Good evening, its a great pleasure for me to join you here in Wellington.
Im grateful to Grant Robertson and the Wellington Central Labour Party for the invitation to deliver this years Peter Fraser Memorial Lecture.
I am humbled to be delivering a lecture that honours one of New Zealands finest leaders.
Peter Fraser served New Zealand with distinction as a trade unionist, founder of the Labour Party, Member for Wellington Central, Wellington City councillor, Minister for health and education in New Zealands first Labour Government, and wartime Prime Minister.
Through the role he played in the founding of the United Nations, Fraser also made a profound and lasting contribution to the post-World War II international order.
Fraser shared the determination of Australias H. V. (Doc) Evatt that nations other than the Great Powers should have a role in post-war decision-making.
This shared determination was given expression in the Australia-New Zealand Agreement of 1944 the Canberra Pact and later, in joint protest at the settling of the terms of the Japanese surrender without reference to our two nations.
Both men were from countries located many miles from the centres of world power.
Yet both had made a significant contribution to the war effort at a terrible cost to human life.
Fraser and Evatt had a view that New Zealand and Australia and other small and medium powers had a right to participate in decisions that would shape the new international order.
The Charter of the United Nations was determined at a conference in San Francisco attended by delegates representing fifty nations.
New Zealand and Australia were among the nations represented at this founding conference.
It is in 1945 that Fraser entrenched his international reputation, both as chair of the trustee committee and as a forceful advocate for the interests of New Zealand.
Delivering this lecture four years ago, Frasers successor Helen Clark observed that at the San Francisco Conference he made and lost the case that permanent members of the UN Security Council should not exercise a veto power.
He made and lost that argument alongside Doc Evatt who was representing Australia.
They had some success, too.
Like Evatt, Fraser had lived through two world wars and the Depression.
The New Zealand and Australian agenda for the United Nations extended beyond peace to human rights and economic and social justice.
The shared commitment to international economic rights reflected the domestic program of Labo[u]r Governments in our two countries.
It reflected a determination that the sacrifices of Depression and war should pave the way for a more just post-war era at home and abroad.
It also reflected the personalities of the men who represented our nations.
Paul Hasluck, part of the Australian delegation to San Francisco, and later a Liberal Party Member of Parliament, Minister for External Affairs and Governor-General, said this of the relationship between Fraser and Evatt:
Australian and New Zealand cooperation was not only between nations but between persons. The cooperation made both countries an acknowledged force at San Francisco.
The kind of global institution that emerged from that meeting in San Francisco almost 70 years ago owed much to the role played by Fraser and Evatt, their personal values, and the ethos of the governments they represented.
Our two nations have played constructive and creative roles at the United Nations since its foundation.
New Zealand and Australia have been good international citizens and strong supporters of a multilateral diplomatic, security and trade framework.
This approach to international affairs has kept faith with the statesmen who represented us in San Francisco all those years ago.
Those of us who hold public office in Australia and New Zealand today have something to learn from the approach these two statesmen took to public affairs.
At a time of inevitable transition in international affairs these Labo[u]r leaders formed a clear-sighted view of their respective nations interests and harnessing their not inconsiderable personal talents fought for the things that matter.
Not all of us in public life have the same powers of persuasion, but we have the same duty to identify the things that really matter, and fight to achieve them.
Those of us on the progressive side of politics have an even greater obligation.
We are not satisfied with the status quo.
We know there is always more to be done potential unleashed discrimination and prejudice overcome barriers to progress torn down and a better future to be realised.
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From 2007 to 2013 I was proud to serve as a senior minister in Australias Labor Government led by two reforming Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Kevin was the first Leader to take Labor from Opposition to Government since Bob Hawke in 1983.
Julia was the first woman to lead the Australian Labor Party and serve as Prime Minister of Australia.
Much has been written and spoken about the internal ructions that beset the Australian Labor Party during our period in office.
Insufficient attention has been given to the leadership demonstrated by Kevin and Julia, and the achievements of the government they led.
We should not forget that after the 2010 election Julia formed a Government with a minority position in both Houses of Parliament the first Prime Minister to do so in 70 years and despite this obstacle implemented many Labor reforms.
I want to talk about some of the things we did in office things that matter including action on climate change.
As the Minister for Climate Change in the Labor Government led by Kevin Rudd I had worked to establish a carbon pricing regime.
One of the first acts of Prime Minister Rudd was the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
Our government then got to work putting a price on carbon something both Labor and the then governing Liberal Party had promised ahead of the 2007 Federal election.
The attempt to legislate an emissions trading scheme was thwarted by a combination of opportunism and recklessness in the Australian Senate.
In August and December 2009 the Liberal Party and Greens Party twice combined to defeat legislation establishing a scheme and defy Labors mandate to take effective action on climate change.
As Prime Minister, Julia Gillard overcame that opposition and introduced Australias first carbon pricing regime.
From a minority position in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and in the face of a reckless scare campaign from the Liberal Party and a chorus of right-wing columnists and broadcasters, Julia and my successor as Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, successfully developed and introduced Australias first carbon pricing regime.
And it was successful.
A recent study from the Australian National University found that during its short life Labors carbon pricing scheme cut Australias carbon emissions in the electricity sector by as much as 17 million tonnes.
In a demonstration of why words matter in politics, the studys authors also found that the scheme introduced by the Gillard Government would have cut more emissions without the campaign of opposition from Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party because industry factored in a future reversal of pricing.
At the same time Australia was making the adjustment to a price on carbon our economy was growing.
In the first year of the scheme our real gross domestic product rose by 2.5 per cent and more than 150,000 jobs were created.
You may be aware that three weeks ago a majority in the Australian Senate passed the Abbott Governments carbon price repeal bills.
For the third time, the Australian Senate rejected the science of climate change and made the wrong call for Australia and the planet.
Labor is the only party represented in the Senate that made the right call on each occasion.
The architect of the just-repealed carbon pricing regime, Greg Combet, retired from the Australian Parliament at the 2013 election.
Last week Greg published a book titled The Fights of My Life.
Not unexpectedly, one of the fights described in his book is the fight to put a price on carbon.
At the launch of his book last week Greg urged us not to give up on this fight, observing that important reforms are rarely achieved on the first attempt.
Hes right to observe that important goals are rarely achieved easily.
Greg is also right to demand effective action on climate change.
Its a call that honours the leadership shown by Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
More importantly, its a call that honours the obligation of policy makers to think beyond opinion polls, and even elections, to things that really matter.
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Australian Labor made the right call on carbon.
We also made the right call on preparing Australia for the Asia Century that is upon us.
In my first speech to the Australian Senate I observed that my country has long had an uneasy relationship with Asia.
I spoke about how anti-Asian sentiment made me feel when I arrived in Australia from Malaysia as a child.
I also spoke about how Prime Minister Paul Keatings articulation of Australias place in the Asian region resonated for me as a young adult.
Australia can learn from New Zealand and its relationship with the Pacific.
New Zealand has long been oriented to its geographic neighbours, building and maintaining strong political, economic and people-to-people links over successive decades.
The Government of which I was a member recognised that Asia is emerging as the economic powerhouse of this century.
In the words of Julia Gillard, whatever this century brings, it will bring Asias rise.
Julia commissioned a White Paper to identify the opportunities and challenges for Australia resulting from this rise one that will see Asia become home to most of the worlds middle class, as well as the largest producer and consumer of goods and services.
Our Government reached out to business and engaged the whole of the bureaucracy on the task of developing a roadmap to help our nation navigate its way in the Asia Century.
The Australia in the Asian Century initiative was an attempt to overturn more than two centuries of predominantly wrong-headed thinking about Australias place in the world.
The message was that far from being encumbered by the tyranny of distance, Australia could and should embrace the prospects of proximity.
The White Paper released in October 2012 laid out opportunities and challenges for Australia, and identified national objectives and the pathways to their achievement.
And it contained this pledge: Like past Labor governments, we will manage and shape change with the aim of providing better opportunities for all.
Notwithstanding the fact our region is on the cusp of an economic transformation that will shape the future of Australia and the world, one of the first acts of the new Australian Government was to junk the Australia in the Asia Century initiative.
In fact, so keen was the incoming government to junk the initiative that the White Paper itself was removed from the website of the Prime Ministers department within days of the election.
Today you need to visit the website of the National Archives to view the White Paper a sad, and ironic, reflection on the status of Australias preparedness to embrace its place in the Asian region and the opportunities and challenges that presents.
On carbon pricing and engagement with Asia, the former Australian Labor Government made the right calls.
Carbon pricing was overturned through a combination of hysteria and opportunism.
Labor Leader Bill Shorten has re-affirmed Labors commitment to an emissions trading scheme, and its time will come again.
Australia is an island in geographic terms only, and wont be able to isolate itself from the changes wrought by the Asian Century or the impact of climate change.
A future Australian government will make up for lost time and re-engineer a roadmap to Asia and take effective action on climate change inevitably re-visiting many of the initiatives of the former Labor government.
Australian Labor made many correct calls in government between 2007 and 2013.
Beyond carbon and the Asia Century, we sheltered Australia from the impacts of the Global Financial Crisis, said sorry to the generation of Indigenous Australians taken away from their families, repealed laws that discriminated against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians, established a National Disability Insurance Scheme and reformed our national school funding arrangements.
The program of economic and social reform we implemented made Australia a better place.
Its the reason the Labor Party was formed, and its the reason we seek to govern.
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One reform the last Labor Government did not embrace is marriage equality.
On 19 August last year Australia was in the midst of a national election campaign, but that did not prevent me and many other Australians celebrating the day same-sex couples in New Zealand could first marry.
On that day I delighted in this simple statement from the sponsor of New Zealands marriage equality bill, the wonderful Louisa Wall:
I think today weve seen what its all about: celebration of family, friends, commitment and love.
In the 18 jurisdictions that have removed marriage discrimination the law recognises and affirms the commitment of two people without regard to their sex.
The laws in these places hold that all of us, whatever our sexuality, are equal before the law.
While there can only be two parties to any individual marriage, the institution of marriage belongs to all of us.
Thats why marriage equality matters.
Its not just about individuals, its about all of us.
I congratulate Louisa, and Grant, and the many advocates for marriage equality in this country for achieving this goal.
In Australia, we still have some way to go.
Unlike in New Zealand, Australias conservative parties deny their members a conscience vote and bind them in opposition to marriage equality proposals.
Because Tony Abbott opposes marriage equality, so must his party room.
Labors deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, has pledged to introduce a private members bill should the Liberal Party do what Labor has done and grant a conscience vote to its members.
Many Liberals privately disagree with the position adopted by their leader Tony Abbott, which gives rise to some prospect for change.
Then again, many Liberals are private supporters of emissions trading.
For now, we proponents of marriage equality in Australia must continue to make our case, taking comfort from majority public support, and sharing in the joy of those couples here and elsewhere who can make a public commitment to each other free from discrimination.
**
This evening we honour Peter Fraser and the contribution he has made to New Zealand and the world.
I also want to honour the contribution of Janet Fraser not just as a decades-long companion to her husband but as a research assistant and adviser.
As a visitor to your shores someone far removed from your domestic political debate I want to acknowledge the contribution the New Zealand Labour Party has made to New Zealand and the cause of progressive politics.
Im aware that in a few weeks time New Zealanders will go to the polls.
In this campaign Labour is campaigning for a New Zealand that is decent and fair.
These values say much about modern Labour represented by Labour Leader David Cunliffe, your own Grant Robertson, other Labour candidates, and the many members and activists here tonight and across the country campaigning for a Labour victory.
These values are a link to the social democratic tradition of your own party, and the hopes and dreams of members of labour and social democratic parties around the world.
New Zealand Labours struggle for decency, for fairness, for secure jobs, for access to affordable housing, education and health, for human rights, and for the recognition of Indigenous people, has helped create the New Zealand of today.
That struggle has been an inspiration to many Australians, and many more around the world.
New Zealand would be a lesser place without the New Zealand Labour Party.
The shared values of New Zealand and Australian Labo[u]r have seen us support each other in good times and bad, and you have our best wishes in the weeks ahead.
I extend particular best wishes to Grant a champion of his community, his party, and the values that bring us together this evening.
**
I began tonight with an account of the relationship between Peter Fraser and Doc Evatt.
Their role in the foundation of the United Nations means they are indelibly linked.
While Frasers true Australian contemporaries were Prime Ministers Curtin and Chifley, Fraser had a hand in Evatt serving as Prime Minister, albeit briefly.
On 15 December 1947 Ben Chifley departed Australia for a visit to New Zealand at the invitation of his friend Peter Fraser.
During this two week absence Doc Evatt served as Acting Prime Minister for the first time.
Despite succeeding Chifley as Opposition Leader, and taking Labor to three successive elections, he was never elected to the office of Prime Minister in his own right.
The links between the New Zealand and Australian Labo[u]r Parties are deep and abiding, just like the links between our two nations.
I want to conclude by quoting from Chifleys last political speech, made at the New South Wales Labor conference on 10 June 1951, three days before his death:
I have also believed that the movement has to make up its mind what is the right thing to do and, no matter what the daily press says or any section of the community might say, we must go on fighting.
It has been my great pleasure to join you tonight.
Lets honour the great Labo[u]r men and women who have gone before us by continuing to fight for what is right.
Always remember, there are things worth fighting for.