2008 Plain English Speaking Award Finalists' Speeches
Dr Mary-Rose McLaren’s speech at the Victorian State Final 2008
Dr McLaren reflects on her win at the first Plain English Speaking Award in 1977
Thank you, I feel so privileged to be here, and to be offered this opportunity to reflect. It’s thirty-one years since the first Plain English Speaking Award in 1977. Not only were none of you born, but your parents were most likely in school themselves – I’m sorry but you weren’t even thought about! 1977 was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year, and back then, it was a really big deal – people were excited. Events were planned, activities, foundations established. It may be hard for you to imagine now, but there was almost no Republican movement then (only outrageous people wanted a republic for Australia), and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee was a time of significant community celebration.
Commander Michael Parker had an idea: that young people should be encouraged to speak in Plain English. He was reacting against the emergence of all sorts of jargon that had found its way into English in the seventies. Together with Lindsay Thompson, the then Minister for Education (who died earlier this week), the Australia-Britain Society, Dr Ray Maddocks and the English Speaking Union, he created the Plain English Speaking Award. Initially it was to be a one-off – a way of involving young Australians in the Silver Jubilee celebrations. And in that year the Award was presented by Prince Charles. I would like to point out that this was also the year that Prince Charles began his courtship of Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess Diana, and that she was the same age as me, and that I met him first. So I’m not sure what went wrong there …
I was a country kid from a Catholic girls’ school, and the Plain English introduced me to a world I hardly knew existed – a world of words, ideas, know-how, action and entrepreneurship. It was the most wonderful experience.
Of course the world was different then. Bill Gates was only planning Geek revenge: there were no PCs, no mobile phones, no digital cameras, no mass storage of music or other data, no world wide web. And there was only very limited awareness of indigenous rights and suffering. This was pre-Mabo. When I studied Australian History in VCE (then HSC), history began with white settlement. In 1977 the vast majority of Australians identified themselves Christian, and we were at the very beginnings of multiculturalism.
I don’t remember the impromptu speech topic for the final, which is sort of weird because the topic from the semifinal is embedded in my mind – and I often find myself reflecting on it. The topic for the semifinal was: Are we entitled to be optimistic about the Future? Of course I said yes. This was a competition and if you want to win, you’d better sound positive!
Well, here we are in the future, thirty-one years in the future, and while I still think ‘yes’ was the right answer, I now know it was for all the wrong reasons.
In many ways our generation has not served you well. I see photos of myself from that first Plain English and I wore two badges on my blazer. One said ‘Save the Whale’ and the other said ‘No Nuclear Power’. I’m sorry that thirty-one years on we have not saved the whale, and we have not resolved the issues of nuclear power.
In 1977 we knew the environment was in trouble. We had no idea about global warming, but we knew that oil was running out, and that coal was ruining the air. We knew about the need to research and apply solar, wind and wave power, and we did not do enough. In the pursuing years my generation gave up on spirituality and shifted our values to materialism, and in this I also do not think we served you well.
In 1977 my prepared speech was on the status of women. Since then we have made the dreadful mistake of equating sexual freedom with gender equality. The result has been the objectification of both men and women and the sexualisation of children, and not the advancement of human dignity. We have let the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. We believed individuals could do anything but failed to see the greater power in collaborative community. For all of this, I can only say, I’m sorry.
My generation has done some good stuff. We have really embraced multiculturalism, and that makes us all richer. We have moved a long way on recognising indigenous rights and the pain inflicted on indigenous people. We are more responsible globally than any previous generation. Australians as individuals are generous in contributing to world aid projects. And you have a far better education, a bigger, more connected world, and many more opportunities, than your parents.
But when I spoke about optimism for the future, here’s where I was most wrong. In 1977 I believed that my generation provided a reason for optimism. Perhaps in the way of all youth I had a certain arrogance, and a belief that we could fix everything that was wrong. But now I look at you and I realise it is not my generation, but yours, that provides us with optimism for the future. Most of the time we’ve done our best, but in many ways we have failed you.
But you – you are savvy and sharp and know how to read spin. You think globally and act locally. Your digital skills empower you to solve major global problems. You are thinkers and communicators with enormous power to change values, and thereby change the world.
And this group here in particular, you finalists today, we can be optimistic not just because of the nature of your generation, but because of your specific talents. You have such gifts to give the world.
In 2038 you will be in my reflective position, and I will be … old … well, about 78 years old, and you will be 47 or 48. I know it sounds unimaginably distant, but it will come. And when you remember this day, I hope you can do so without regret. In the next thirty years, don’t let things that matter slide. That’s what we did. Don’t repeat our mistakes. You are gifted with the ability to think and persuade, and to act wisely. You are the cleverest, most switched-on generation the world has ever seen. Look to the future and embrace your role in making it.
Today, thirty years on, I feel more optimistic about the future than ever before. And for that, I thank you.
