Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

• It means being honest with ourselves and with our fellow men and women. • It means giving a full day's work for a full day's pay. • It means being fair and tolerant, compassionately helping others rather than selfishly exploiting them. • It means obeying the law in the spirit as well as in the letter. • It means a willingness not to dispute the decision of the umpire. • It means a respect for the different cultures of which this country is now composed, so that we may continually absorb them and, in so doing, nurture a new and broader Australian culture. • It means, in a world of interdependence and rapid communication, a readiness to substitute for our own self-interest, care and responsibility for those countries which are poor and underdeveloped. • It means making Australia a bridge between the West and the East. In short, it is up to all of us to make Australia take its proper place in the world. I say 'proper' advisedly because, whether we like it or not, Australia is not destined to become a great power. Geographical isolation and the limited size of the population that this island continent of ours can maintain will militate against that happening. Our influence in the world will depend not upon our power to coerce by force, but upon our ability to persuade by example. But even it we cannot make Australia a great power, we can and should make it a great country in which to believe and a good country in which to live, less concerned about the materialistic values implied in the phrase 'the standard of living', so often heard these days, and more about the spiritual values associated with the phrase 'the quality of life'. You may think that my verdict on Australian society is unduly Draconian. Perhaps it is, because there is another and a brighter side. Australia may not be a 'lucky country' or a 'clever country', but it is, especially in the visual arts, a 'creative country'. You may remember that a great exhibition of Australian art was held in the Queensland Art Gallery at the beginning of the Bicentenary year of 1988. In his preface to the exhibition catalogue, appropriately named Creating Australia, Daniel Thomas, the organiser, wrote: We now know that a rich and interesting achievement exists from all of the two hundred years [of our history] ... We now know that in the first of those two hundred years ... it was art more than anything else which interpreted Australia to its people. More than an expression of society-although they are always partly that-works of art are a force which create a people's way of life, of feeling and thinking. Art, we contend, is the principal means by which 'Australia' has been invented and created .. . (Artists) have not only looked hard at nature ... but have also throughout two hundred years, contributed to universal speculations about individual identity and the inner life. Such works of art help create and re-create not only Australia but also the world. You who have graduated today are fortunate to be part of that tradition. The future is yours. A great challenge lies before you-not just to use the talents you have and the 154