Page 2694 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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and Grassby appear to be knowledgeable in this area - notwithstanding that the wall's demise had very little to do with the atrocities of Nazism, they rounded with comments and interjections which I think implied quite clearly that their detractors were in some ways soft on fascism and soft on the Holocaust.
If I had come into this place and supported the move-on powers Bill or Mr Stevenson's motion earlier this afternoon by saying, or insinuating, that to reject the Bill or the motion was an insult to the memory of six million dead Jews, the Government would understandably be ropeable with anger and rage. Yet what they did on Tuesday night was very similar. They have effectively perverted the real meaning of this particularly important historical occasion. I can understand why that occurred. I imagine that Ministers Berry and Grassby had a conversation earlier this week or perhaps late last week and said to themselves, "Gee, the bloody Liberals are going to be sort of crowing and calling about the fall of the Berlin Wall. What are we going to do about it? They are going to be carrying on about socialism and stuff like that. What are we going to do?". And, of course, the Minister - - -
Mr Duby: Wrong.
MR HUMPHRIES: You were there as well, Mr Duby? I apologise. Well, Mr Duby and the Ministers were present together and were discussing this and decided that the best way of defending is actually attacking and that is what they did. The fact is, and I made this point the other day, that the breaching of the wall is a victory of human spirit over totalitarianism, but particularly over totalitarian socialism. It was totalitarian socialism which built that wall. I regret the way the debate occurred on Tuesday night because I regret the fuel that those comments must have given to the anti-German feeling which has been generated in recent weeks around the world.
There is a stream of anti-German feeling as a result of the suggestion that the two Germanys might reunite. Those feelings have been allayed quickly, certainly by the chancellor of West Germany. I would be very reluctant to think that anybody in this house would add to that feeling by suggesting that there was some connection between the fall of the wall and Nazism. I hope that has passed. We have passed that. I hope the free venting of the human spirit which we have seen in recent days in Europe is a great wave of the future which will engulf the whole world. Certainly there are many places it ought to engulf. I mentioned Cambodia last Tuesday. I hope that when we debate things of this kind we can acknowledge that and support in all things we do that very important element of the human spirit.
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