Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

George Bush Sr, as he is known today, was inaugurated on 20 January 1989, succeeding one of America's greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. He entered office in a period of change in the world. He witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was President at a time when the potential threat of nuclear war was still very real.

In his inaugural address, President Bush used these words:

I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken.

Men like George Bush made this world a greater place. The riches and the prosperity that we enjoy today were hard to imagine at the time that former President Bush was born. On behalf of all my constituents in the electorate of Hughes, we send our condolences to George Bush's family and the people of the United States of America.

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