Page 1440 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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and 1891, the great shearers strike in Queensland and outback New South Wales, that the Labor movement was forged. It was forged in the industrial wing and moved and evolved from the industrial wing to the parliamentary wing. I hope to do my part to maintain those standards and traditions.
The Labor movement of which I find myself a proud representative has, in its 100 years, known times of success and times of adversity but, throughout its tradition, throughout its 100 years of existence, the Labor movement has been known by the people of Australia to be a movement and a party that can be trusted. It can be trusted to stand by a platform and deliver what it stands for. At times, what the party stands for may not find favour with the community and then the party finds itself in opposition. But it is a party that stands for principles, and the community, faced with a choice, may decide freely to elect a Labor government to stand by those goals.
The goals which our party stands for in this parliament were well articulated by our leader in the opening remarks of this parliament. I would like to hark back to our leader's remarks because I think they stand for goals that unite all of us on this side of the house. The goals of the Labor Government, as announced by Ms Follett, were:
... to develop a community based on social justice and economic security, a community which provides for the broadest possible individual liberty in terms of freedom of speech, education, assembly, organisation and religion; a compassionate, tolerant community which recognises and rejoices in our diversity.
Behind those goals we all stand united.
There has been increasing comment in Australia in recent months - and particularly since the recent Federal election - in both academic and journalistic circles on the future of the two-party system. Those scribes that think they can see into the future have been commenting that the two-party system is doomed and that the way of the future is in independents. I would reject those views. I would reject those views because here in Canberra we have had the opportunity to see that system in operation. We have had the opportunity, and members of the Canberra community have had the opportunity, to see that independents may often not stand for what they are believed to stand for. We have had the opportunity to see anti-self-government parties and no self-government parties turn into government parties.
The Australian Labor Party stands for what it puts in its platform and delivers what it puts in its platform. And indeed, it must be said, so do our conservative opponents. The two-party system as it has evolved in Australia has provided stable government and provided the community with
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