UN General Assembly
1993

I warmly congratulate Ambassador Insanally, on his election as President of the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly. As a fellow Commonwealth member with Guyana, Australia is very pleased to serve in the Assembly under his presidency. This session of the General Assembly will deal with a particularly heavy and important agenda. It will do so at a time when hopes for, and expectations of, the United Nations have never been greater - but when, at the same time, many doubts have been raised about the capacity of the United Nations system to cope. We will be relying very much, Mr. President, on your wisdom and your experience as you preside over our deliberations. The world is a rather less happy place than we all hoped it would be after the end of the cold war. Economic and social deprivation continues to be a harsh daily reality for many of our countries and our peoples. Not even the most advanced countries are immune. The developed Western economies are limping, with low growth rates, historically high unemployment rates, increasing disparities