From the Opening Plenary of the. Now We The People conference, 23.8.03, University of Technology, Sydney

Margaret Reynolds

Well, where are Bush and Howard taking us? Frankly, I don't think they have a clue. I think they may have some general idea that they're starring in some Hollywood extravaganza, and that they're saving the world, but when it comes to where they really want to get us, I don't think they have any idea. And that's because their policies rely on sloganeering. There's no analysis, there's no humanity about trying to understands the very complex issues of a very volatile world. They simply divide the world into good and evil, you're either with us or against us. And as we've heard so eloquently described this morning, this applies in America, this applies internationally, and this applies right here before us in terms of our domestic policy.

Now I want to talk particularly today about what are we going to do about it. Because it seems to me - and I'm out of the Parliament, of course, it's much easier being out of it than it, I know that - but it seems to me that we're spending every forum, every conference, every lecture that I go to, I her the same appalling grievances that beset us, whether it's domestic policy, whether it's our own foreign policy, whether it's international policy. Whether it's the war on terror, whether it's the horrific attacks and particularly the tragic on against the United Nations just this week. We all know what the problem is - but what are we going to do about it? Now when I was in Parliament, and I was there for 16 years at a times when particularly from Queensland, it was not especially, it was not expected that a woman from Queensland, that a woman from the bush really could make much of a contribution, and at one of my very first Queensland caucus meetings, and Brice Childs and Tanya Plibersek will know what they would have been like, but one of my first Queensland caucus meetings, I made a comment about how we had to challenge the Bjelke-Petersen government, 'cause that's how long I go back.

And the comment from one of my distinguished colleagues, who of course has long since retired, was: "Margaret, you have to learn, that when you're in Parliament, you don't rock the boat."
Well I like to think I dodn;t folow his advice, but the view was at that time that we couldn't tackle Bjelke-Petersen, because he was so popular, and that it wouldn't help us electorally if we tackled Bjelke-Petersen, because he already had the upper hand. He was winning election after election, and what good was it going to do to challenge him, it was better to lie low and try to enjoy the perks of office, because after all, we were in Parliament.

Now I'm not in the business of badmouthing my colleagues or my former colleagues, but I am going to criticise leadership in the generic term of leadership of the Australian people. Because we're all in this together, we're in this together from out political perspectives, from our cultural perspectives, our workplace perspectives, from our religious perspectives, we're in it together, and we have to show each other leadership. And we have to give others the courage to show leadership as well. And I think that what has happened in recent years is exactly what was happening in the Bjelke-Petersen years - and I count myself in all of this as well - we have become intimidated. We cringe away from some of the attacks that are made on us, we say "Oh, how do we win this debate? How do we get these ideas across? How do we challenge what the Bush Administrations is saying, what the Howard Administration is saying? Will we lose our funding?"

And I plead guilty to this, because I took over as President of the United Nations Association in 1999, and I knew it was an organisation that crossed the political perspective and the cultural divide, the religious divide, and as a left-wing Labor person, I have to be careful, I must moderate my language, I must not be out there on the attack as I'd been used to in Parliament. I was - I thought - fairly quiet, and reasonable, and even persuasive.
But then we had Tampa. And then we had children overboard. And then we had the ongoing attacks against asylum seekers, indigenous people, vulnerable people in this country, the war in Iraq. And there's a limit to my patience, so sooner of later I was speaking out and guess what? We lost our funding. We lost our funding, funding that the United Nations Association of Australia has had for almost as long as the United Nations has existed. Not a lot, but just enough to keep us going.

And I think that the Government, particularly Alexander Downer, and Alexander Downer who displayed such emotion in the Parliament his week about the tragic, and very tragic, loss of Sergio Viera de Mello, but who was it who said on national television only a couple of short years ago, that he, he our foreign minister, would like to give the United Nations a bloody nose? Now it isn't good enough to pick and choose. You're either with us (the United Nations) or you're against us.

Now I believe that we all have a responsibility to do much more than we're doing. And this is a brave statement for me to make to this panel, because I know they are constantly speaking out internally and externally, and they are working just so hard, so it's a very brave statement to make to them, it's a very brave statement to make to you all, because I know that you are the activists and that's why you're here. But we've all got to do more, we've all got to be more strategic, we've all got to be more (as Kerry said) to be much braver, we've got to be able to standup and say "No! This is not our country, the way it is going, the way Howard is taking it, the way Bush is taking it." We've got to be like Andrew Wilkie, and stand up and say "this is not the Australia we want."

And we've got to do it wherever we are, not just at a conference where we agree with each other. That is good, good for us, it gives us courage to go on, but we have to go back out there and change the discourse, change the language, change the ideas, change those who want to be so mean and tricky and narrowminded. We have to reclaim Australia, we have to reclaim Australian nationalism. And I believe that there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who are waiting for us to do it.

But we have to be prepared to do more, and wherever I was speaking as a Parliamentarian, I used to always ask the same question when people in the audience would criticise either the Hawke government or the Keating Government, and they'd say "why aren't you doing such-and-such?" and I'd say "and what have you done about it?" And nine times out of ten, they had not done anything except come to a conference to ask me an awkward question. And I used to say to audiences like this "how many of you have rung John Howard's office in the past six months?"

Well come one, you may not think he's worth a phone call, and I know he's not, but ring his office, be angry, I'm sure Tanya (Tanya's not going to like me after this) we can get his number for you. We can get his fax numbers. Ring the Parliament in Canberra. Demand to be heard. I spoke in the North Shore last year about asylum-seekers. They had John Howard or Philip Ruddock as their local members. They'd never been to see them. And I said "why haven't you formed delegations? Why aren't you down there? This is a democracy, and it has to be a participatory democracy, and we have to do more. And I don't mean that we're all out marching - though I enjoy a good march - there are a range of things that people can do that they are comfortable with doing. And that means telling our politicians, telling our party leaders, telling the media, telling our bosses, telling our workmates or playmates or family or friends or whoever, that something has to change, and it has to change quickly.

It's a question that Australians must wake up to what's happening. Talk of terrorism - even the head of ASIO has told us that we are a more likely target because of our foreign policy. A few lines in a couple of newspapers! Where is the outrage? Where is the anger? It's here, I know, we have to get it out there among the Australian people.

Thank you very much.

Margaret Reynolds is the President of the Australian United Nations Association and a member of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

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