To the sad Lab lovers, part of a message from the clown Bob Hawke.
FEDERATION OF ETHNIC COMMUNITIES' COUNCILS OF AUSTRALIA CANBERRA 30 NOVEMBER 1988 in the early days of this year of our Bicentenary, on 26 January, I launched the nation's Australia Day celebrations with these words about the Australian identity: " We are, and essentially we remain, a nation of immigrants a nation drawn from 130 nationalities in Australia there is no hierarchy of descent: there must be no privilege of origin.The commitment is all. The commitment to Australia is the only thing needful to be a true Australian." Today, as we approach the end of this year of Bicentennial celebrations, you have given me the pleasure of addressing this conference which has adopted as its theme my words of Australia Day. Multiculturalism is indeed all about commitment to Australia. So I congratulate today not only the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia for devoting your efforts at this conference to analysing the nature of that commitment; I congratulate also the efforts, over many years, by your constituent councils throughout Australia to help those millions of Australians they represent to realise that commitment. Above all else, our Bicentenary has been a celebration of our identity as a nation of diverse ethnic origins Aboriginal, immigrant and Australian-born sharing a common commitment to Australia. Australia's national identity has been shaped by our convict and colonial origins, by the often tragic relationship over the last two hundred years between the Aboriginal people and the European newcomers, by successive waves of immigrants from all over the world, and by the hard work of generations of Australian-born men and women. 3941
