Page 3688 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 October 1990
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(3) notes that Mr Mandela is regarded by South African blacks as the symbol of their struggle for freedom;
(4) calls upon Mr Speaker to mark Mr Mandela's visit to Canberra on 23 October 1990 by presenting him with a symbolic key to the city;
(5) further calls upon the ACT Government to make available appropriate work experience placements in ACT Government agencies for black South Africans sponsored by the Australia-South Africa Training Trust; and
(6) resolves to refer Mr Berry's notice of motion relating to the renaming of Rhodes Place to the Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Infrastructure for a report by 29 November 1990 on the feasibility of the proposal.
I hope that the motion can be treated in a non-partisan fashion and will gain support from all of the groups in the Assembly.
Mr Speaker, I think the first three parts of the motion do not require any detailed argument. They are more a matter of this Assembly placing on the public record its support for Mr Mandela and the work that he has done.
I believe that Mr Mandela's life work is reasonably well known and that in this Assembly there is no need to go into his biography in great detail. His visit to Australia gives us an opportunity to express our admiration for a very remarkable man - indeed, an exceptional man. He has shown great personal courage and dignity and an unwavering commitment to a free, democratic and non-racial South Africa. Those characteristics have earned him the respect and affection of many millions of people around the world.
It is a great tribute to Mr Mandela that, after 27 years in gaol, during which time he was virtually unseen and unheard, he should still be regarded by black South Africans as the symbol of their struggle for freedom. His great courage was particularly demonstrated in recent years, in the last years of his imprisonment, when it became clear that the South African Government was offering him conditional release from prison if he relinquished his political activity and went into exile. Mr Mandela's commitment to the freedom of his people, even at the expense of his own freedom, inspired people in South Africa and around the world to continue the struggle against apartheid.
Since Mr Mandela's release from prison last February, his actions have demonstrated that he was not embittered by his experiences. He set out with a calm determination to negotiate with all groups on the future of South Africa. We can only hope that the process of negotiation which he has begun with President de Klerk will eventually lead to
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