Tony Abbott’s Address To The United Nations General Assembly

Sep 25, 2014

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

AbbottAbbott’s speech was a general statement of principles in which he talked of the United Nations as a body that works for the “common good”. He itemised Australia’s contribution to global issues since the organisation’s founding in 1947.

Abbott said: “Since 1947, Australia has provided more than 65,000 personnel to more than 50 multilateral peace and security operations. We are not a country accustomed to turning back once we’ve put our hand to the plough; we’ve had blue beret personnel in the Middle East since 1956 and in Cyprus since 1964. When leadership is needed, we step up, as we did in Bougainville, in Timor-Leste and in Solomon Islands. In Korea, Cambodia, Kuwait and Afghanistan; in Somalia and Sierra Leone and in other troubled places, Australians have lent a hand under the UN’s banner.” [Read more…]

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Penny Wong: Light On The Hill Address

Sep 20, 2014

The ALP’s Senate Leader, Penny Wong, has delivered this year’s Light On The Hill Address in Bathurst.

WongWong, the ALP’s Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, told her audience that “Labor stands for fairness, growth and building the future”.

She said: “Labor’s record of opening Australia’s economy to the world has been one of the most important ways of achieving these goals – from Chifley’s support for Bretton Woods, to Whitlam’s across the board tariff cut, to Hawke and Keating’s dismantling of protectionism, to Rudd and Gillard’s pursuit of trade agreements and a place for Australia in the Asian Century. In today’s world, the forces of globalisation drive economic, technological and social change. Labor knows we won’t improve living standards by pulling down the shutters.”

However, Wong said: “Labor recognises that while globalisation brings tremendous benefits, it can also drive rapid, unpredictable and sometimes unsettling change. That is why we see a role for government in implementing policies which empower our citizens to participate in the globalised economy. Policies that will allow more Australians to prosper and benefit from economic change, rather than being discarded and left behind.” [Read more…]

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Bill Shorten: Light On The Hill Address

Sep 22, 2012

Bill Shorten has delivered the annual ‘Light on the Hill’ Address in honour of Ben Chifley.

ShortenChifley was Labor Prime Minister from 1945 until 1949. Prior to that, he was Treasurer in the Curtin government from 1941. Amongst other things, Chifley is remembered for his ‘Light on the Hill’ speech to an ALP conference in 1949.

Shorten, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Gillard government, was elected to the Melbourne electorate of Maribyrnong in 2007. He was previously National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union.

The Ben Chifley Memorial Lecture is given each year in Bathurst, Chifley’s birthplace.

Text of Bill Shorten’s ‘Light on the Hill’ Address in Bathurst.

If things are right, they will come your way.

Those words aren’t mine.

They belong to:

  • a boy who grew up sleeping on a chaff bag in a bush shack with a dirt floor;
  • a young man who started out as a cashier’s assistant in a general store;
  • a unionist who was the youngest first-class locomotive driver in New South Wales;
  • and a politician who never took his eye off the ball – or the horizon.

Of course, I’m talking about Australia’s 16th prime minister and our 19th Treasurer – Bathurst’s own Ben Chifley.

It’s worth remembering when Chifley said those words. [Read more…]

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Gillard Delivers Chifley Memorial “Light on the Hill” Speech in Bathurst

Sep 18, 2010

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has given her first major speech since being sworn in as Prime Minister of a minority Labor government, following the resolution of the August 21 election.

She spoke in Bathurst, delivering the Chifley Memorial Light on the Hill speech. [Read more…]

Filed Under: A.L.P., Audio, Gillard Tagged With: , ,
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