David Thomas: “Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House was privileged in a joint session to hear from the Prime Minister of Australia. It was…”

“Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House was privileged in a joint session to hear from the Prime Minister of Australia. It was, I hope, for most Members a rather refreshing presentation of the closeness of the two countries, because he provided us with a speech which pointed with pride and viewed with alarm. He talked about areas in which we have common purpose, and areas where the Australians, through the Prime Minister as the head of the government, had some concern about legislation that we might be passing. But I want to focus on one small statement that he made which I think has profound significance and which I had not quite heard it put the way the Prime Minister put it. He said that the best structure for social welfare is the family. And although we have discussed in many different ways the value and virtues of the family, the idea that from a societal point of view the ability to nurture the family structure as the best social welfare unit is, I think, what we are about today.”