E&OE...
Thank you very much Mr President. Mr Martin Hamilton-Smith, the Leader of the Liberal Party in South Australia, my many federal and state parliamentary colleagues, fellow Liberals. It's a great delight to be back here in Adelaide, not only to address this State Council but also to make a very important announcement about the Southern Expressway and to end the idiocy of a highway that doesn't know in which direction it is heading. Something of a world first and I am delighted to have made the announcement of a $100 million commitment by the Federal Government to address that, as well as of course the expanded commitment of up to $1 billion to 2020 of the main expressway.
But ladies and gentlemen, I am particularly here to pay tribute to the contribution of the South Australian Liberal Party to the great success of the Federal Government. And there are many people I'd like to mention. I'd particularly of course like to recall with sadness, the loss since we last met of the wonderful Jeannie Ferris who we all loved dearly. We all admired her courage and we all mourned her death and felt very keenly the loss of a wonderful warrior for the Liberal Party cause. On a brighter note I am happy to have welcomed since the last election two wonderful new Senators in Simon Birmingham and Mary Jo Fisher and I know both of them will make a wonderful contribution to the Senate, replacing Jeannie and the wonderful, likeable Amanda Vanstone who is now of course doing yeomen service for the Commonwealth in a completely non-political way, as our Ambassador in Italy. But I also take this opportunity of congratulating Alan Ferguson as he's been elected President of the Senate. He is a great colleague, Alan, and he's been a great servant of the Party in South Australia and it is a well deserved promotion and a proper recognition of his great human qualities and great human skills.
We will of course be going to the next election without the services of two long serving Members, Barry Wakelin and Trish Draper, both of whom have decided not to recontest the election. And although I will have an opportunity between now and then to thank them for their contribution in other fora, I do want to take this opportunity at the State Council Meeting of thanking them for their service to the Party. And to, he's no longer a new state Leader, he's a well established state Leader and I think Martin has done a first class job in taking up the fight to the Rann Labor Government here in South Australia.
And to you Mr President, I want to thank you for your service over the last two years. It's never easy leading the organisation, it's a thankless job and I record my gratitude for the work that you have done. And I take this opportunity of congratulating Sean Edwards on his election as the new President of the South Australian Division of the Party.
Now my friends I don't need to remind a gathering such as this of just how important the state of South Australia is to our federal fortunes. South Australia has always been pivotal to the winning of office and the maintenance of office by my Government over the last eleven and a half years. At no time since Federation has South Australia had a greater influence through its membership of my Government than it has over the last eleven and a half years. The influence of South Australians, led of course by Australia's longest serving and in my view best Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. To be Foreign Minister of Australia for eleven and a half years is a tribute to his skill and a tribute to his qualities and his understanding of the vagaries of our international relations.
But he's been ably assisted over the years by other senior Ministers, and particularly of course the Leader of the Government in the Senate Nick Minchin, who has kept a steely eye on the nation's finances and protected the resources of the Australian Treasury from unreasonable and illegitimate claims on its largesse and its always very, very necessary to do that. And to all my other South Australian colleagues, I want to extend my gratitude and my thanks for the work that you have done. South Australia helped save the Government in 1998 when we held our marginal seats, and South Australia, at the last election; although we lost a couple, we gained a couple and it now of course has this remarkable situation of having five seats on fine margins on both sides of the pendulum. So the emphasis on, and the resources committed to the campaign in South Australia will be very significant.
We will go to this election against the backdrop of significant financial turbulence on the international markets and it's important we understand the context in which this is occurring. It is important we understand that it is not a result of any weaknesses in the Australian economy. Indeed, it is despite the fact that the Australian economy is now probably stronger than it's been at any time since World War II.
What is now occurring on the world financial markets is a direct result of the delinquent way in which home borrowing has been allowed to grow in many parts of the United States. The prevalence in many parts of the United States of what are called in the jargon of the trade