Introduction

Thank you Madam President; Your Excellencies, Rotarians, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for your warm welcome. My wife and I are very pleased to be with you this evening on the occasion of the 96th Birthday of Rotary International.

I am delighted that so many Ambassadors, High Commissioners and other members of the diplomatic community have joined us. Your presence provides a significant recognition of the important international role played by Rotary. And our gathering is here in the Great Hall of Parliament House, at the centre of the political life of our nation and of the City of Canberra. It is an appropriate venue for recognising Rotary's role in Australia at the community level.

I'm a great admirer of Rotary. In all its avenues of service - at the club level, in vocational work, in service to the community and in the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace, Rotary does much to improve the quality of life for individuals and communities throughout the world. The Rotary Foundation, for example, is the largest privately funded foundation in the world and its very laudable objective is the achievement of world understanding and peace though international humanitarian and educational programs.

I'm firmly of the view that Rotary's ideal of service is an an important one for business and the professions to keep in mind in a world of rapid social, economic and technological change. In my address tonight, I want to develop some themes that grow out of this view: firstly, to recognise the important international contribution that the Rotary Club of Canberra, and Rotary International makes; and, secondly, highlighting the importance of embracing the many positive aspects of the globalisation phenomenon and the opportunities it presents us all.

The Rotary Club of Canberra

Rotary is indeed a global organisation. From humble beginnings in Chicago on this day in 1905, when lawyer Paul Harris formed the first Rotary Club, it has grown into an organisation encompassing the great majority of countries in the world.

Rotary arrived in Australia during 1921. There are now 15 countries with more than 500 Rotary clubs and Australia is ranked sixth on that list. And 73 years ago today, so Madam President has informed me, the meeting to establish the Rotary Club of Canberra was held, just down the road at what is now the Hyatt Hotel Canberra.

I was not surprised to learn that the first President of the Canberra Rotary Club, in 1928-29, and again in 1934-35, was Sir Robert Garran. Garran was the longest serving permanent head of a Commonwealth Government department, serving for 31 years, from 1901 until 1932. He was devoted to Canberra as the then new national capital and obviously perceived the value of Rotary for a community largely made up of public servants that had been transferred here from Melbourne. He also appreciated Rotary's international role - Garran undertook a private goodwill lecture tour in the United States and Canada for three months in 1940-41, organised by Rotary.

In this centenary year of Federation, I'm pleased to claim my own personal link with Sir Robert Garran. At the second Convention to draft a federal Constitution for Australia, which met in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, during 1897-98, Garran very ably served as secretary to the Drafting Committee made up of Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor and my Grandfather, Sir John Downer.

So, I feel quite well qualified to be here in 2001, helping you to celebrate your Club's birthday!

Rotary's international role

In creating Rotary, and working to imbue it with a spirit of service and fellowship, Paul Harris was inspired by the friendliness that he knew among business people in small communities in the United States. He realised that this was something of value that needed to be fostered during a period of quite rapid social, economic and technological change before the First World War - a time that some commentators regard as being the first great period of globalisation. And to achieve this objective, Harris created a format that was well attuned to the urban, industrialised age of the twentieth century and beyond.

Today, the world of Rotary consists of around 1.2 million Rotarians in almost 30,000 autonomous clubs in 162 countries, all linked together through Rotary International. In countries throughout the world, Rotary has initiated projects that address many of the most critical issues facing us today, including violence, drug abuse, AIDS, hunger, illiteracy and the environment. Its outreach to youth through Rotaract and Interact clubs has been another important dimension of its work.

Everything that Rotary does can be seen in terms of Paul Harris's vision for better communities and a better world. It is fair to say that what Rotary is really about is helping to achieve international understanding and world peace through educational and humanitarian projects.

I know that the Rotary Club of Canberra has taken an active role in fulfilling the international objectives of Rotary. I'm aware, for example, that you have been involved in the Ambassadorial Scholarships Program and that the Club is Counsellor to one of five students currently studying in Canberra under the Program. I'm told that the Club also assisted an Ambassadorial scholar to develop an environmental education program in Turkey. Many former Ambassadorial scholars have achieved distinction, and it's worth noting that they include His Excellency the Governor General (Sir William Deane), and both the previous (HE Mrs Genta Hawkin Holmes) and present (HE Mr Edward Gnehm) American Ambassadors to Australia.

I'm particularly impressed by the important role Rotary has taken in countries in Central and Eastern Europe during the period since the fall of communism. As a volunteer organisation, it has provided a model for the rebuilding of community life and trust in the wake of the damage done by communism - in this way, helping to foster an essential element in the fabric of a democratic society and market economy in those countries.

The Rotary Club of Canberra has supported these efforts. It has taken leading roles in training heart surgeons in the Ukraine and in training Russian farmers in Australia. It is also a sponsor of a $250,000 Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) grant in the Ukraine, for an educational program to assist the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.

The Club has actively participated in Rotary's Group Study Exchange program since 1966 and, in 1988, one of its members, Past District Governor Jack Olsson (who I understand is in the audience tonight) led a team to Poland under this program. I understand that this event initiated the re-establishment of Rotary in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that under the grip of communism.

The Club can be particularly proud of its involvement in this effort.

Globalisation

As the Minister for Foreign Affairs I am responsible for Australia's overseas aid program and have seen many of the countries and conditions in which Rotarians are working to build healthier, more prosperous and better communities. I commend those many thousands of Australians who have given their time, energy and commitment to these efforts. In many respects, I see the work of Rotarians as being the human face of globalisation.

Globalisation suffers from a bad press, and we tend to think of it only in a negative context. Globalisation is blamed for many things, but we don't give enough attention to its many and overwhelmingly positive aspects.

There are plenty of definitions of globalisation but one of the best is provided by Steve Smith and John Baylis who in their book Globalisation and the Sovereignty of the Nation-State describe globalisation as:

"the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world more and more have effects on peoples and societies far away."

"Increasing interconnectedness" is a phrase that conjures up a world in which individuals and peoples are more in touch with each other, more aware of each others' concerns and, hopefully, more able to contribute towards improving the quality of life of each and every one. Indeed, this is the ultimate potential of the forces of globalisation that are at work in our world. It is a process that offers great opportunities and rewards for all peoples of the world. It is an area where an organisation like Rotary is making, and can continue to make, a crucially important contribution.

Globalisation is undoubtedly driving the creation of a global economy and the increased interdependence of national economies. The integration of global economic activity has been supported by rapid developments in technology, communications, transportation, media and production. There is no doubt that, if you want to be effective in the modern world, you must embrace change.

Globalisation offers real benefits to those economies and societies that are genuinely open to innovation and quick to adapt to more practical and efficient ways of doing things. It rewards flexibility and openness in institutions and governments, and penalises those who have closed and opaque systems of government.

These changes have created a new political dynamic in domestic politics across the world. What we are now witnessing in the political life of many countries is a debate between the globaphiles and globaphobes.

In our own country, globaphobia has emerged in the One Nation phenonenon. It is also evident in some parts of the trade union movement, amongst some non government organisations, and even - here and there - in some segments of the Labor Party.

It is, of course, no great surprise that great social and technological change would create some resistence to the process of global integration. Our historical experience of the agricultural and industrial revolutions suggests that great changes of this order will always produce some social and economic tensions.

But history also suggests that those societies which seek to harness the potential of the new technologies that are permanently changing their world, and to manage carefully the social changes that result, will succeed. Those societies which try to resist will ultimately reap a harvest of bitterness and despair.

The case against globaphobia

Governments must govern for all their people. They must listen to concerns of those bearing the brunt of change and ensure they are never left behind.

However governments should never over-react to the light and heat created by vocal minority groups of whatever political colour at the expense of losing sight of the broader interests of the community. In the end, it is politically fatal for any democratically elected government to fall into this trap.

Many of you will recall the demonstrations in Seattle that provided a noisy and violent backdrop to the World Trade Organisation meeting in late 1999. We should bear in mind that more people attend an average football match, or one day cricket game, or voted for me in Mayo, than turned out for the demonstrations in Seattle.

Sadly, at stake in Seattle was the launch of a new round of negotiations on trade liberalisation. The delay in launching the round had ramifications for billions of people around the world.

In Seattle, and since, we have heard a lot about what the globaphobes are against. But let us not forget what globaphobes actually stand for.

They are for higher protection and barriers to international trade. Their approach would punish the disadvantaged in our community the most severely by making goods and services more expensive for poorer people. Businesses protected behind high tariffs and non-tariff barriers would become much less competitive. As a result, these businesses would produce goods of poorer quality at higher prices. The burden of paying for these goods would fall heaviest on the poor. And yet globaphobic demonstrators claim that they are the champions of the poor and dispossessed. This is a claim that cannot withstand scrutiny using the most elementary analysis.

Trade is a two-way street. Erecting barriers to trade will damage Australia's ability to sustain and build export markets. We cannot shut the door to imports and still expect the world to buy from our own growers and manufacturers. Those concerned in particular about the fortunes of regional Australia should reflect on the fact that around one in four jobs in regional areas depend on exports, more than in the metropolitan areas. Regional Australia generates over half of Australia's exports. If we follow the lead of the globaphobes and turn our backs on the world, we will hurt those they claim to care most about. We will leave future generations of Australians a world of vastly less opportunity and promise they face now.

Globaphobes say they are motivated by concern about the plight of developing countries. But their rhetoric is palpably false. They are in fact calling for rich countries with prosperous markets to put up barriers against imports from developing countries, and also deny foreign capital investment to those countries. As former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said, developing countries such as his need more, not less, globalisation.

The globaphobes offer a bleak future to those countries in Asia, Africa and the Pacific which are amongst the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Members of Rotary will be intimately familiar in the difficulties the people of these countries face as you are working alongside them in their efforts to build a better life. What the globaphobes are proposing is a recipe to plunge these people into abject poverty and leave them there. They hold no prospect for developing countries to improve the living standards for their people and build their economies. There is a bitter irony in that some in Australia who rail against free trade also condemn our overseas aid program which works to address many of the problems of underdevelopment.

Nobody with a sense of history, and any compassion for humanity, would wish to see the world go down such a path. Closed economies hiding behind the walls of protectionism are the handmaidens of narrow and xenophobic nationalism. We all know what happened when the world went down that path in the 1920s and 1930s, when governments and peoples started damning other races, cultures and countries instead of trying to understand and work with them. Serious conflict resulting in global war and human suffering on a massive scale was the grim reward for those who followed the false prophets of that era.

We must not allow ourselves to be seduced by the false prophets of today. The poorer peoples of the world - those who do not have easy access to a telephone or a computer to set up anti-globalisation web sites - deserve a better deal than that. Instead, we must continue to harness the positive forces at work in globalisation and thereby facilitate the continued growth of international trade and investment. This will enable living standards to rise further in countries throughout the world.

Conclusion

I have spent some time talking about globalisation tonight because I see Rotary as having an important role to play in helping to build up the social capital that will help societies throughout the world harness the positive aspects of globalisation.

A country like Australia, in which one in five jobs depends on exports, simply cannot afford to shut itself off from the world. We cannot opt out of globalisation, as some would have us do. In any case, such a response would be grounded on fear and do little justice to the courage and resourcefulness that is inherent in our character.

Meeting the challenges of globalisation is undoubtedly one of the most important tasks facing us today. No country in the world can hope either to prevent or escape from it. Long may Rotary continue to make its own contribution towards ensuring that globalisation is harnessed in a positive way, and that Paul Harris's vision of a better world is fulfilled in the future.