For the True Believers

Graham Freudenberg, Australia's greatest speechwriter, says the Australian Labor Party was built on speeches. This book brings together great Labor speeches which give voice to the party's enduring values and achievements, and place it and its principal figures at the centre of historic events. There are speeches that stir the imagination and inspire, speeches that appeal to humanity, speeches of sorrow and redemption, speeches that urge moderation and caution, speeches that call for courage in the face of adversity, speeches that seek to mute the trumpet sound of war, speeches that attack the forces of conservatism, and speeches which celebrate and mourn the party's fallen. Chris Watson articulates Labors purpose as a light upon a mountain four decades before Ben Chifley's famed light on the hill speech John Curtin tells a hushed parliament that a great naval battle is proceeding. Gough Whitlam declarares timefor a new Labor government Bob Hawkes urges South Africa's apartheid leaders to listen to the spirit of men and women yearning to be free. Paul Keating's belief in Labor as the people who can dream the big dreams and do the big things. Kevin Rudd says We are Sorry to the stolen generations of Aboriginal Australians