I heard some audio excerpts from Australia's Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard, as she spoke before a joint session of our Congress yesterday and I was ready to shout: "Where is the American leader to say this about America?!" Our sad lacuna of leadership is galling to me at this point. We have an empty suit as a leader, a man in name only, who is but a spectator. And all the Republican party can dish up for counter points to The ONE's Sauron is Gingrich, Huckabee, and Haley Barbour...what a sad Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam. We are doomed unless someone like this Lady can step up to the plate.
Here are some excerpts of the Hon. Julia Gillard's speech, all emphasis is my own but I'd recommend taking the time to read the whole speech (link at bottom):
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Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am the fourth Australian Prime Minister to address you here assembled.
Like them, I take your invitation as a great honour. Like them, I accept it on behalf of Australia.
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Speaking for all the Australian people through you to all the people of the United States they each came with a simple message.
A message which has been true in war and peace, in hardship and prosperity, in the Cold War and in the new world.
A message I repeat today.
Distinguished Members of the Senate and the House ...
You have a true friend down under.
For my parents’ generation, the defining image of America was the landing at Normandy.
Your “boys of Point-du-Hoc†risking everything to help free the world.
For my own generation, the defining image of America was the landing on the moon.
My classmates and I were sent home from school to watch the great moment on television.
I’ll always remember thinking that day: Americans can do anything.
Americans helped free the world of my parents’ generation.
Americans inspired the world of my own youth.
I stand here and I see the same brave and free people today. I believe you can do anything still.
There is a reason the world always looks to America.
Your great dream – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – inspires us all.
Those of you who have spent time with Australians know that we are not given to overstatement.
By nature we are laconic speakers and by conviction we are realistic thinkers.
In both our countries, real mates talk straight.
We mean what we say.
You have an ally in Australia.
An ally for war and peace.
An ally for hardship and prosperity.
An ally for the sixty years past and Australia is an ally for all the years to come.
Geography and history alone could never explain the strength of the commitment between us.
Rather, our values are shared and our people are friends.
This is the heart of our alliance.
This is why in our darkest days we have been glad to see each other’s face and hear each other’s voice.
Australia’s darkest days in the last century followed the fall of Singapore in 1942.
And you were with us.
Under attack in the Pacific, we fought together. Side by side, step by bloody step.
And while it was Australian soldiers at Milne Bay who gave the Allies our first victory on land in the Pacific War, it was American sailors at the Battle of the Coral Sea who destroyed the fear of an invasion of Australia.
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In the decades since, we have stuck together. In every major conflict. From Korea and Vietnam to the conflicts in the Gulf.
Your darkest days since Pearl Harbour were ten years ago in Washington and New York.
And we were with you.
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From my discussions with your country’s leaders in Washington, my meetings with our generals in Afghanistan and my time with our troops, this is my conclusion:
I believe we have the right strategy in place, a resolute and courageous commander in General Petraeus, and the resources needed to deliver the strategy.
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As an ally we share your resolve.
Afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for terrorism.
Just as our security alliance is one for war and peace, our economic partnership is one for hardship and prosperity.
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We believe life is given direction and purpose by work.
Without work there is corrosive aimlessness. With the loss of work comes the loss of dignity.
This is why, in each of our countries, the great goal of all we do in the economy is the same to ensure that everyone who can work does work.
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We worked hard with you during the global economic crisis to resist protectionist pressures. This only built on our decades working together to promote free trade in the world.
I know many of you worked hard to achieve the Australia-US Free Trade agreement.
Thank you.
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Like you, our relationship with China is important and complex.
We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.
My guiding principle is that prosperity can be shared.
We can create wealth together.
The global economy is not a zero-sum game.
There is no reason for Chinese prosperity to detract from prosperity in Australia, the
United States or anywhere in the world.
America has always understood this principle of the economy - that everyone can benefit when everyone competes.
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In both our countries, true friends stick together ... in both our countries, real mates talk straight.
So as a friend I urge you only this: be worthy to your own best traditions.
Be bold.
In 1942, John Curtin – my predecessor, my country’s great wartime leader – looked to America. I still do.
This year you have marked the centenary of President Reagan’s birth.
He remains a great symbol of American optimism.
The only greater symbol of American optimism is America itself.
The eyes of the world are still upon you.
Your city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Your brave and free people have made you the masters of recovery and reinvention.
As I stand in this cradle of democracy I see a nation that has changed the world and known remarkable days.
I firmly believe you are the same people who amazed me when I was a small girl by landing on the moon.
On that great day I believed Americans could do anything.
I believe that still.
You can do anything today.
Full text:
http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/address-congress-united-states-washington