Mr SAWFORD (10:16 AM) —Over the next 16 months, a trilogy of events will occur in Australia that is simply a watershed. The campaign for the 6 November referendum is gradually warming up; we have the year 2000—whether we want to celebrate the new millennium next year or the year after; and, of course, there is the centenary of Federation in 2001. It is, perhaps, a signal to a maturing of this country that in the future we may develop a truly national spirit. I hope that the referendum is passed successfully and, if so, it will be the beginning of the birth of a national spirit that our founders had in mind a hundred years ago. This national spirit means that we see Australia as Australian—not as Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra; that we actually take cognisance of the needs of people in the Northern Territory, in western New South Wales, in central and northern Queensland, in north-western Victoria, in the state of South Australia, and in all of Western Australia.

For too long in this country, we have had an attitude developed here in Canberra that reflects a geographical area which is essentially east of the Great Dividing Range. That is a great pity because this country is a great country and can be a greater one. But it needs to be inclusive; it needs to include all the people in this country. Of course, in that little introduction I have even forgotten our colleagues in Tasmania. I must also allow some time for my colleague the member for Shortland, who will take over in the debate in a short while.

I look forward to the campaign on the referendum. I know that my community in Port Adelaide has responded very positively to various polls and I look forward to their support at that referendum. If it passes successfully, for me it will be the beginning of an opportunity for all Australian politicians—state, federal and in local government—to take an Australian perspective, rather than the parochial one which has dominated our history in the past. Perhaps, then, we can look at national projects like the Alice Springs-Darwin railway. Perhaps we can look at other national projects which have been white-anted, in my view sometimes deliberately, because they do not meet the needs of the more powerful states, or they are seen as competition to those needs.

I always remember—and perhaps I will finish up on this—that over 100 years ago, in the little town of Morgan on the River Murray, trade started to emanate and grow down into Port Adelaide. Of course, it was taken down there on old bullock wagons and goodness knows what else. A state government built a railway from Port Adelaide to Morgan and very soon it took on perhaps a dozen to 20 trains a day. This was in response to the lack of effort by the Victorian government of the day which refused to build a rail line to Echuca, and by the refusal of the New South Wales government to build a rail line to western New South Wales. The trade opportunities that opened up because of that small railway, which no longer exists, certainly brought the edge to the New South Wales and Victorian governments.

I hope in the future that this referendum begins a time in this country when we do not think of just New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, et cetera, and that we actually think of Australia.