Subjects: Australian achievements; education; teaching
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Andrew. To my ministerial colleague, Peter McGauran, the school principal, the shire president, students, parents and other visitors.
I'd like to thank the Orbost Secondary College for inviting me here to give me the opportunity for a few moments to share with the student body some thoughts I had about modern Australia and the future that lies ahead of this country.
I always try when I visit electorates to include in the schedule a visit to a school or college, a TAFE or a university because it does enable me to communicate a few ideas and also listen to the views of young Australians. As you know we are celebrating this year the Centenary of the Federation of our nation and we are entitled and proud members of a very cohesive community, we are entitled to reflect on what this country has achieved over the last one hundred years. And it has achieved much. It's been one of only six nations that remained continuously democratic throughout the entire 20th century and that is a remarkable achievement.
It's a country that has welcomed people from the four corners of the world and it is a country which has been built on concepts on equality, of opportunity and concepts of a fair go and concepts of pulling together to achieve common goals and common outcomes. We have made our mistakes, we have our blemishes and any country which reflects on its history must reflect on the errors as well as reflecting on the achievements. But the achievements far outweigh the mistakes and the flaws and the attraction of this country to the rest of the world is quite remarkable. And that positive image was greatly reinforced last year with a very successful Olympic Games. And this country also won a great deal of respect in our region and around the world for the moral and political leadership we displayed in defending the people of East Timor.
As young members of the Australian community you have the great bulk of your lives in front of you. You are fortunate to be members of a student body of a well respected school. Education in Australia sets very high standards and every student body I address is reminded of the importance in their lives of their school years and the importance in their lives of what they learn from their teachers. Teaching is one of the most noble of all professions, perhaps not honoured as much as it should be. I believe that the influence of teachers, whose roles and responsibilities now are greater in a way than they were a generation ago, the influence of teachers can be life long on students.
You will be entering a world, those of you who are leaving school at the end of this year, you will be entering a world that has a great array of opportunities. We are living in a world which has been dramatically transformed by information technology and the way that's changing people's lives every year is quite amazing. And in the next twenty-five years I predict that the advances in medical science that will be enjoyed because of the influence of biotechnology will probably have an equally great impact on people's opportunities and people's lifestyles and people's life expectancy.
Earlier this week I announced on behalf of the Government an investment over the next five years of about $3billion in boosting science opportunities and innovation in our universities and in the broader community. Science is very important to this country's future. You may not know that all the Noble Prizes that have been won by Australians, all of them bar one, that awarded to Patrick White the novelist, have been won by scientists and researchers. And this country has always produced medical scientists and other scientists who performed, if I could put it this way, well out of proportion to the population of this country. And the world renown of many of our doctors and scientists has worked very much to our credit.
You will be entering a world that will go on changing, a world that will provide you with a great number of employment opportunities, and also a world that is different to the world I entered when I left Canterbury Boys High School in a suburb of Sydney in 1956. In those days we lived in a different world. Life was a bit more predictable in some respects but in other respects there were fewer opportunities. Certainly we had very low levels of unemployment but we tended to live as a nation more to ourselves more than we do now. And all of that has changed and the secret of life is to hang onto those things that continue to be relevant but also continue to embrace change and to take advantage of new opportunities.
You live in a small community. That carries with it great advantages but also carries with it disadvantages. The isolation of a small community can add to the cost of living but it can also add to the lifestyle. And when I came into Marlo this morning and I went via the jetty near the mouth of the Snowy and I met a man who said he'd been here for three years, he used to holiday, and he was just sitting there in his ute and he said, he said there was a bit of restructuring in my firm in Melbourne and I decided to come down here. And he was just sitting there at half past nine in the morning looking at this absolutely idyllic sight and I thought to myself yes there are some drawbacks in living in an isolated community, but there are also some massive advantages.
People who live in communities like this work together with each other a lot more and one of the great strengths of the Australian nation is that we have a volunteer spirit. I did a speech the other day at the National Press Club talking about some of the characteristics which make Australia different from the rest of the world. And one of the things that makes it very different is that we are great country of volunteers. Our volunteer levels are about two or three times what they are in nations like America and England and France and Germany and Japan, which it is reasonable for us to make comparisons. So there's an enormous benefit in living in a community which co-operates and works together and your own school community is very much about that.
I want to leave two thoughts with you. The first thought is most importantly of all is to take a very positive towards life. The people who have the greatest happiness and the greatest success in life are those people who always have a positive attitude, not only about their own future but also about their relations with other people. Seeing good in people and seeing something positive about the people with whom you work and who you go to school with and who you relate to, while it may on occasion seem very difficult for some people it nonetheless over your lifetime will give you far greater pleasure and far greater happiness. The happiest people I've met in my life are the people who are positive, not only about their own future but also about the people with whom they live. You can always find something good about anybody, sometimes it's a little harder but in most cases if you just take the time to look you can find it and I can promise you it will give you a far happier and far more fulfilled life.
The other piece of advice if I may is to value and treasure the associations you make in school and in your early years; always see in the contribution that teachers are trying to make in your life, a desire to give you a very, very strong start because that's what they're endeavoring to do. And you probably get lots of advice from lots of people and I'm never one to overdo the advice particularly to a younger audience.But can I say that I get a great buzz from visiting schools. I've visited them all over Australia. They make me, they renew my sense of enthusiasm, optimism and hope. And when I saw at the Olympic Games not only in our athletes but also in the volunteers the positive attitude that they displayed to so many people, it gave me an absolute sense of long term assurance and hope and optimism about the future of our country.
I wish you good happiness and good health and good fortune. I hope you leave this school with fond recollections. I compliment the teaching staff on the role that it is playing in educating you and I hope that each and every one of you achieves in your occupation and in your personal lives the goals and the happiness that I would hope that would be the lot of each and every one of you.
Thank you.
[Ends]