struggle. After years of peaceful protests, it was only after Sharpeville and the banning of the ANC that Nelson Mandela and his comrades turned to armed conflict. The member for Calwell outlined in precise detail the grotesque nature of apartheid. The decision to arm was a rational decision by a man and others who had an irrepressible drive to free their people. Just as he believed years later when he was released from prison that the only way to unite South Africa after decades of apartheid was to forgive and to heal, Nelson Mandela believed that the freedom of his people from apartheid was worth dying for.

In 1961 the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe—or MK, 'the spear of the nation'—was launched with Walter Sisulo and others, with Nelson Mandela becoming the commander-in-chief. He led underground guerrilla attacks against state institutions as he continued his protests against the tyranny of apartheid and the South African government. He was a freedom fighter who in today's world, along with the ANC, may well have been labelled as a terrorist.

In 1962 he was captured and sentenced to five years in prison for incitement to strike and for leaving the country illegally, having travelled to Ethiopia and Algeria for military training. Two years later, Nelson Mandela was retried along with several of his ANC comrades and convicted of sabotage. He and his associates faced the death penalty. He said in his famous speech from the dock at the time—I know it has been quoted by others but I think it is worth quoting again:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

We know that he was then sentenced to life in jail and was sent to Robben Island, where he was incarcerated for 27 years. He would not be a free man again until February 1990. I have vivid memories of the day—11 February 1990—when he was liberated from that jail. I remember the sensational enthusiasm of South Africans and, indeed, the world community who supported the ANC and the anti-apartheid movement, at seeing this great liberator released from that terrible place, and to recognise later his contribution as he became president of a new nation—with Oliver Tambo, his great sidekick and someone with whom he had fought the struggle for so long, as his vice-president.

In October 1990 Mandela visited Australia. I was a member of parliament and was in Darwin. I understood he was transiting through, so, as I am sure you would expect me to do, I rang the foreign minister and asked who was meeting Nelson Mandela. The answer was no-one, so I said, 'Well, there is now.' I fronted up at the airport and had the great privilege of welcoming Nelson Mandela to Australia. I then had the further honour of spending time with him while he was in transit—sitting down and having a cup of tea and a chat. I do not have precise memories of that discussion but I know I was in awe of the man—I had the privilege of spending time with such a great force for good in what was then a troubled world. I admired him, and of course I did express the support felt by so many Australians for the struggle he was engaged in, for his liberation and for the future of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela understood clearly, as we now know as a result of his discussions further on in the trip, the invaluable contribution made by the Australian labour movement—particularly the trade union movement, as outlined by the member for Calwell, and indeed the Labor Party and the Labor government—towards ending apartheid in South Africa. We say a lot and hear a lot about our trade unions in this place, but they have been such a force for good in this country. We know that they raise awareness. They might be vilified for participating in these activities, but the fact is that they are a very important part of the political dialogue in this country. They are very important in raising the awareness of working people about their rights and about the rights of others—as was the case with apartheid. That remains the case today. I say to all of those who vilify trade unions: understand that they have a number of roles in this country, one of which is to prick our conscience and make us aware. I am grateful that they have done that in the past and continue to do it now.

To me, Mr Mandela was a hero—as he was to all of us. When I met him he was 72 but he had a great vitality. As I have said, he was awe inspiring. How could anyone, from 1941 onwards, continue that struggle, be jailed for 27 years, become President and then, with the greatest of graciousness, want reconciliation—reconciliation after struggle and sacrifice and bloodletting; reconciliation by putting his hand across the table to those who imprisoned him and saying, 'Let's share this together'? He was a great warrior, a great man of vision, but he was a unifying influence, and I say to those who in the past were critical of those of us in this country who supported the struggle of the ANC that you have to be wary of making false judgements. This is proof positive of the need to take people on their merits and to understand the importance of what they are doing in a broader context and not be selfish about the way we look at things.

Australia has had its own heroes who have suffered from discrimination. Vincent Lingiari is one. It was in the 1960s, around the same time that Nelson Mandela was so active, that we saw political awareness being raised about racism in this country. We have a lot to be grateful for, because it was okay to participate in that activity—to make people aware of racism and all the terrible things that are associated with it. Now in this country we know that racism is unacceptable, that discrimination on the grounds of colour is unacceptable and that it will not be tolerated. Discrimination on the basis of your beliefs or discrimination on the basis of the one you love is not to be tolerated. The person who gave us the strength to fight those struggles through what he did and the leadership he showed to the international community was, indeed, Nelson Mandela. May he rest in peace.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Lingiari for that powerful speech. It was wonderful to hear his personal accounts of meeting the late and great Nelson Mandela. I can honestly say what an honour and a privilege it is to stand here as an elected representative in this magnificent place, which is a symbol of democracy for our nation, to speak about a man who was a symbol of democracy, not only for his nation but for the whole world.

Few leaders are so significant that they transcend their country, but Nelson Mandela's vision of harmony resonated worldwide, and today the whole world mourns. As someone who developed a political awareness in the late 1970s and the 1980s, the struggle of Nelson Mandela against apartheid and for universal suffrage in a united democratic and non-racial South Africa was incredibly defining. It was the backdrop to my early political activism. I can clearly recall the anticipation and excitement of the moment in February 1990 when Mandela walked free. During the 1980s there were so many campaigns, by rock stars and others, that it became a universal campaign to free Nelson Mandela. For me that moment is as powerful and poignant today as it was 23 years ago.

I believe in many ways that Mandela faced as significant a challenge on the day he walked free as he did on the day he was imprisoned some 27 years earlier. Upon entering Robben Island in 1964, the challenges facing Mandela were paramount. While the anti-apartheid struggle continued around him, his days were spent working in a quarry, breaking rocks into gravel. With limited visitors, access to newspapers, letters and the outside world, the difficulty of staying in touch with the cause he had devoted his life to—and was prepared to give his life for—was enormous. On his release, however, the challenge was quite different—a great and moral one. After facing extreme adversity and oppression—27 years in prison and loss of liberty—his challenge was to turn the other cheek and to greet those who had created his oppression by denying his freedom for so long with forgiveness, peace, harmony and reconciliation.

This is the great moral challenge: when we face adversity we can respond in one of two ways—despair or hope, resentment or forgiveness. We can retaliate, we can seek revenge, we can seek vengeance; or we can respond in the name of harmony and reconciliation. I genuinely believe there are few people who would have had the strength to forgive as Mandela did; few who would have rejected the opportunity for revenge as he did; few who would have shown no sign of resentment as he did. I often ask myself: what would I have done had I been in his shoes? I honestly cannot say. I would like to know how I would respond to such adversity, but I honestly do not know. That is why this man is such an extraordinary and great man.

Upon leaving prison, Mandela greeted his well-wishers 'in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all'. He said:

I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.

Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.

This certainly was a defining moment. I am proud to have been part of the Australian Labor Party and the Australian union movement, who stood by our friends in the African National Congress, the people of South Africa and the global movement to end apartheid. I am proud that our leaders like Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Don Dunstan and Gareth Evans ensured that Labor in government took the lead in imposing sanctions on the apartheid regime. And, as the member for Lingiari mentioned, I am also proud of the unionists across Australia who fought hard, who mobilised to fight against apartheid and who sent messages of support to those across the ocean to let them know that the workers of Australia were standing firmly behind them.

I am proud that Australian Labor gave practical assistance to Mandela and the ANC in the 1994 election. When Mandela visited Australia following his release from prison, he told the tens of thousands who turned out to hear him speak that he could 'feel the solidarity of Australians and others for 27 years through thick prison walls'. Nelson Mandela was an international leader in reconciliation and democracy. He showed courage, compassion, integrity and hope through unthinkable adversity. He was not perfect and he was the first to admit that he was no saint, but what he inspires in all of us is that he rejected resentment and conflict in favour of reconciliation and forgiveness. We can all learn a lot from him.

The world is a richer and better place because of Nelson Mandela. He inspires us all to be better people. Farewell, Nelson Mandela.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to rise to join with my colleagues from all sides of this parliament today to pay tribute to a great freedom fighter and a great friend of Labor, Nelson Mandela AC. All members here in this House joined parliament for a reason. We joined with the firm belief that we can make a difference. We joined because we believe we can improve this nation, that we can help make this nation a better place. With no offence intended to any of my colleagues, the difference we make here in this parliament will no doubt pale in significance alongside the difference that Nelson Mandela made to his nation, the Republic of South Africa. While few if any will rise to his heights, we should all be driven by his words:

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.

The South Africa that Nelson Mandela leaves behind is a far better place than the one he joined in 1918. It is a country where democracy now reigns and in which people can live together with equal opportunities—opportunities which he helped to create. Mandela was a true freedom fighter. He rose above oppression and incarceration, and led the battle to take down the worst side of humanity.

Mandela's infinite capacity for inclusiveness and forgiveness should serve as an inspiration to us all. His eternal optimism and determination to always find and then move towards what was the very best in humanity was truly remarkable. His words again:

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Mandela battled for equality and what was just, and after considerable time he was victorious.

In the year of my birth, Mandela made his famous Rivonia trial speech from the dock, where he professed democracy 'is an ideal that I would die for' before being sent to Robben Island. It was nearly two decades later while at university that I first learnt of this extraordinary man and his long struggle against apartheid. I made it my business then to learn much more of this struggle, the struggle of the people of South Africa, and I pledged my support to do all I could to free Nelson Mandela. Throughout the sixties and seventies while I was growing up, learning about life and enjoying everything of wonder here in Australia, Nelson Mandela was being kept in a cell smaller than my bathroom and put to work crushing stone.

His struggle was indeed an important part of my political awakening, as, indeed, many of my colleagues have discussed today. Through his 'long walk to freedom' and through his fight to end apartheid, Mandela gave a true gift to the people of South Africa and to the world at large. It is an often-forgotten fact that Nelson Mandela offered to help the Howard government with native title holders at a time when the then government and, indeed, our nation was struggling to come to terms with the very belated recognition of common law native title rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 1997 Nelson Mandela also invited long-standing Aboriginal activist, Dr Gracelyn Smallwood, to attend the huge 20th anniversary memorial service for Steve Biko, another crucial figure in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle who tragically died in custody.

It was this tragic death of Steve Biko that was to have a profound impact on Australia's own father of reconciliation, Professor Patrick Dodson, who in 1989 was appointed as one of the commissioners of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. On hearing the news of Nelson Mandela's death, Patrick Dodson described Mandela as 'a giant for justice' and mourned the loss of a great human. For Patrick Dodson, Nelson Mandela's incontrovertible stand against racism and his life's demonstration of the power of conciliation over persecution are his greatest teachings:

The key thing is to believe that there's goodness in all human beings, irrespective of their colour, their beliefs, their particular ideology.

This was the way in which Nelson Mandela influenced Patrick Dodson's own work in Australia. I quote again:

My work in reconciliation, along with many others, has been to challenge our nation to deal with its history, the legacy of the dispossession of Aboriginal peoples, and then the legacy of treaties and sovereignty and those sorts of issues. To deal with these matters in a mature, constructive way so that the nation can go forward, to make sure that there is recognition in the constitution of the first peoples of this country.

For Patrick Dodson:

So there's a motivation that Mandela has given, along with Gandhi and others, of a non-violent approach, but also a consistency and dedication to that sort of cause for the betterment of the nation and not just for personal aggrandisement.

While Mandela's life has ended, his influence will continue through the lives of many others. As Patrick Dodson concluded this week in his comments on the passing of Mandela:

Those universal teachings of his, along with Gandhi and Martin Luther-King ... will live forever. I don't see it ever fading.

Nor do I.

I am very proud that it was the Australian Labor movement that ensured that apartheid remained on the agenda here in Australia, putting pressure on the government to use all of its diplomatic powers to force change, providing assistance to the ANC and its representatives in exile and enforcing economic sanctions against South Africa when they were needed most. A few months after his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela repaid the favour, travelling to Australia and attending a special function in Melbourne where he personally thanked the Australian unions and Labor for their support. I quote from Mandela's words on that occasion:

I will remember that the Labor movement of this country was among the very first, if not the first, to launch solidarity action in line with the people of South Africa in the course of their struggle. It was difficult to understand how workers, thousands of miles from our shores, who did take the initiative, the lead, among the workers of the world to pledge their solidarity to the people of South Africa. The feeling that we were not alone, that we had millions of workers behind us is a factor which has prepared us, notwithstanding the most brutal form of oppression, which we have faced in our country. Throughout, since 1912, every South African Government has tried to destroy the African National Congress, or at least to cripple it. Not only have they failed in that resolve, but we have emerged to be the most powerful political organisation in the country, inside and outside of Parliament.

I note that many of my Labor colleagues, including the member for Gorton, were present at his address and I thank the member for sharing the transcript of Mandela's speech from that day. I note that many members of the Maritime Union of Australia, Newcastle branch and many other comrades were involved in the actions around Australia at the time, where they refused to unload ships from South Africa not only in Newcastle but across Australia and the world. These were critical forms of action taking place in order to shift the debate and political discourse around the issues of apartheid in South Africa. I pay tribute to the many men and women from my area who were very involved in those struggles and have now passed. I feel their presence with me today in this chamber.

It is very fitting that, last night at his memorial service, close to 100 leaders from around the world gathered to honour the life of Nelson Mandela. Perhaps no speech was more poignant than that of the President of the United States, President Barack Obama. In 2008, Nelson Mandela was amongst the first to congratulate Obama on his magnificent election victory. That he was the first black American to occupy the Oval Office was not lost on Mandela or the world. Mandela said Obama was an inspiration to people all over the world:

Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.

I will finish with some words from the memorial service held last night, by General Thanduxolo Mandela:

I am sure Madiba is smiling from above as he looks down on the multitude of diverseness here, for this is what he strove for, the equality of man, the brotherhood of humanity and the unity of progressive peoples until his last days.

Peace, justice, unity of all mankind. Let us pledge to keep Madiba's dream alive in the way in which we honour the humanity in each other, in the way in which we reach out to the humanity in each other, and in the way in which we raise up the impoverished, and the disfavoured.

These are important lessons for us all. May the generous spirit of Nelson Mandela live forever.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to join with my parliamentary colleagues and millions of people around the world in expressing my sincere condolences over the passing of Nelson Mandela. My condolences go to his family, who lost a loving family member, and to the citizens of South Africa, who lost their first democratically elected President and, more importantly, the father of their nation—a man who transformed South Africa into a harmonious, diverse and multicultural society. My condolences also go to humanity in general, which lost one of its great warriors, someone who fought for fairness and decency and respect for all peoples.

Every once in a while a person is born whose nature and actions change the course of history. Nelson Mandela was one such special person, who ultimately sacrificed his own life through the way he lived—which saw him incarcerated for some 27 years, hounded and treated as a terrorist—all in the quest for truth, justice and impartiality for people living in the great country of South Africa. This is a man who truly believed in his nation and in humanity.

Mandela was one of those people who will live on forever not only in the history books but also in the minds and hearts of all those who have known him, who have learnt of his actions and who care and yearn for freedom and democracy. We join together in mourning his passing and, as was beautifully demonstrated by the residents of South Africa during his memorial service yesterday, in celebrating his life and his extraordinary achievements. The fact that flags are flying at half-mast in Australia, and for that matter in many other countries around the world, is a testament to the greatness of this man.

Australia should be particularly proud of its strong stance against apartheid during the 80s and 90s, an era I remember well, being someone who enjoys rugby and seeing the protests that occurred at the Sydney Cricket ground when the South African team visited. It showed that Australians—not only the trade union movement, not only the university activists but Australians as a whole—deplored intently the very notion of apartheid. That is something that lives with me and we can all be very proud that we were party to what was achieved in the restoration of democracy in South Africa.

A number of my colleagues have already spoken about Mandela's visit to Australia in about October 1990. I was at one of the union congresses held with the ACTU and a number of unions in Melbourne. At that stage I was working for the Australian Workers Union and was very proud to be there and to listen to his address. I know a number of my colleagues—it was Brendan O'Connor who first mentioned this—were similarly young trade unionists at the time and were able to sit there and be inspired by a man standing before us, a man who was championing freedom and democracy.

There is a famous saying that tells us that friends in adversity shall always be cherished the most, and this is what Nelson Mandela had to say in 1990 in thanking our nation for its support during the most difficult times of his struggle. We can be proud of the fact that we were clearly on the right side of history. We were on the side of a man who inspired change for the better, not only in his country but in the world, for generations to come. There are still many struggles going on around the world. Violence, oppression and silencing people who fight for freedom, justice and human rights are, regrettably, still everyday realities. But people who are prepared to stand up, who are not prepared to be silenced, can only take inspiration from the life of Nelson Mandela. Let us hope that Nelson Mandela's life inspires all of us to live by his example of freedom, peace and justice and be prepared to stand up in the face of injustice and oppression. His courage, conviction and spirit should be an inspiration to all and we should endeavour throughout our sphere of influence as a country to keep his legacy alive. May he rest in peace.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, like everybody else in this place and I think all Australians, feel some sort of special connection to Nelson Mandela. I thought it was important that I make a few remarks in this place about his life and contribution to all people, and also to associate myself with a range of statements that have been made by members, including the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. It would be an understatement to say that Nelson Mandela has left an indelible change throughout his life. He was a man who was born with little opportunity in a country that gave very little opportunity to him and his people, a man who was born in 1918 and lived an incredibly good and long life through so much hardship, so much pain and suffering. Yet he achieved so much good, so much to be proud of, such a large family. We should understand that during the peak of his life he spent 27 years in prison, and it was not an easy prison life.

For him to later become the first black president of South Africa in 1994 says a lot about him, about his country, about his determination. I signed the book in Parliament House yesterday that will be sent through to South Africa, and wrote just a couple of short words. The thing that sprung into my mind was what great faith a man like Nelson Mandela must have had in people, in humankind, in mankind—a great faith that not only would he be able to lead them at some point in time, that he would be the change, but that people would follow him. For me, it just seemed to sum up what must have been, for him, what kept him going.

Quite famously, Nelson Mandela, it is written, has a favourite poem—I am not too sure if it is specifically or not; there is some conjecture—but it is quite well-regarded. It is called Invictus, which in Latin means 'unconquered'. I am not going to read the poem out—I am sure others have done that—but I did want to pull out a few words from that poem which I think summarise everything that Nelson Mandela, as a person, represented. In the first paragraph the poem says, 'I thank whatever gods may be/For [his] unconquerable soul'; that his head was 'bloody, but unbowed'; that with 'the menace of the years' he should find himself unafraid. The poem finishes with, 'I am the master of my fate:/I am the captain of my soul.' Quite a great poem, quite a stirring poem, and if in a few words anything could sum up the life of a man who lived for 95 years, it does a pretty good job.

The outpouring that we are seeing in South Africa right now, but also right around the world, is on a scale unimaginable: that any one person, one individual, could be held in such high regard, have changed the world so much, have brought so many people together that literally every head of state, every leader, every country is represented. Everybody wants to be associated with the good things that he did, and I think that is quite incredible. He did change the world, and he did it in the most adverse of circumstances, which is why it is so powerful, why it is so big: because it is almost not possible that one single man could possibly do all these things. But he did that. It must have been very difficult for black people in South Africa to believe that one day they would be on an equal footing, to be equal citizens, to have equal rights, to be considered the same as everybody else, to see the end of apartheid. It must have been an incredible dream or aspiration to have, that you could actually change that.

There were a lot of similarities between the things that were happening in South Africa in that movement that he pushed and some of the things that were happening in Australia. I am very proud to belong to a political party, a political movement, proud to be associated with a range of people across the union movement and across the community in a whole range of areas, and particularly with then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who banned racially selected sporting teams from touring in Australia. This was a big thing to do, this was controversial; these are not easy decision to take. Looking back, we can all probably agree and say, 'Of course that was the right thing to do, of course that was right,' but at the time it would not have been so easy. Sometimes in life you find yourself making decisions which are really difficult. It does conjure up a whole range of thoughts around what governments do, what individual people do, what political parties do, what the community does. Sometimes you find yourself in the face of adversity or criticism and there may be an easier path. In fact, there is always an easier path. Sometimes the popular vote, let us just say, is an easy path. But leading is not about the easy path. Leading is about knowing what is right, making a decision based on well-informed facts, and doing the right thing—just simply doing the right thing. And that is certainly what Prime Minister Whitlam did back then.

Prime Minister Hawke also was significant in ensuring that global bodies adopted economic sanctions against South Africa. Again, it was not an easy thing to do, particularly with the circumstances of the time, but it made an enormous difference. I think it put Australia, and all Australians, on the right side of history; Australia had collectively done some good. In a small way, Australia helped to place the focus, the light and the pressure to ensure that Nelson Mandela and his people, in their great struggle, knew that other people were on their side.

There are circumstances around the world, even today, of political prisoners in jail and other people who find themselves in horrific circumstances. I have spoken to some of those people, sometimes through their advocates. I know that many people in this parliament have written letters in support of people to governments, saying, 'We don't agree with this and we think you should release political prisoners.' But to hear directly from them that the difference it makes to them in their prison cell to know that somewhere in the world somebody in authority, somebody in government, somebody in a parliament knows they exist, knows their struggle and is supporting them makes the world of difference to these people. It gives people hope. I can only imagine that for Nelson Mandela one of the small things that must have carried him through those 27 years in prison would have been the knowledge that there were people outside that prison who were supporting him. There were people in Australia, people in the United States—people all around the world—supporting him. I think that all of that collective action made an enormous difference.

But there is something even bigger that, the reason so many people are contributing in some way in his memory. There is so much celebration, not that the man is gone, but celebration of his whole life. The one thought I have had continually in mind about this is that it must have been so hard for a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years to walk out of his prison cell and feel no animosity, not want to take revenge, not want to get people back. He must really have understood something that so few leaders can ever possibly comprehend or, even if they understand, enact. He must have understood that he represented the future of his country and of all his people. In fact, it was probably bigger than that: he represented something that would change the face of humanity, and that he would sacrifice his own people in the way he behaved. He walked out of that prison; he became President; and he saw himself as the great uniter. He would be the one who would bring everyone together, the person who would be representative of all the people of South Africa. He knew that everyone would look to him for leadership and that they would follow. That is an incredible thing. The temptation—the doubt in his mind—sometimes to seek some small retribution, to try to make things even, must have been an enormous pull.

It is with great pleasure that I, like so many other people in this place, associate myself with the words that are being said. I thank the House for this opportunity.

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to 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.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank all members for their contribution to this historic debate. I understand it is the wish of honourable members to signify their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:10