Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Freedom is an innate human aspiration. Millions of people have campaigned for freedom. Millions have died in the cause of freedom. Freedom is a fundamental aspiration common to all humanity. We know this instinctively. Expression has been given to this instinct in various forms, including in the Magna Carta, in our conventions, in legislation and in treaties. The quest for freedom is universal.

I recall my time at university, where countless lecturers were either apologists for or, even worse, openly supportive of the repressive communist regimes around the world. We were told it was 'historical'; it was 'cultural'; it was 'insert excuse of your choice'—it was any excuse to justify the unjustifiable: the oppressive left-wing communist regimes. Those apologists, aged as they now are, have, thankfully, in their lifetimes seen the irrepressibility of the human spirit's pursuit of freedom. As an aside, most of them now have a political home in the Australian Greens or the left of the ALP.

My motivation to speak this evening is that, on 9 November 2014, the country of my birth will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. On that night of 9 November 1989, freedom entered the homes of over one million Berliners. On that historic night, freedom conquered not just one city but a nation, and not just a nation but the entire Eastern Bloc. The fall of the Berlin Wall stands as one of the greatest victories for freedom, liberty and democracy in modern history.

The Berlin Wall was erected on 13 August 1961 by Soviet East Germany. After the war, Germany was divided in two: democracy and capitalism flourished in the west whilst the repressive hand of socialism gripped the east with an iron fist. The open border between these two worlds ran through not just the German nation but the German capital. In West Germany an economic miracle led to a sustained period of prosperity with personal freedoms. In East Germany citizens struggled under communist command-and-control economics and personal oppression.

It should have come as no surprise when literally hundreds of thousands of East Germans crossed the then open border in pursuit of a better life in the west. The sheer numbers are staggering: in the first six months of 1953, the number of East Germans who crossed the border exceeded 200,000. East Germany was bleeding and, in the minds of its Soviet leaders, that bleeding needed to be stopped. So, on 12 August 1961, an order was signed to close the border. By nightfall, East Germany was sealed. For the next three decades, the Berlin Wall stood there as a wall of shame symbolising the Iron Curtain that divided not only a country and its people but two ways of living and, indeed, the 20th century itself. The wall was 155 kilometres in length with 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, 116 watchtowers and no less than 20 bunkers. Running parallel to the wall was the infamous death strip along which all who attempted to cross would be mercilessly executed.

Dr Hartwich writes that the wall symbolised all the divisions of the time:

East against West, capitalism against communism, democracy against dictatorship: all the ideological confrontations at the end of the short twentieth century were marked by the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

The human cost of this wall is incalculable. At least 255 innocent East Germans were gunned down in their attempt to cross from the depths of despair in the east into a life of liberty in the west. The wall separated workers from jobs, husbands from wives, fathers from sons and mothers from daughters. It stood, in the words of Dr Hartwich, as:

… an inhumane scar running right through the heart of Berlin.

This monument to communist failure would, thankfully, not stand forever. But the fact that the wall was pulled down by the east, for the east and from the east with little help from the west stands, I believe, as a blot on the west—albeit with a few notable exceptions including, for example, President Reagan when he called upon then Soviet President Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall.' That was in 1987, some two years before the wall was actually dismantled.

It is interesting to learn that which left-wing politicians in West Germany said at the time. For example, it is very interesting to read that Gerhard Schroder, a leading light of the Social Democrats in Germany, just a few months before the wall was dismantled said:

After 40 years of the Federal Republic—

or West Germany—

we should no longer tell lies to the new generation about the chances of re-unification: there are none.

Joschka Fischer, a leading Green politician, just two months before the dismantling of the wall said:

Let’s forget reunification! .... Why don’t we just shut up about it for the next twenty years?

How disheartening would those words have been for those pursuing freedom in the east? Thank goodness there were men and women of the calibre of President Ronald Reagan, who was willing to say two years earlier, 'tear down this wall.' This wall does represent oppression. It does represent everything that is abhorrent to personal and individual freedom.

In a poll in 1987, 97 per cent of West Germans believed that reunification would not take place. In the 1980s, the Social Democrats tried to stop the funding of the organisation that researched human rights abuses in East Germany. Just imagine how disheartening that was for those pursuing, fighting and indeed dying for freedom in East Germany; and we had people who were unwilling to even give some sort of lip service and sustenance to the people of East Germany who were seeking freedom. Whilst the left of politics in the west apologised, the human spirit demanding freedom, thankfully, prevailed.

The threats to freedom may be taking a different form this century, but the human spirit's innate desire for freedom must, and will, ultimately prevail. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall serves as an inspiration to those fighting for freedom over the evil of oppression. Those of us who enjoy freedom need to stand in solidarity with those who are oppressed and seeking freedom. As I reflect on the events in the country of my birth some nearly 25 years ago—not that I was born 25 years ago, Mr Acting Deputy President Williams, but the dismantling of the wall 25 years ago—we should take great comfort from the fact that the indomitable spirit of humankind seeking freedom will, and does, prevail. But it is such a very sad reflection that when those of us who enjoy freedom—enjoy all the comforts of life that freedom provides—are not willing to stand in solidarity and support those who suffer oppression as a result of dictatorships around the world.

I believe that many people around the world do celebrate the events of 9 November 1989, and may those celebrations last for a long, long time.