Berlin Wall: Fall

Victorian Parliament Hansard

Title Berlin Wall: fall
House COUNCIL
Activity Members Statements
Members KAVANAGH
Date 10 November 2009
Page 5230



Berlin Wall: fall

Mr KAVANAGH (Western Victoria) -- Twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall fell. It was a most dramatic milestone in the decline of a powerful political-economic system that controlled much of the world. That system was and is by its very nature inherently totalitarian, brutally oppressive, systematically murderous on a mass unprecedented scale -- for instance, the Cambodian communists murdered one-third of their own people in three years -- and economically backward to the point of causing the largest famines in the history of the world and even inducing widespread cannibalism.
I had the privilege of helping to knock down the Berlin Wall. As I bashed into the wall it was with great joy that I looked along the wall and saw hundreds of people doing likewise.
In my joy I thought of those Australians who had given so much over so long to protect their fellow Australians from this brutal, murderous, backward ideology. Those heroes included many Democratic Labor Party people. Prominent in my thoughts were my grandparents, Bill and Mary Barry. Their sacrifice has been fully vindicated by history.