my identity and my freedoms changed
quite dramatically on the 10th of
December in 1998 when I received a phone
call after 39 years of working in South
Africa I was told that if my family and
I valued our lives we should leave the
country right now I’ve been working for
the independent mediation services of
South Africa for and on behalf of the
city of Cape Town and by quiet request
from a man I admired more than any other
Nelson Mandela the Commission’s work was
to investigate the causes and identify
the perpetrators of ongoing violence in
Mandela was both a rebel and
revolutionary his Gaza birth rat named
Rowley starter literally means he who
will shake the tree he was a rebel in
that his use of the armed struggle in
enforcing change in apartheid South
Africa earned him a 27 year prison to
him but he’s much better known for the
leadership of his people away from
vengeance after suppression oppression
and repression a much easier thing to do
toward reconciliation and it was his
singular focus and his absolute clarity
in the bringing down of the apartheid
regime that taught me the courage to
face the truth no matter what the cost
so on that day reporting into the city
of Cape Town on behalf of the Commission
three of the perpetrators who the
Commission had identified with sitting
in those council chambers and clearly
they didn’t like a message they were
hearing and that put us on a number of
different hit lists and turned us into
migrants almost instantaneously today
all over the world as we speak there are
migrant refugees fleeing political and
religious turmoil and we treat them with
our separation estándar nationalist
policies quite cruelly we fear that
they’ll steal our jobs we fear that
they’ll overrun the country with their
religious fervour we fear that their
values are so different and their
numbers are so huge that they’ll swallow
up our culture in one big gulp but the
reality is quite different here’s a fact
all of the people who’ve arrived on
Australian shores to Deadwood not even
fill the MCG fact we’re a micronation
there are cities in China Japan South
East Asia Mexico all with population
counts far greater than our national
head count so the facts allow the truth
on a global scale there are six and a
half so-called illegal so-called
unregistered Mexican migrant workers
working in Southern California providing
more food to America than any other
state in that nation and they’re all
doing the work that Americans have
refused to do before so these facts born
out of fears of possibility rather than
probability really deserve no place in
our future build of a new age country in
the work and if that’s the case we
shouldn’t be throwing stones at those
who find themselves in boats all over
the world trying to find Shores on which
to Beach their crumpled lands in my work
that I do today working with leadership
teams trying to help them deepen their
dialogue and to build relationships of
trust based on truth I am becoming more
excited about the fact that we do in
fact have the leadership capacity and we
do have the leadership mettle we
certainly have the moral imperative
much more excitedly we have a historical
model on which to build a future in 1948
three short years after the end of the
Second World War the Snowy River
mountains project recruited a hundred
thousand workers two-thirds of which
were migrant workers from 32 countries
across war-torn Europe they came to
start a new life but most importantly if
we look back in history they became part
of what was to become Australia’s
proudest economic proudest engineering
proudest environmental and proudest
social economic feats of all time and
history
amongst them were two German ships one
were went by the name of Karl Rick he
was a carpenter and the other a fellow
Heinberg in housing who has an excellent
pilot but also an engineer imagine what
life for them would have been like
coming into an Australia where families
had lost husbands and fathers and
brothers and uncles and sons in that
very bitter conflict it would have been
an atmosphere in an environment ripe for
vengeance and for vilification add to
that life high up in the Snowy River
mountains in a tinted camp in sub-zero
temperatures
having left your family behind in Europe
as you came to start this new life it
would have been isolating desolate
lonely and totally not dissimilar to
what our current refugees would be
feeling today but funny enough when
people look back the 60,000 two-thirds
majority who’ve stayed in Australia they
look back at anything it was a happy
time unbelievable why because they were
part of something that was great they
were part of something that was going to
become amazing in Australian history
they were
contributing they were respected there
were brought into the community they
were included and above all they were
given hope imagine a world today if we
embraced more people like Karlin Hine
where we could build a future based on
her which had an economic and an
environmental slant which was
sustainable now it really was an
incredible feat the plan was to divert
three major rivers into not only for
agricultural irrigation but also for the
generation of clean energy and
electrical power it took 26 years to
complete it was on time on budget and it
has provided post-war sustainable
employment it continues to do so it has
a legacy today we’re about to put
another 5,000 jobs into the same
projects that continues to build and it
continues to grow it is an incredible
feat but most importantly it’s an social
engineering prototype of warmth
inclusivity generosity of spirit and
open openness in society so what have we
learned from our past and what are the
congruence zhan across the globe today
well as I said we’ve got government’s
who are committing suicide every two
three or four years we’ve got
politicians from different but not so
different political parties who publicly
and personally Sledge each other on a
per honor on a public forum who stand
for little other than the next elections
whilst they watch polls on judging on
how popular they are with the electorate
who actually by the way is incredibly
alienated and a bit bored so if we let
these politicians continue on and we
remain in an epithet ik fog so to speak
we’re going to continue to get
increasing polarization in our
governments and in our community
we’re going to look and see increasing
separation and rise of racism again in
our societies we’re going to see a lack
of focus on good social policy which
helps to build nations and grow nations
in incredibly exciting ways and rich
ways with honesty and a continuing
decline in our in our taxpayer base and
a growing economic dead it isn’t a
recipe for success it isn’t a recipe for
building a nation of the future it is a
recipe for disaster and it’s not what we
need to leave as a legacy for our
children so what do we need to do we
need rebels and revolutionaries we need
rebels who will stand up against the
tide who will hold the walls push the
moral boundaries and the social norms
art into an open society that engages
people that brings people in that is
inclusive generous which gives people
jobs those people who want jobs who will
take those jobs and work hard for a
future of hope if we do that then we’re
talking about embracing inclusivity
we’re talking about embracing diversity
we’re talking about embracing migrant
refugees now if you really think about
it one in four of us today in this room
were born overseas if we trace our
histories and our pathways through our
origins
most of us other than the original land
owners in this land are migrants so we
need to recognize what it is that we
have done and put our and these people
in the Snowy River Mountains project
made an indelible and undeniable mark on
our cultural mix think great coffee
think rape food we didn’t get that from
now one of my favorite quotes from
Mandela 4 to be free is not merely to
cast off one’s chains but to live in a
way that it respects and enhances the
freedoms of others and you might add
that respects and enhances the
environment Barack Obama who was
inspired by Nelson Mandela noted in his
parting shot from Washington at the end
of last year he said it is the corrosive
voices of leadership today they are
turning people of good character away
from public service
so our rebels and our revolutionaries
who were asking to stand up and take the
mantle of leadership of good moral
character who will recall and rebuild a
much prouder history in our nation we
need to look back on today which will be
our future history and we’ll need to
look back and say we did the right thing
absolutely Tom little who is a snowy
River mountains Foreman at the time
reflected back on his time on the
project and said I had four years in the
Australian Army I could have hated those
German ships just as much as anybody but
I couldn’t see the scenes in it the war
was over we had a job to do and they
were there to kick off and start a new
life so let’s do it [Applause]