Page 840 - Week 03 - Thursday, 25 March 1993
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Few people understand that Australians can write to the Queen and ask for the removal of members of parliament or the government. I refused to discuss the various methods we have of abolishing self-government, but I grant that there should be a discussion. However, let us finally discuss the truth, the things that you will never teach our children in schools - what our true constitutional protections are.
MRS GRASSBY (4.13): Madam Speaker, I think that what Mr Stevenson said is very interesting, because I think that Mr Kerr - his name is definitely spelt with a "K", not a "C" - really made Australians wake up and decide that they wanted to be a republic. It was the best thing that ever happened. I was sorry to see the Whitlam Government thrown out of power, after it had done so many wonderful things; but thank goodness that nonsense is gone.
Mr Stevenson: I have work to be done. If anyone else talks let me know and I will come back.
MRS GRASSBY: We got rid of him. I must get on my feet more often. I will be able to get rid of Dennis.
The actions of Mr Kerr brought Australia closer to becoming a republic, so we have that to be thankful for. Young Liberals all over Australia - a lot of people would call them wets as opposed to drys, because they do not like to refer to the Right and the Left - have been calling on the Liberal Party to look at the issue of a republic. As Mr Fraser said the other day, the Liberal Party, which was formed in 1945, is going out the back door fast. It has to look at what the younger people in Australia want.
We have to grow up and take our place in the world. We are not part of Europe; we are on the edge of Asia. The empire went years ago, like the Spanish empire, the Dutch empire, the French empire and the Italian empire. They have all gone. There are no empires any more. We have to grow up and take our place. There is no master race in Australia. There was a founding race. Unfortunately, they were not treated very well and they probably have the right to have more say than any of us. People who can trace their origins back to the Anglo-Saxons make up about 37 per cent of the population. The Irish account for 27 per cent, the Scottish about 3 to 4 per cent, and the Welsh one per cent. The rest of our community is made up of people from Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East. There is no master race in Australia.
I am very proud to be an Australian. I am three-quarters Irish, third generation, and a quarter Spanish. I am proud to call myself an Australian, but I would like to be looking at a flag that I think represents this country more and I would like to be able to say that Australia is a republic. The white people who came here, the English, gave Australia many great things - laws, parliaments - as they did other countries such as Canada and India. They also did this in the US. But do many of us here realise that the Germans also did that? But for one vote, the national language in the United States would have been German. It was only one vote that made it English. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in the two world wars if the people of the United States had spoken German. I went to a play last night to see Googie Withers and John McCallum - - -
Mr De Domenico: We would not have been able to understand Hogan's Heroes.
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