Speeches

Sir William Deane

First of all let me join in acknowledging the Ngunnawal custodians on whose ancestral land we are privileged to gather.

As some of you know, these days Helen and I are trying gently to withdraw from public life.  Today is a welcome exception.  For it is a great delight for me to become a Patron of Canberra’s Centenary celebrations.

As the Chief Minister has said, Helen and I chose to settle in Canberra when we left Yarralumla.  In fact it was a very easy choice.

My family came to this city in 1933 when I was two years old. Indeed here where we are gathered at Manuka is a focal point of my childhood. I went to Primary School at St Christopher’s Convent which was just over there. I watched Australian Rules, as AFL was then known, regularly with my father here at Manuka Oval. My father was a foundation member and an enthusiastic supporter of the Services Club, which is just down there.

So, in one sense my qualification to be Patron is that hardly anybody my age could have a longer association with the Australian Capital Territory, even though I did go to Secondary School and University and practiced law in Sydney and didn’t come back here until after I was appointed to the High Court.

My other qualification as a Patron is my absolutely unqualified enthusiasm for this wonderfully beautiful city.  There really is, for those of us who know it and love it, no place quite like it.

I am sure that I do not need to remind this gathering that a Patron has a limited role. The guiding hand of the Centenary celebrations is and will be that of the Task Force which consists of the present Chief Minister and all of his four predecessors. Obviously, there could be no better qualified guiding hand. Nonetheless, speaking as a Patron, I think I should very briefly indicate a few of the things which I personally see as particularly important.

One critical thing seems to me to be that our Centenary celebrations are absolutely inclusive.  If, at the end of 2013, any section of the population, be it the young or the old, or more importantly, the disadvantaged, justifiably feels that it has been excluded or not given every chance to be actively involved, that will be a negative mark on the celebrations as a whole, regardless of how spectacularly successful they are in every other way. In that regard, I think that the composition of the Task Force will ensure that we do not lose sight of the plain fact that we have a significant number of people who are disadvantaged in so many ways living in our comparatively affluent city.   

The themes of the celebrations?   I see three main ones.  One is that of local celebration. The Centenary is an occasion for all of us who call Canberra home to celebrate our city’s 100th birthday and to express and demonstrate our pride and affection for the place. It should also be an occasion for us to renew our determination to address the problems of disadvantage, particularly as they affect our children.

The second theme is building Canberra’s international image. It has always annoyed me when I am overseas when a blank look comes on a person’s face when you say you come from Canberra.  It annoys me even more when people are surprised that Canberra, not Sydney, is the capital of Australia.  To some extent that is not surprising in the same way that there are many Australians who are surprised to be told that Brasilia, not Rio, is the capital of Brazil.  But, nonetheless, it is something I hope our Centenary celebrations will help set right. 

The third theme is a national one. Canberra was founded and is our country’s seat of government under our Constitution. It is truly our national city. It’s a place in which every Australian shares ownership and of which every Australian should be proud. Hopefully our Centenary celebrations will make Australians everywhere much more aware of the significance and importance - and of the wonderfully positive aspects - of their national capital.

It is my hope and belief that our Centenary celebrations can and will fulfil those themes and achieve those objectives.

Let me conclude by again saying how pleased I am to be appointed Patron.

Thank you.