Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech at dinner for Australian Prime Minister (Bob Hawke)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: No.10 Downing Street
Source: Thatcher Archive: COI transcript
Editorial comments:

Evening.

Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 1460
Themes: Women, Industry, Trade, Foreign policy (Asia), Foreign policy (Australia & NZ), Defence (general), Civil liberties

Bob HawkePrime Minister, Your Excellencies, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen:

May I first extend a very warm welcome to you, Bob, and to Hazel HawkeHazel and to the very distinguished delegation of Ministers that you brought with you this evening to a dinner in your honour at No. 10 Downing Street. We are delighted you are here! (applause) We take it as a great compliment that you have come in such strength. This really inaugurates quite a new kind of Australia-United Kingdom Summit which we started immediately following the end of the Bicentennial Year. It is more than a summit. It is a sign of the degree to which last year's Bicentennial has brought Britain and Australia closer together for the future.

The Bicentennial did not just reawaken old ties and old loyalties very important as both are. It also marked the beginning of something new—a recognition that Britain and Australia will, if anything, be more important to each other in the future than in the past.

That is quite a claim to make and you will ask why I say that. First, anyone who has visited Australia in the Bicentennial Year can only have been vastly impressed by the vitality, boldness and above all the potential of your country. We saw it in the marvellous EXPO in Brisbane. We saw it in some of the great investments taking place in Western Australia. We saw it in the steel and glass of Sydney's towering modern buildings. We saw it, above all, in the Parliament Building in Canberra where you so generously entertained us. If ever there was evidence of a people's confidence in itself and a future, that was it. It brought together not only lovely architecture and marvellous craftsmanship but much of the great artistic talent of Australia in her pictures and some of the new modern tapestries are amongst the most beautiful I have ever seen. So that is the first reason.

The second one—why I believe the future holds so much for both our countries: Britain and Australia are democracies, genuine democracies, and it is vitally important that democracies should stick together however far apart they may be geographically.

Britain and Australia did that in the past in two great World Wars in a sacrifice that will never be forgotten and may I say that you told me yesterday morning of Australia's plans to celebrate next year the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing so that we can honour those who survive as well as those who gave their lives on that occasion. It was one of the most heroic chapters in Australia's history and you and I agreed to see whether there was something which we could do together to mark next year's anniversary with all the honour and solemnity it deserves.

But the dangers to democracy are not just a thing of the past. The appalling and tragic events which we have witnessed recently in Peking reminded us that although democracy is spreading, is gaining ground throughout the world, there are still [end p1] enormous risks and dangers and some of the old terrible tyrannies with the attitudes which to us belong to the past still remain today and are active.

In the shadow of those dreadful events, Australia's example of democracy remains a great beacon of hope to those in the region who seek freedom and the defence relations between Britain and Australia and of course the United States continue to assume great importance in the defence of democracy throughout the region.

May I just add, Bob, how much we appreciate the stand which you have taken on the situation in China and particularly for the understanding which you and your Government have constantly shown towards the people of Hong Kong. They are very much in all our minds at the moment and will continue to be so. Australia's support for our efforts to give them a stable and prosperous future is greatly appreciated, as is your help with the problem of Vietnamese boat people which is adding so greatly to Hong Kong's burdens.

The third reason why I so confidently said that we shall be even more important in the future than in the past in the very bright future for trade and investment between Britain and Australia. Today's conference at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre which you addressed and which Senator Button so marvellous masterminded through the whole day—both of us attended the closing session—underlined how very good the prospects for investment in each other's countries are.

Exports in each direction grew by something like 12 or 13 percent last year. There has been especially strong growth in British investment in Australia in the last two years and your investment in Britain has grown even more quickly by 60 percent last year alone and increasingly, British businessmen are finding that Australia is the place to be in the Pacific area, which holds out such remarkable prospects for growth and prosperity, and the policies which we have pursued here in Britain have created an excellent climate for foreign investment not only from Australia, which is very important to us, but from Japan and many other countries. We believe in open markets and reducing burdens on business and that is attracting more and more companies to Britain and I am sure the numbers will continue to increase as 1992 gets closer.

Can I just knock firmly on the head the idea that there is some sort of bias in Britain against Australian investments? I would hope that figures are proof enough but just as every Australian finds it hard to accept when a British umpire gives an Australian batsman out 68W and vice versa, how we British feel when the same thing happens when an Australian, etc. etc., there will always be some who are very sceptical and think that there is some bias in investment. Well you know, only three out of the last thirteen major bids by Australians have even been referred to the MMC—not the MCC—and only one of those rejected. That is not a bad record. That means that out of thirteen major bids which have been referred to the MMC, only one has been rejected and I can think of quite a few countries who would envy it. Indeed, we hear so much now of the great Australian entrepreneurs who do so well in this country that we sometimes feel that Australia is mounting a take-over for Britain itself!

Bob, I set out three very important reasons why I believe Britain and Australia can look to a future together which draws the best from the past and adds to it the excitement of the future. Of course, there will still be rivalries between us—tomorrow's test match at Lords for a start—and not all our attitudes are quite the same, particularly as I understood from some of the questioning I had on your television when it comes to women in politics. [end p2]

I remember the question which I had to answer on the School of the Air radio in Alice Springs last summer from an incredulous six-year-old who asked: “If you are the boss of Britain, what does your husband do?” and did not quite understand when I said somewhat cynically: “Well, he keeps the family's income going!”

But I sense a deeper feeling now between our countries. Yes, the traditional friendship is there cemented by so many family and personal ties and as the sun goes down each evening here in tens of thousands of homes across our country people's minds turn to their families and friends in Australia because for us you are very special indeed.

There is much more than sentimentality—it is a wish to see Britain and Australia, separated as they are by thousands of miles, reach out to each other and to that sunrise of hope which is our future prosperity and the spread of democracy.

We thank you Bob and Hazel and all your colleagues for making this journey. We thank you for all you have done for the future of Britain and Australia. It has been a fantastically successful visit with the warmth being felt on every single occasion and wherever you have been and as I pointed out earlier today at the Trade and Investment Conference, you really have set new records in the Guinness Book of Records. Now, when anyone goes to the Mansion House, they will have to find a song something like “Waltzing Matilda” to persuade the diners to sing in the middle of dinner, because that is just exactly what you were able to do! I am told the atmosphere was totally and completely transformed. You made a fantastic speech, as you have wherever you have been, and everyone thinks you are absolutely terrific! Isn't that marvellous, you and Hazel, absolutely terrific! It really has been a very successful visit. It has done what we set out to do at the Bicentennial, to mark a new phase of true Australian pride and confidence in the future with the United Kingdom also true, proud and confident in the future, with the added dimension of the need for democracies to be seen to live up to everything for which they stand.

So may we congratulate you and all of your Ministers who have come here and may I now ask you to rise and drink a toast to Prime Minister and Mrs. Hawke and his Ministers, their health and happiness and to increasing cooperation and friendship between this country and Australia. Bob and Hazel, Ministers, Home Ministers too!