The opening words of the national anthem we have just sung tell us to
rejoice.
And so we should. For we have much to celebrate as we recall the coming
together,
exactly one hundred years ago today, of the six Australian colonies to
"be one
people".
We all remember our gratitude and pride in Australia during the recent
Olympic and
Paralympic Games. We bring that same grateful pride to this celebration
of our nation's
100th birthday.
Grateful pride in the land itself: this matchless continent, its islands,
its surrounding
seas. For those of us who love this "wide brown land", there is
nowhere
else on earth that comes even close to its ancient majesty, its mystery,
its varied
beauty and its sheer wonder.
Grateful pride in the commitment to democracy under the rule of law,
which created
our nation and which has deepened down the century. We have sealed it by
sacrifice
in war. We have maintained it tenaciously in peace. Few other nations can
look back
on a century of democratic rule, unbroken by dictatorship, military coup,
civil war
or conquest.
And, above all, grateful pride in our Australian people who, as our
Constitution
makes plain, are our nation. All those who have been and are Australian.
And what
they were and are: their decency, their generosity, their sense of fair
play; their
spirit of ANZAC.
And their mutual respect and acceptance which underlie our greatest
achievement,
namely, the way we are making our diversity, of origin, race, culture and
belief,
a source of national strength and unity rather than a cause of weakness
and division.
So let us rejoice and be grateful for all the achievements of our past
and for this
day.
At the same time, let us be honest and courageous about the failures and
flaws which
mar those achievements and which together we can address and
overcome.
The damage we have done to the land, its rivers and coasts,
notwithstanding our love
of its beauty.
The unacceptable gap between the haves and the have-nots, in this the
land of the
"fair-go" for all.
How far we still have to travel on our journey towards genuine
reconciliation between
Australiaís indigenous peoples and the nation of which they form such a
vital part.
Conscious of all these things, let us re-dedicate Australia to the ideal
of unity,
under freedom, democracy and the rule of law, which brought our
Commonwealth into
being, one hundred years ago.
And, in this Centennial Park, on the ancestral land and meeting place of
the Eora,
Cadagal and Tharawal peoples, let us look to the future, and dream of
what it might
hold for our nation.
Let us walk together into that future with honesty, vision and
determination, with
Australian generosity of spirit, and with Australian goodwill and fair
play.
Thereby we will truly, in the best and fullest sense, "Advance
Australia Fair".
