Page 4088 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 24 October 1990
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Mr Speaker, we should seriously consider the relationship that the ACT might have with Leningrad and such exotic places in the future. The final paragraph I wish to quote gave me the heebie-jeebies because it said:
Cr Michael Moore submitted an apology, without explanation, for his absence.
I have to note that this is not the only occasion of a break-out of Michael Moores - he could be double dipping; he could be doing a job on the side. In fact, he could be doing a job on three sides because I notice that the present Prime Minister of New Zealand is a Mr Mike Moore, so perhaps he is doing a bit of a trans-Tasman midnight flit. Nonetheless, Mr Speaker, it is, in a strange way, slightly comforting to know that other cities also have problems with granting freedom of the city to particular international figures.
United Nations Day
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.43), in reply: Mr Speaker, I get to my feet to commemorate United Nations Day on behalf of the Government. It is 45 years since 24 October 1945 and, as Mr Connolly said, Australia was among the prime movers in San Francisco at that famous conference. In concluding the debate Mr Connolly drew attention to Dr Evatt's great role in that affair and, as I have said before in the house, no greater monument in this country exists than that quite moving headstone in Woden Valley cemetery. It is just a granite rock that says, "H.V. Evatt, Son of Australia". It is a most extraordinary tombstone, and I would enjoin all people interested in peace and the aspirations that Dr Evatt had to go and visit that grave to commemorate this day.
Mr Speaker, the UN's primary objective is the maintenance of international peace and security. It is based on the principles of equal rights and self-determination. It seeks to foster good relations between nations in the broadest sphere, through economic, scientific and cultural cooperation. Certainly, the world is weary of violence. You have only to read the October newsletter of Amnesty International to see the level of violence and repression that exists in our community.
Mr Speaker, the ACT Alliance Government has moved early to support the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that dealing with the abolition of the death penalty. Certainly, we live in a happier world than do a great number of people elsewhere on the globe, and our Government is committed to furthering the aims of the United Nations - the aims of peace, the aims of reform in all of its good faces - whilst we are in government. Whilst the UN has attracted criticism in the past, it is certainly standing
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