Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the House, I welcome as guests the President of the Senate and honourable senators to this sitting of the House of Representatives to hear an address by the Rt Hon. David Cameron MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The Rt Hon. David Cameron having been announced and escorted into the chamber—

Mr Prime Minister, I welcome you to the House of Representatives. Your address today is a significant occasion in the history of this House. It is something that we welcome.

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

Madam Speaker, Mr President, the arrival of the first Britons here in Australia could hardly have been less auspicious. They had just sailed halfway round the world. Remarkably, thanks to Governor Phillip's good management, only 48 of 1,400 had died, on a journey that was an 18th century version of travelling to the moon or landing on a comet. Of those on the First Fleet, the very best that could be said of them was that they had been chosen by the finest judges in England!

Even the soldiers were guards, not warriors. Yet, over the ensuing two centuries, the descendants of convicts have helped to create a society that is as free, fair and prosperous as any on earth, so that to be born Australian is to have won the lottery of life. The first Christian sermon preached in this country took as its text: 'What shall I render unto the Lord for all his blessings towards me.' This indeed has always characterised us: gratitude for what we have and a fierce determination to build on it.

Modern Australia has an Aboriginal heritage, a British foundation and a multicultural character. There is so much that Britain has given to us. There is so much, indeed, that Britain has given to everyone: parliamentary democracy, the common law, constitutional monarchy and English—the world's first or second language. What would this world be without the plays of Shakespeare, the music of the Beatles, the advances of the first Industrial Revolution, the humanity of Wilberforce and the determination of Churchill? What would this world be without the British democratic ethos which took hold in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, as well as in the countries that broke away such as the United States and India? What would the world be if Britain had not stood against militarism and fascism? And what would this world be if Britain had not settled the territory that Captain Cook earlier called New South Wales?

Long ago, Australians ceased to regard Britain as the mother country, but we are still family. The relationship between Britain and Australia has changed beyond recognition, but it is still important and we still matter to each other. Britain is by far our largest trading partner in Europe, which remains the world's largest economic bloc. Britain is the second-largest investor in Australia, the source of our largest migrant community and our oldest military ally. Britain is the world's sixth-largest economy, the fastest growing big economy in Europe and America's principal military partner.

Today we remember the 9,000 Australians who died at Gallipoli and we also remember our British brothers in arms who lost 21,000 in the same campaign. We remember the 15,000 Australians who passed into captivity at Singapore and we remember their 30,000 British comrades who were also taken prisoner. We remember the airmen in the skies over England and Europe from 1940 to 1945—that few to whom so many owed so much, including the tens of thousands of Australians who helped to win that battle for civilisation. Some of you are with us in the gallery today. Gentlemen, we honour your deeds and we honour your comrades who did not return.

History matters because it helps us to know who we are and where we are going. It helps us to know what is important and who can be relied upon. It shapes us, but it should never control us. Inscribed on the Australian War Memorial in London are Sir Robert Menzies' words from his time as a member of the British War Cabinet:

Whatever burden you are to carry, we also will shoulder that burden.

Today, Britain and Australia are working together to disrupt and degrade the ISIL death cult, which has declared war upon the world. In the Middle East and now with a new and different crisis in West Africa, Australia and Britain are asking not 'What's in it for us?' but 'How can we be helpful to people in trouble?' I can think of no two countries on earth readier to put into international practice the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We are like-minded in all the forums we share—the Commonwealth, the United Nations, and now the G20 and even NATO—on practical and decent solutions to all the problems facing the world. At home both Britain and Australia are committed to lower tax, less red tape, freer trade, bringing budgets under control and creating more private sector jobs.

I have to say that I admire what Prime Minister Cameron has achieved. He has cut the deficit by one-third. He has cut taxes for 26 million people. He is creating the best corporate tax system in Europe, and a further 1.7 million Britons are in work since 2010. Thanks to his leadership, Britain counts for more than it did five years ago.

Some time ago in this country, we had a largely sterile debate about Australia's place in the world, which John Howard settled with the famous declaration that we do not need to choose between our history and our geography. Of course Australia is located in the Indo-Pacific but our place is wherever there is an interest to advance, a citizen to protect, a value to uphold or a friend to encourage.

To a similar debate in Britain, Prime Minister Cameron has brought the same robust common sense. Britain is a European country with a global role. And like people, countries do not make new friends by losing old ones and they do not deepen some relationships by diminishing others.

Britain and Australia are both vibrant, multicultural democracies, determined to make the most of our advantages, of our shared history, of our different geography and, more important still, of our common characteristic curiosity and innate sense that, however much you have already done, there is always more that is yet to do.

After two centuries in which both of us have constantly adapted to our own changing and different circumstances, it is remarkable how similar we have become. Culturally, intellectually, even economically, it is now a relationship of peers.

In volume 1 of his memoirs, Clive James has described the gravitational pull of the country of his birth and the country of his choice. He writes:

As I begin this last paragraph … a misty afternoon drizzle … soaks the City of London. Down there in the street I can see umbrellas commiserating with each other. In Sydney Harbour, twelve thousand miles away and ten hours from now, the yachts will be racing on the crushed diamond water under a sky … of powdered sapphires. … Pulsing like a beacon through the days and nights, the birthplace of the fortunate sends out its invisible waves of recollection. It always has and it always will, until even the last of us come home.

We will always be conscious of the part that Britain has played in the life of our nation and of the friendship between our two countries that will never be taken for granted.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which we meet, custodians of our ancient continent for more than 40,000 years before the arrival of the First Fleet. I pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

Prime Minister Cameron, on behalf of the opposition, it is my very great pleasure to welcome you to our country and to our parliament. Your visit is another proud milestone of Australia's oldest friendship. And we are all looking forward to your address today—just the second to the made by a British Prime Minister in this place.

Today we celebrate so much that Britain has given us—industry, institutions, people and culture. Generations of British migrants have worked our lands, opened small businesses, raised their families, built communities, started new lives here underneath the Southern Cross—like indeed my late father, a Geordie seafarer, who came ashore in Australia in 1966. Our democracy, our faith in the rule of law, our respect for individual liberty and our sense of fair play are priceless gifts from your nation and, even as we have made them our own, we have never forgotten from whence they came. I particularly want to pay a belated tribute to the British justice system, because without your strong sentencing laws some of my mother's Irish ancestors would never have come to Australia!

Prime Minister, the first of your predecessors to visit our country did so before Federation and before he was even a member of parliament. Lord Salisbury, the conservative icon and one of the great architects of empire, visited the colonies as a young man in the 1850s. Two observations from His Lordship's journal stand out: (1) His Lordship reported there was less crime than expected (2) His Lordship reported that the customary form of address in the colonies was 'Mate'. Just over 100 years later, Harold Macmillan became the first Prime Minister to experience Australian hospitality whilst in office. As he recalled:

… as I drove into Sydney on my first arrival there I was amazed to see the great numbers of people on the streets and issuing from all houses; a huge crowd had turned out to welcome me, far greater, I thought, than any similar crowd could ever be in the old country, and I was deeply touched. Then someone told me the truth. It was six o'clock—

and the pubs were closing.

Prime Minister, you will be relieved to hear that the days of the six o'clock swill and early closing are long gone, and much more has changed besides, I can report. The deep and abiding friendship between our nations has evolved and matured. Australia no longer looks to Britain out of need or dependence. We no longer seek to imitate or echo. Instead, we greet each other as equals and peers, as partners in the world. Britain has joined Europe, and Australia has found its place in Asia. We sing our own anthems. We celebrate our own cultures. We enjoy a genuine exchange in education, art, music, cinema, literature and fashion. Whether it is the Ashes, rugby, netball, the Olympics, the Paralympics or the Commonwealth Games, we relish an international sporting rivalry as old as any on earth. Our sledging can sometimes surprise the uninitiated, but it reflects the depth of our friendship. We can dish it out because we know we will get it back. We are both good losers and fantastic winners. While Australians may no longer describe a trip to the United Kingdom as 'going home', every year hundreds of thousands of us make the journey to live and work and study in a country that has always made us feel at home.

Prime Minister, I am very pleased that you will have the chance to visit the Australian War Memorial today. Designed as a tribute to the Australians who fought for their country, king and empire in the First World War, when it opened our nations were once again embroiled in a deadly global struggle between freedom and tyranny. In that second terrible war for the fate of civilisation, Britain never stood alone. Australia was with you. Today the War Memorial salutes the memory of Australians who have served our nation in every conflict and peacekeeping operation. So often they have served, fought and fallen side by side with British soldiers from the open veldt of South Africa to the skies over Europe and, most recently, the mountains of Afghanistan and the skies over Mesopotamia. Our countries have forged an unbreakable bond of courage and sacrifice, of mutual respect and regard. Their spirit, their bravery, their shared sense of duty and honour unite our countries in history forever. Let it and our shared love of the Westminster tradition, democracy, justice and equality inspire us and guide us in our journey ahead. Prime Minister, you are most certainly welcome in Australia, and we wish you a happy and memorable stay.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Prime Minister, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to address the House.

The Right Honourable David Cameron:

Prime Minister Abbott, Madam Speaker, Mr President, honourable senators and representatives, I am incredibly proud to be here today in Canberra. It is such an honour for a British Prime Minister to address this magnificent parliament. Overseas visits by prime ministers can be about protocol and diplomacy, but coming here is like visiting family—and I do not just say that because my own Australian aunty is watching me from the gallery! There are our rivalries on and off the playing field and our fondness for teasing each other's habits and phrases. Of course, we Poms are known for our bluntness, and we never really get your tendency to beat around the bush and not say what you really mean! We have enormous affection for each other. We may live on opposite sides of the planet, but it is hard to think of another country to which the British people feel so instinctively close.

Our ties have been woven not only in the best of times but in the worst of times, never more so than in each other's and in humanity's bleakest hours. On Sunday, I laid a wreath at The Cenotaph in London, 100 years since the start of the First World War, and later today I will lay a wreath in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial. We will never forget the thousands of Australian troops who stood and fought and fell from Lone Pine to the Somme.

I especially think of those who fell in Gallipoli, which I visited as a young man, surrounded by Aussies and Kiwis the same age as me. We joked as we took the boat across the straits, but, as we landed and saw that extraordinary memorial, we all fell silent, moved beyond words by what our forefathers had done together. Those diggers were not just fighting for their country; they were shaping the identity of a new young nation. Next year will see the 100th anniversary of Anzac Day, and Britain will mark it with a special service of commemoration at The Cenotaph.

In almost every major conflict for 100 years, we have fought and bled and died alongside each other—in the Second World War, from the ingenuity of the Dam Busters to the endurance of Tobruk, and in our lifetimes, in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq. Ours is an alliance that has been forged in adversity and tested over time. Rugged, resilient, reliable—adjectives that sum up this great nation and its people. There is no more dependable ally when the chips are down. If our alliance were built on history alone, it would be inspiring but static—a sepia tinged scrapbook of sentimentality. If it were just built on trade and commerce alone, it would be rich but lifeless. But it is far, far more than that.

Every chapter of Australia's story has been inspiring. I think of your Indigenous culture with roots stretching back millennia and I feel pride that Aboriginal Australians are now studying at Oxford and Cambridge, and one of those scholars, Leila Smith, is here with us today. Let me acknowledge the original owners of this land, the Ngunawal people, and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

You have always been a pioneering country, and today you are writing another remarkable chapter in your national story. Your vibrant society, with its citizens drawn from an ever-expanding pool, especially Asia; your thriving economy, 23 years without a recession; your cheerful irreverence and your conviction that what matters in life is not where you come from but where you are going to; your readiness to step up whenever international peace and order is threatened—that is why Britain so admires Australia. You are a can-do country. You want to shape the world you live in, not be shaped by it.

Our nations share a similar outlook on life. We never think twice before jumping in to help. Only last month your foreign minister strode across the room towards me at a summit in Italy. I wondered for a moment whether I was heading for what I am told we now need to call a 'shirt-fronting'! But no, Julie, who is a great friend of Britain, said that Australia would add 100 beds to our Ebola treatment facility in Sierra Leone—typical Australia, always there with action, not words. Let me say this: what our troops and our health workers are doing on the front line of fighting this disease is beyond brave and we should be incredibly proud of what they are doing.

Our people are as close as ever. More than 600,000 Brits visit every year and there are a million visits to Britain by Australians every year. I am pleased that we are making some progress in making the process of visiting easier by cutting the cost of air passenger duty and extending the use of e-gates for regular Australian visitors to the UK.

But for a while our political relationship fell into a state of what William Hague called 'benign neglect'. It is extraordinary to think that no British Foreign Secretary had visited Australia in nearly 20 years. I was determined to change that. Now you have had three visits by a British Foreign Secretary in as many years and a British Prime Minister twice as well. You might start to think we are beginning to overdo it! But the scope for working even more closely together really warrants it.

After the tough decisions of recent years Britain's economy has turned a corner—the fastest-growing economy in the G7; employment up 1.75 million in four years, more than the rest of the European Union put together; and unemployment at six per cent and falling. We have found again our buccaneering spirit and our determination to seek new markets and new opportunities. For the first time since the 1970s the UK is expanding our presence east of Suez, opening diplomatic posts across Asia.

Our economic prosperity underpins our national security and we are using it to modernise our armed forces with the most modern equipment—new fighters; new hunter-killer submarines; renewing our nuclear deterrent; the type 26 global combat ship, the world's most advanced frigate; and two new aircraft carriers, the most powerful the Royal Navy has ever put to sea in its history.

We value our cooperation with you in the Five Power Defence Agreement and the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership. Of course, it is also true that British and Australian prime ministers naturally tend to click, whichever party we come from; there is so much that does not need to be said. But let me say it is a particular pleasure to work with you, Tony Abbott—a strong leader and a strong friend to my country and to me. And I hope you will allow me to make a special mention of John Howard, the very epitome of steadfastness and loyalty, who has given me so much wise counsel over the years. And, from the other side of the House, I learnt with sadness of the recent passing of Gough Whitlam.

But the very bedrock of our relationship is the values that we share. We have stood together so often, and we do so today not just because we face common threats but because we believe in the same things—in the rule of law; in the fundamental right of individuals to choose and to change their governments; in open societies and economies and free trade as the only route to thriving, stable societies; and that the strength of a government is determined by the freedom that flows to its citizens, not the powers it gathers to itself.

These shared values are the beating heart of our alliance, the qualities that make our societies great and our economies strong. And my argument today is that it is these values—the values that bring us together, that have made our countries great—which should guide us through the challenges we face today. Our success and security in the future will come not from trying to emulate others but by being ourselves, by having faith in the values that have shaped our countries and applying them to the modern world—whether it is keeping our people safe from terrorism, winning the argument for free trade over protectionism, or competing with countries which claim there is a shortcut to success without the tiresome encumbrance of accountable government and the rule of law.

Let me take each of these in turn. First, defeating the threat of terrorism and extremism. In both our countries, we have seen some of our young people radicalised, going off to fight in Iraq and Syria, and even appalling plots to murder innocent people back in our own countries. There is no opt-out from dealing with this. We have to confront this threat at its source. So it is right that once again, with others, including Arab states, British and Australian forces are operating alongside each other, supporting all those in Iraq and Syria who want a future for their countries where all their people are represented and where there is no place for extremism and terror. We have to deal with the threat of foreign fighters planning attacks against our people.

Your Prime Minister has given a strong international lead on this, helping to galvanise the UN Security Council with a powerful address. Last month, this parliament passed new legislation to tackle foreign fighters, and we will shortly be introducing our own new counter-terrorism bill in the United Kingdom—new powers for the police at ports to seize passports, to stop suspects travelling and to stop British nationals returning to the UK unless they do so on our terms; new rules to prevent airlines that do not comply with our no-fly lists or our security screening measures from landing in the UK.

But, as well as dealing with the consequences of this threat, we also have to address its root cause. And let us be frank: it is not poverty, although of course our nations are united in tackling deprivation wherever it exists. It is not exclusion from the mainstream. Of course we have more to do, but we are both successful, multicultural democracies where opportunities abound. And it is not foreign policy. I can show you examples all over the world where British aid and British action have saved millions of Muslim lives, from Kosovo to Syria, but that is not actually the real point. In our democracies, we must never give in to the idea that disagreeing with a foreign policy in any way justifies terrorist outrages. No. The root cause of the challenge we face is the extremist narrative. So we must confront this extremism in all its forms. We must ban extremist preachers from our countries. We must root out extremism from our schools, universities and prisons. As we do so, we must work with the overwhelming majority of Muslims who abhor the twisted narrative that has seduced some of our people. We must continue to celebrate Islam as a great world religion of peace.

A new and pressing challenge is getting extremist material taken down from the internet. There is a role for government in that. We must not allow the internet to be an ungoverned space. But there is a role for companies too. In the UK, we are pushing them to do more, including strengthening filters, improving reporting mechanisms and being more proactive in taking down this harmful material. We are making progress, but there is further to go. This is their social responsibility, and we expect them to live up to it.

And, as we confront this extremism together, let us have faith in the appeal of what our modern societies can offer. Yes, the battles for equality of opportunity for every person of every race and creed are not yet fully won, but, today, your country and my country are places where people can take part, can have their say, can achieve their dreams, places where people feel free to say, 'Yes, I am a Muslim,' 'I am a Hindu,' 'I am a Christian,' but, 'I am also proud to be a Briton,' or an Australian, too. That sense of identity, that voice, that stake in society, all come directly from standing up for values and our beliefs in open economies and open societies.

One of the greatest threats to our values and to our success is the spectre of protectionism. Too many people still seem to believe that trade is some sort of zero-sum game. It is as if one country's success is somehow another country's failure. This has always been nonsense. Trade enables the specialisation that can enrich all. But protectionism is even more nonsensical in the modern integrated global economy, where a mobile phone can have parts from all over the world, where infrastructure investment can be planned in Sydney and delivered in Sao Paulo and where the world's largest radio telescope can have its headquarters in Manchester, England, and its field station in Western Australia.

If we are to bust the myths that stand in the way of the great new trade and investment deals now before us, we have to tell it to people straight: 'Opening up trade does not cost jobs; it creates them. It does not undercut wages; it leads to the productivity gains that help to increase them.' Let's start this weekend at the G20 and take these arguments head on. Let's see through an EU-US deal that could be the biggest of its kind on the planet. And, while we are at it, let's push for an EU-Australia deal too, because, if we have the confidence to stay true to our values, we can defeat the protectionist arguments and secure huge advantages in prosperity for our nations and for our trading partners all around the world.

Finally, there is a more incipient, creeping threat to our values that I want to mention, and it comes from those who say that we will be outcompeted and outgunned by countries that believe there is a shortcut to success, a new model of authoritarian capitalism that is unencumbered by the values and restrictions that we place upon ourselves—in particular, an approach that is free from the accountability of real democracy and the rule of law. I say we should have the confidence to reject this view and stay true to our values. These are the things that make us strong. We are democracies. We do not shy away from self-criticism. We debate our mistakes in public. That can be painful, but it is so powerful. Our free and fearless press shines a light wherever it is needed, without fear or favour. Of course that can make life difficult, but it helps drive out the corruption that destroys so many countries. Our governments—your government; my government—lose cases in court because we do not control the courts, but that is why people invest in our countries: because they have property rights, and they know that they can get redress from the rule of law and that we have judges who are honest and not on the make.

It is no accident that the most successful countries in the world are those with the absence of conflict or corruption and the presence of strong property rights and institutions. It is no coincidence that the big ideas—like wi-fi, invented here, or the World Wide Web, invented by a Briton—all come from open societies. Nor is it surprising that many of the world's leading businesses refuse to set up their headquarters in places where their premises can be taken away from them. These attributes—our rule of law, our democracy, our free press—are not weaknesses; they are our greatest strengths.

In the great sweep of history, sometimes freedom is on the offensive; sometimes it is on the defensive. In 1988, my predecessor Margaret Thatcher spoke to you in parliament. A year later, the Iron Curtain was ripped away and the Berlin Wall fell. Looking back, it seems inevitable. It did not seem so at the time. Time and again, our leaders called for that wall to be torn down, because they had confidence that, in the end, freedom would prevail. As our generation fights that battle, we need to resist the idea that says that nations can enrich their citizens while forever bypassing the building blocks of democracy, or that freedom is reserved for certain peoples or nations, or that women do not deserve equal rights and opportunities in every country on earth, or that there are some countries that just are not suited to democracy. Accountability, human rights, free trade, open societies—these are the values that are the best basis for the fulfilment of human ambitions and dreams, more so than ever in the 21st century.

Here in this chamber and in the House of Commons back in Britain, we sometimes let the brickbats fly. We sometimes say some pretty rude things to each other. We can trade insults and put-downs. Not everyone quite gets it. Walking around in New York a few years ago, a man shouted at me across the street: 'Hey! Cameron! I watch you on TV—Prime Minister's questions. I love your show!' As you can see, I am as bad at an American accent as I am at an Australian one; the reaction to that, I will never forget. Struth!

But let us take this moment here today to pause for a moment, to reflect and take a step back, because sometimes we can take what we have for granted. We should never do that. Never! We should never lose sight of the bigger picture. We should never forget that we live in countries where the press is free, the law is fair, the right to redress is universally available, property rights are universally enforceable and freedom of speech is the foundation of our democracy. And let us remember that these things—these incredible values that we share—make not just our society strong but our economies strong too. They have made our countries great, and if we have the courage to stand by them they will continue to do so now and for generations to come. Thank you.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members and senators, and ladies and gentlemen in the gallery, I thank the Prime Minister for his wonderful speech. He said in that speech that we should never take things for granted. I acknowledge in the chamber that we have 19 veterans of the Battle of Britain and I acknowledge the contribution that they made for freedom. Prime Minister, yours was a wonderful acknowledgement of that precious gift. Thank you for your speech.

Honourable members and senators: Hear, hear!