The Prime Minister, John Howard, has addressed the ceremonial Federation sitting of the Commonwealth Parliament, in the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.

The sitting took place 100 years to the day since the first Commonwealth Parliament met. The Prime Minister on that day was Edmund Barton.

• Listen to Howard’s speech (5m)
  

Text of Prime Minister John Howard address to the Ceremonial Federation Sitting.

As Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin and all the others gathered here a hundred years ago there was no way that they could predict what lay in front of Australia. They would not have foreseen that within fewer than 20 years 60,000 out of a male population of 2.5 million would die in a horrible war. They would not have foreseen the Great Depression. They would not have foreseen the social changes. They would not have seen the determination of later generations to overturn the White Australia policy, regarded by those generations as morally repugnant. They would not have foreseen the technological and fashion changes that were to occur. And indeed if they were to return to our gathering today they would find much that was unfamiliar. [Read more…]