E&OE...
Thank you very much Councillor Pringle, Mrs Pringle, my parliamentary colleagues Philip Ruddock and Andrew Tink, ladies and gentlemen.
First and most heartfelt remarks are directed to those men and women and those families who will become part of the broader Australian family today by becoming Australian citizens. It seems so very natural and appropriate and relaxed that this citizenship ceremony should take place in the open air. I have to say it is a new experience to sing the national anthem to a didgeridoo, it's a great experience and I congratulate the Hornsby Shire Council on being, as the Mayor said, probably the only Council in Australia sponsoring that kind of arrangement.
Today is an occasion of celebration, it's an occasion of reflection, but above all, it is an occasion to give thanks and an occasion for gratitude.
It is a privilege to be an Australian. This is a blessed country.It is a country of great democratic traditions, it's a country of strong values, it's a country of distinctive identity, its a country that has become the home to people from probably a greater variety of countries than any other nation on earth.It is also a nation that has maintained some deep rooted values from its past that sustained it into the future.
The Mayor mentioned the recent bushfires. If ever an event reminded us some of the core capacities and values of the Australian community those bushfires and the response of the Australian people to those bushfires did. I first visited one of the affected areas on the morning of boxing day and when I arrived at the Rural Fire Service Centre at Rosehill to get a briefing from Commissioner Koperberg about the challenge of the bushfires the first group of men and women I met were volunteer firefighters from Victoria and they had forsaken the enjoyment of the rest of their Christmas day and had made arrangements to travel overnight to New South Wales and they were there at 11 o'clock in the morning at Rosehill on boxing day in order to provide assistance to their fellow Australians.
Now that should encapsulate better than any words, that encapsulates better than any words I can muster, the sense of warm heartedness, the spirit of mateship, the willingness to pull together in circumstances of travail and difficulty which is so characteristic of the Australian community.
It is a day of course that we particularly welcome, as I said a moment ago those who come to this country from so many different parts of the world. I hope that you will never regret the step that you have taken today, I don't believe you will. You are very warmly welcomed into the Australian community. I hope you make a vigorous contribution according to your own interests, you're own tastes and your own capabilities.
On behalf of all other Australians here today I do bid you a very warm welcome.
The world has had a difficult 12 months. It has been changed by the terrible events in September in the United States but as always happens in the challenges that mankind faces, adversity brings out hidden capacities and a hidden resilience and hidden capacity within all of us and the way in which the world has cooperated and how some of the boundaries around the world have been dissolved in the fight against terrorism is a source of reassurance and a source of comfort.
May I simply say to all of you I hope you enjoy today, I hope all of us continue to count our blessings at being an Australian, it is rare privilege, this is an extraordinarily precious country and we have and extraordinary responsibility to discharge the trust as Australians, not only for current but also for all future generations.
Thank you.
[ends]
Top