Julian McGauran,
Senator for Victoria
First Speech - 21/09/1987Mr President, in commencing my remarks I wish to extend my congratulations
to you on your re-election to your distinguished office. As I rise to speak for
the first time in this House I am conscious of the fact that I am the youngest
senator in the chamber. It is appropriate then that I acknowledge the youngest
senator ever to have been elected to this House, the Hon. Hattil Spencer Foll,
elected to the Senate for Queensland in 1917 at the age of 27 years. Prior to
taking up his commitment to public life, the honourable senator was distinguished
by the military service he gave his country during the Great War. He served in
one of Australia's most historic and well-remembered encounters: the Gallipoli
landing of 25 April 1915. The Hon. Hattil Spencer Foll brought to public life
not only the vision and vigour of youth but also a philosophy of courage and will
for a country then fighting for its beliefs and freedoms. It was at this time
that a foundation stone for traditional Australia was truly laid. Today,
as we prepare to enter our bicentennial year, it is a time to reflect on and reaffirm
our belief in traditional Australia and in the wisdom of past Australians: the
Aborigines, the convicts, the early settlers and, more recently, the immigrants
of the post-war period. All these men and women have made us a country lucky in
history and a people strong in will, with a fine spirit of mateship. If Australians
should ever doubt the respect in which they are held in the world today, let them
remember that in the east of France, in the quiet township of Amiens, one can
enter a quiet and picturesque chapel dedicated to the Australian diggers who so
gallantly defended their beliefs and fought for freedom not just for themselves
but for all people in all places.
It would be a weakness if in the bicentennial
year we do not stop to reflect on our traditional beliefs and be willing to defend
them. Today, whether we live in city or country, we can all personally relate
to the hardships of our pioneering ancestors. The
effects on our natural
environment of bushfires, drought and floods, the effects of economic hardship
and the effects of the evil of war are all forces that threatened not only the
economic survival but the very lives of so many Australians and their families.
We do not have to look too far back in time to know the effects of these forces
on the Australian character. I remind my fellow senators of the impact of the
Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 upon the people of Victoria. It is those same
harsh realities faced by past and present Australians that have allowed the qualities
I have mentioned to be passed on through the generations to this moment in time.
This should be the pride of our past and the foundation of our future. I stand
for traditional Australia and its belief in the family structure as a source of
strength to a society which is presently sorely tested by an array of social pressures.
I stand for an Australia which accepts the recognition in law and policy of the
status of marriage and its pr
eferred treatment. I stand for an Australia
that wishes to reassert its long-held belief in small business and the farmer
as the essence of free enterprise, which itself is the primary contributor to
our economic welfare. Finally, I stand for traditional Australia's belief in the
working man and woman's dignity of contribution to our economic welfare, with
recognition in law and policy of their individual rights to work, fair payment
and freedom of association. It is the family and small business, the working man
and woman and the farmer, who are the real contributors to Australia. It is they
who have been forgotten in this time of economic decline and economic change.
In addition, I reject the philosophy espoused by so many now in public office
and best exemplified by Professor Manning Clark, who, when speaking of the late
Justice Lionel Murphy, said: . . . there was a man in Australia who believed
passionately that the morality of Judaeo Christianity had ceased to be relevant.
I see Lionel Murphy as
a man who in that context strove to end the domination
of God over human beings . . . I say again that I not only reject this view
but stand against it. I believe that at the heart of public service there resides
a deeper sense of social responsibility than that statement lays claim to.
It is, then, for all those reasons that I take my position in the Senate with
great honour. I recognise the true role of the Senate to be that of a House of
review with the aim to protect the rights of States-rights that are enshrined
in our Federal Constitution and which represent not an echo of a past age but
which continue to provide the basis of a decentralised and responsive political
and economic system. Again, our past and its legacy are under siege. The Constitution
is too often under attack by those who seek change for in vogue reasons or, more
deviously still, to advance centralist objectives. But it is this Constitution
that I respect, that I will defend and that I am committed to uphold. It is worthy
to
reflect that the wheels are now in motion to introduce major changes to
our Constitution in the bicentennial year, the vehicle being the Constitutional
Commission. I stand by the powers of the Senate to review, pass or reject
Supply or any such similar appropriation Bill as outlined in the context of section
53 of the Constitution. It is an authority given to the Senate in the Constitution
under the democratic principle that a second House is needed to check, balance
and review the conduct of the executive arm of government. This is common and
fundamental to the past and continuing ideal of our Australian democratic system
of government. I oppose such tired yet persistent attempts to reduce the important
and traditional role of the Senate so clearly set down by our forefathers.
It is true that we live in a changing, turbulent period which has seen some change
in our social values and a decline in our economic welfare. It is a time when
all of us have questioned the future and asked what kind of Austra
lia lies
ahead. It was from this question of uncertainty as to our future that I received
a clear and potent message as I travelled and campaigned in many parts of the
great State of Victoria. This message of frustration and anger at the lack of
leadership in public life emanated from the real contributors to Australia-the
working man and woman, small business and the rural community. This class of Australians
has in common the carrying of the greatest part of the burden of our economic
ills. They are the first and most directly affected by high taxes, high inflation,
high unemployment and high interest rates. It saddens me greatly that the entrepreneurial
spirit that these people have generated might be lost if the Government is not
determined in its resolve to lift the economic burdens it has placed upon these
Australians. These Australians settled and built this tough continent with little
more than a dream before them and determined hearts. Unless we rekindle that spirit-unless
governments allow the great
potential of all Australians to be unleashed,
and unless they offer a greater recognition of their role-we can expect no more
than the development of a corporate state led by central government control, corporate
power and super-unions which will at best preside over a selective recovery for
this nation. Of the major economic issues facing Australia, I believe that
the most important concerns this country's public indebtedness. The gross internal
and external public sector debt now approaches $113 billion. This debt has a significant
effect on all our economic indicators and on our economic climate. It is a debt
based solely on the philosophy of big Government. It is a debt serviced by ever-increasing
taxes and it is a major cause of high interest rates and high inflation. This
Government's Budget has done nothing to reduce the existing level of public indebtedness.
Its inclusion of one-off asset sales and windfall profits in calculating its deficit
for the year 1987-88 does not provide the basis for
a sustainable reduction
of the public sector debt; nor does the Government's Budget lift the burden of
tax from Australians, who will be paying an extra $3 billion into the Government's
coffers in the course of the coming year. Why should a person work hard to earn
an extra few dollars if those dollars are grabbed by the Government in taxes?
What incentive is there for enterprise and invention if that reward and risk is
lost in interest payments? Again, there is nothing in this Government's Budget
to lift private investment and to encourage restructuring beyond the sagging levels
of the last financial year. What reason is there for families to save for the
future if inflation, still unacceptably high relative to that of our trading partners,
erodes that sacrifice and makes the search for security increasingly elusive?
Failure by governments to meet the test and reduce the size of government debt
will mean an Australia lurching from crisis to crisis and gradually falling further
behind on the scale of inter
national economic success. One of the most disturbing
factors of this massive debt is that today's generation is leaving the expense
to future generations. We must never let short term political expediency allow
us to impose a lasting debt on future generations. For their sake and for the
sake of their future nation, governments must exercise self-discipline. This self-discipline
by Parliament must be answered with a sense of leadership from all who serve.
What is called for by the electorate is leadership-leadership which replaces political
opportunism with integrity, leadership which replaces political careerism with
courage and will, leadership which does not discard old loyalties for new favours,
and leadership which will inspire the young and quicken their heartfelt dreams.
The final issue I wish to touch on in this my first speech to the Senate is
that of organised crime in this country. Just as we have the responsibility to
meet the economic challenges facing this Parliament in terms of its legacy
to future generations and the need for leadership, so too do we have the utmost
responsibility to promote leadership and to investigate and take measures to prevent
the growth and perpetuation of crime in our society. Organised crime erodes the
basic harmony and foundation of our lives. It undermines the public's confidence
in its representative institutions and destroys the future of so many of our young
Australians. I believe the Costigan Royal Commission on the Activities of the
Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, despite its suspiciously premature
termination by this Government, highlights evidence of a quite extraordinary network
of organised crime in Australia that has not yet been subject to the most vigorous
pursuit by every possible means. I acknowledge the fine work by the Costigan Commission
in bringing such seedy ways to public notice. The problem of attacking organised
crime presents legitimate concerns to those of us who are defenders of civil liberties.
Yet it must be remembered that
the civil liberties of Australians are affected
by the directions of the crime bosses. Both the United States of America and Italy
have realised that a drastic problem demands a drastic solution, and both have
taken legislative and common law measures to preserve the credibility and the
sanctity of their social, economic and political systems. The United States Government
has taken extraordinary steps in electronic surveillance in order to untangle
the web of serious crime. Under the La Torre law, the Italian Government has assumed
the urgent yet responsible task of vigorously investigating the mafiosi. With
evidence mounting daily that Australia is being absorbed into the international
crime networks, we need to avoid acting on the defensive and instead be prepared
to seize the initiative. In conclusion, as we prepare to enter our bicentennial
year, I have a great hope that the traditions established by past Australians
have given the generation which serves in this Parliament a firm foundation upon
whic
h we might seek to resolve the serious economic and social problems before
us. I have the firmest conviction that the National Party of Australia has a continuing
and major contribution to make to the growing demand by Australians for new visions
and fresh leadership and to take us to new possibilities of economic reform, it
has been the history of our Party to speak for those who have no voice, to remember
those who are forgotten and to respond to the aspirations of all Australians seeking
a better life in a better country. We have never forsaken this history, and we
dare not. I seek to give full service to these ideals in my term in the Senate. 
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