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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-07-03 Daily Xml
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MANDELA, NELSON

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:56): I rise today to honour a personal hero of mine and, I expect, of many in this place. So much of our time here seems to be spent in hostility and combat. True, robust discussion is part of parliamentary life—and I am certainly no shrinking violet when it comes to that—but in a quieter moments I think we would all do well to pause and reflect on what inspires us and what motivates us to keep going in what, to many, is a fairly thankless role.

So I would like to take a moment to look back at the life of one of the most recognisable human rights figures of the 20th century. Nelson Mandela stands with Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King as a towering exponent of human rights for all. Mandela became active in the civil rights movement in his early 20s, studied law and joined the African National Congress in 1942. He spent 20 years organising non-violent, peaceful acts of resistance against the racist South African government, culminating in 1961 in a three-day national workers strike. For this he was sentenced first to five years in gaol and then, in 1963, to life imprisonment for sabotage.

Of Mandela's 27 years in prison, 18 were spent on Robben Island; his cell small, his bed the floor, hard labour his daily lot. He had one visitor a year for 30 minutes, and he wrote and received one letter every six months. Most would crumble, but Robben Island was the crucible that forged the man I salute today.

Mandela received enormous international support during his incarceration; indeed, his refusal to renounce his struggle against apartheid sparked reform in Australia, with the abolition of the White Australia policy during the Holt and Whitlam governments. Fraser was equally committed to reform, often against his own party's wishes, but it was the Hawke government that drove the internationally coordinated economic sanctions that resulted in Mandela's liberation in 1990.

Elected president of the ANC in 1991, he and then president F.W. de Klerk—who had replaced the racist P.W. Botha and allowed Mandela's unconditional release—were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their efforts to dismantle apartheid. In 1994 Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president, a position he held until 1999. He presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his advocacy of national and international reconciliation. A friend of Australia, Mandela marked our Reconciliation Day in 2000 by publicly stating his hope that:

in the near future [Indigenous people] themselves will say 'we now feel we are part and parcel of Australia. All the opportunities are offered to us.'

Mandela wanted neither white nor black domination during his life. He sought democracy, a free society and equal opportunity for all. These are the ideals for which, like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, he was prepared to devote—and to give, if required—his life.

This man of enormous stature yet great humility rests now in a frail condition. It is clear that the strength Mandela provides his country will never be forgotten, and that is why I pay tribute to a true hero, Nelson Mandela, a spirit which he would not allow to be crushed.

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