E&OE...........
Thank you very much Mr Shire President, Warren Entsch, Dr Clarke, the other councillors of the Mareeba Shire, ladies and gentlemen, local elders. It';s great to be here – this sure beats Question Time in the House of Representatives. It';s very peaceful, it';s very beckoning and I can understand why people love it. And I';m very glad to have the opportunity of a few moments to have a look at just how, and experience just how peaceful and enjoyable these heritage trails and the beautiful rainforests of far north Queensland are.
This is one part of a network of heritage trails around Queensland that the Federal Government has provided $48 million towards out of the Centenary of Federation fund that we established back in 1997. And when we established that fund, we invited the various State Governments of Australia to nominate some projects in their various States that they thought should get the funding. We didn';t agree with all of the nominations that were made, I might say. I mean in the end we decided that there were some good projects nominated by States around Australia, and there were some pretty bad ones as well. But I';m pleased to say that one of the projects that was nominated by the former Queensland… the Queensland Coalition Government, was in fact supportive of the heritage trails. And it appealed to me because it included in it a proposition that we give some money to a project such as what we';re opening today. So that';s the origins of our involvement in it, and it is one of those things that is very much about the heritage of the country.
It';s about our environmental heritage. It';s about our indigenous heritage. It';s about the heritage of local communities working together. And we';re very good at that in Australia. We';re much better at working together in a cooperative volunteer fashion than a lot of other societies and local communities do it well, countries do it well. We did it very well at a national level with the Olympic Games. And if you give an Australian community a common goal and you get a few energetic men and women in the community, you will normally get a good result. And the way in which the funds made available for the construction of these wet tropics trails, the way in which that was done, is a credit to the local Kuranda community. It';s a credit to the people of the Mareeba Shire and it';s a credit to the leadership of all of the local people.
So can I say ladies and gentlemen, I address a lot of meetings, some of them in the open air. A few of them stop the traffic, as this one is succeeding to do. Sometimes I attract other people who stop the traffic in order to stop me. But that';s part of our great democracy. But you can';t feel other than at peace with the world and not wanting to argue with anybody, and just wanting to sort of wander through and be left alone, when you go down that trail which I did a few moments ago with your Shire President.
Can I also say if I may, and I';m sure I can, what a wonderfully energetic bloke you have in Warren Entsch as your local Federal Member. He really batters doors down like nobody else. I mean he';s bigger than most and he has a great capacity to batter doors down in the interests of the people of Leichhardt. And he has worked very hard for this community and when I was coming here today he put together a programme that allowed me to see different parts of this community and different experiences. And I met Sue… is that the guide? And she told me that she had done part of her honours course wandering through here… wandering through the wet tropics. And I thought that would be one of the most strung out honours courses that you would find anywhere because the temptation to make it go as long as possible would be enormous.
So ladies and gentlemen, I';m delighted to be with you. This is a great and different part of Australia. I';ve been to different parts of Warren';s electorate on six or seven times in the six years that I';ve been Prime Minister. He takes me to a different part on just about every occasion. I think Cooktown is the next one that he';s going to take me to. But this is very special. The wet tropics of far north Queensland are not only renowned throughout Australia. They';re renowned for very good reason throughout the world. And they are a very rich and important part of our environmental heritage. They';re also a very important part of the economic infrastructure of this community because eco-tourism is now a growing, indeed a boom industry, and sensibly nurtured and properly supported by governments and by local communities and by businessmen and women, it can really provide a great deal of hope and a great deal of employment for people for years and years into the future.
So it';s in that spirit very much that I thank you for inviting me and I have great pleasure in declaring these heritage trails well and truly open. And for years I hope people will enjoy them and commune with nature and reflect on what a wonderful country we have.
Thank you.
[ends]