UN General Assembly
1984

135. I am saying this because the Organization, which has brought untold benefit to so many people, should be defended against attack. I am saying it because my country, Australia, feels that it has a special obligation to take part in this defence. Australia was not only a founding Member of the United Nations, but also an active supporter of the view in its early days that the United Nations should not be the preserve of great Powers. We foresaw the opportunities for Members of a truly representative United Nations to advance interests in common that we could not promote individually. We wanted the newest and humblest of nations to be able to mix with the oldest and mightiest in conferences and dialogue. We believed that smaller States like ourselves would be swamped if great Powers in a nuclear age were free to arrange matters among themselves in private as they did at Potsdam and Yalta. We are all affected by the arrangements between great Powers. We have the right to be able to express views about them and to be involved in the formation of these views.