BERLIN WALL

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (15:44): Well, we have more absurdity from the Hon. Mr Lucas. He has accused the government of everything else, and now we are apparently consorting with arms dealers, as well. The Hon. Mr Lucas employs his very old trick; that is, to speculate about something himself and then say, 'There is all this speculation about it,' when in fact he is the only one who is talking about it and the one who starts talking about it.

I rise today to speak about the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was commemorated last week, as most honourable members would have observed, by world leaders and the German people with ceremonies in Berlin. I think we all owe a great debt to the people of Berlin and East Germany for their courage in standing up to the Soviet Union over a long period of time. Berlin was the key battleground of the Cold War for nearly 50 years, an island of democracy and freedom in the heart of the iron empire, behind the Iron Curtain.

It was imperative that the Soviet Union never took West Berlin, as it knew that it was the vital first domino in attacking Western Europe. As Stalin's foreign minister Molotov once said, 'What happens to Berlin happens to Germany: what happens to Germany happens to Europe.' That is why the Soviets moved quickly to try to take control of Berlin at the close of the Second World War. At the end of the war, the city was divided into four zones with the French, British and American sectors and the Russian sector and eventually, of course, the West, made up of the three allied sectors.

The most major test of the West's resolve came with the Berlin blockade in 1948, when the Soviet Berlin, which controlled East Germany, cut off West Berlin by rail and road, leaving the still war-torn city with just over a month's supply of food. The Western allies supplied Berlin with food, coal and other goods by air for close to a year. It was one of the greatest engineering achievements yet seen, even though widely predicted at the time to fail in the German winter. Over 13,000 tons of food was supplied to West Berlin every day. There were over 200,000 flights by the allied nations, including Australia's Royal Australian Air Force, and 101 people lost their lives in the airlift, mostly because of crashes.

However, as we know, West Berlin survived and prospered—so much so that the communists felt compelled to divide the city by a wall in the 1960s. That wall divided families and citizens before the people themselves finally brought it down in 1989. It was the beginning of the end for the Soviet empire and something to celebrate and remember.

I think the people of West Berlin showed great fortitude over decades in standing up to Soviet power. It is hard to imagine living in a city knowing that at any second the orders could come from the Kremlin to roll in the tanks and begin a major world war. I think it would have taken great courage to live in a city that was the first line of defence. Had West Berlin fallen to the Soviets, it would undoubtedly have been a great victory for them in their quest to essentially take over the world.

So, while it is a long way away and I suppose a lot of people are quickly forgetting about the Cold War, I think it is important that we remember those who stood up to communist aggression, particularly those in Berlin.

Amongst the commemorations last week, I was interested to hear an interview on the PM program on ABC with Hartmut Richter, someone who suffered greatly at the hands of East Germany, and particularly the Stasi, the secret police, who were known to be as bad as or sometimes even perhaps worse than the KGB. Herr Richter spoke of his concern about what is properly called 'ostalgia', that is, people romanticising the old East Germany and East Berlin. Some honourable members may have seen footage of hotels that are now set up in East Berlin like old East German apartments, with photos on the wall of the East German leaders, and so on, as if it is a sort of theme park. I think Mr Richter was correct in saying that there was not much about East Germany or its regime to be celebrated. Indeed, he said in this interview:

I think it's disgusting how East Germany is sometimes portrayed. Can you imagine if the history of Nazi Germany was glossed over like that? It would be an outrage! It's a disproportionate response the way that the history is trivialised and romanticised. You can understand why people like me see this very critically.

I think the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is a good opportunity for us to remember those who did stand up against the Soviets over a long period of time, from which we all benefited in maintaining our own freedom.

Time expired.