Mr MARTIN FERGUSON (10:40 PM) —I rise this evening to speak on the issue of leadership. In recent weeks we have seen the Prime Minister in South Africa where he made the award of the Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia to the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, a man whose name has become synonymous with leadership and with the pursuit of freedom and democracy.

I wish to speak about leadership because it must be said that our Prime Minister has shown a disturbing lack of leadership on a number of fronts. His comments to Mr Mandela at that recent award ceremony in South Africa demonstrate that he is clearly incapable of providing leadership and that he is unable to learn from his many past mistakes. When the Prime Minister spoke about Nelson Mandela's capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation as an example to the rest of the world, he missed the sad irony that he had failed to demonstrate those very same qualities in relation to Australia's treatment of our own indigenous people. When he looked into the eyes of Nelson Mandela, he was looking into the eyes of a man who has struggled selflessly for the betterment of all his people. When the Prime Minister looked into the eyes of Nelson Mandela, he should have had a closer look at a man who has come to define and symbolise hope and freedom in this century. He should have paused to see what he might glean from a man who struggled for decades to achieve better economic and social conditions and fair and just outcomes for his people. Then maybe the Prime Minister could have reflected on his own responsibilities to look at the plight of indigenous Australians.

He could have reflected on his past attitudes to indigenous Australians and embraced a direction that takes indigenous people forward in this country, starting with the symbolism that comes from his apologising for the injustices of the past. The Prime Minister could also have reflected on the fact that Australians are crying out for him to take such a leadership role on behalf of our nation, and apologising to indigenous people for what we all know they have gone through is just a starting point. But it takes more than reflection. It takes a commitment to the future and recognition that education and health outcomes, employment opportunities, economic security and protection of cultural values are all essential issues that must be confronted. It takes an acknowledgment that leadership is about more than simply mouthing a few lines of contrition for terrible things that might have happened in the past.

In one way, it is not surprising that the Prime Minister could offer only a few words of praise for Mr Mandela during his recent trip to South Africa. This is the same person who in nearly 30 years in parliament hardly ever showed cause to mention the name of Nelson Mandela, who was for the bulk of those 30 years incarcerated in a maximum security prison. It is not surprising that Prime Minister Howard could offer only a few words, because this is the same person who, when he was opposition leader, tried to stop the Labor government's moves to impose economic sanctions on South Africa as a way of bringing down the apartheid regime that instituted racism and imprisoned Mr Mandela in the first place. The Prime Minister's argument was that you could oppose apartheid and you could also oppose sanctions at the same time. What hypocrisy!

In 1986, as opposition leader, during a debate on foreign policy he told this House that economic sanctions against South Africa would not inevitably bring about a change. He repeatedly attacked the Labor government's support of such measures, saying that sanctions were a waste of time because they were just as likely to strengthen the hand of the white minority government as weaken it. We know where he stood. His argument was proven to be fundamentally flawed, because it totally misunderstood the real impact of sanctions and how sanctions could unravel the racist economic and political elite. This is not to say that the decision of the Labor govern ment to impose sanctions was an easy decision to take, because it was not. Just ask Malcolm Fraser. When you impose economic sanctions, you must recognise that there is a downside to it: that sanctions might hurt the poorest people. But when you have tried every avenue there are times when you have got to say that you cannot accept what is going on anymore. At those times, which are crucial moments in history, it takes leadership to stand up and make hard decisions such as imposing sanctions. The Prime Minister went missing in that debate.

The fact that the Prime Minister was not able to make those hard decisions then and that he is incapable of making hard decisions today is an indictment of his leadership then and an indictment of his leadership now. To now expect people to believe that he has changed is to insult the intelligence of Australians, who have very long memories. It is political hypocrisy at its most blatant and Mr Howard should not be allowed to get away with it. The stance of the opposition leader, as he was then, Mr Howard, in relation to South Africa's apartheid regime will not be forgotten by many Australians because I do not believe for one moment that the Prime Minister has changed or matured over the years. Judging from his recent trip to South Africa, where he managed to spout only a few words of contrition saying, `I guess we all change and mature over the years,' he still has a hell of a lot to learn. He is a hypocrite. (Time expired)