Your Excellency Governor Marie Bashir, Administrator of the Commonwealth - which makes you Marie, my boss. So I promise very much to behave. At least for this week.
And to Nick. To Premier Nathan Rees. To Karen and other members of Bernie's family. It's good to see you all here. You've grown hair since I last saw you. It's much longer. Good to see you mate.
And brothers, his family, his friends, work colleagues, all those suffering from asbestos-related diseases.
Bob Carr, and I would reinforce entirely every word entirely of what Nathan just said. Bob demonstrated real leadership in taking that mob on. That's what it was, taking that mob on and prevailing. And I think that is a great achievement.
Professor Nico, our welcome guest from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And may you long reside with us.
John Murphy, our local Federal Member, a Parliamentary Secretary in the Federal Government. Senator Doug Cameron I think is here as well and distinguished guests one and all.
I begin by acknowledging the First Australians on whose land we meet and whose culture we celebrate as the oldest continuing culture in human history.
I walked in here just a minute ago and one thing struck me, and that was that photograph. He's looking at us as he looks at us still. Staring into our hearts and staring into our souls and asking this deep and searching question: are you buggers fair dinkum? That's what he is saying to us.
You know that face is an extraordinary face. It is a face which speaks of suffering. A face which speaks of strength. A face which speaks loud and clear and with resonance and with compassion. And that's why he leaves such an indelible imprint on all of us. All of us.
You know, I only met Bernie a few times during the course of 2007. And each time you met him you took something else away. I mean I felt as though I was being pastored to rather than doing the pastoring. And other people have had this experience as well.
He was an extraordinary bloke. And this country, Australia, is the richer for him. And it continues to be the richer for him and the celebration of his memory.
Today history was also made and lived in the United States with the inauguration of the first African American President in the history of that great American democracy.
This is a great moment not just for the people of America but for all people around the world who believe in democracy, who believe in freedom, who believe in progress, and who believe in fairness.
The United States of America is one of Australia's closest and our most important ally. And the passing of the presidency from President Bush to President Obama is another link in the chain that ties our two nations together.
President Obama today became the 13th President of the United States to become joint-custodian of the Australia-United States Alliance. Thirteen US Presidents, 13 Australian Prime Ministers have now served and strengthened this alliance. An alliance that transcends governments of whichever political persuasion and links our two great people and our two great nations.
From Roosevelt, from Curtin, across two-thirds of a century, uniting two great peoples in a common mission of hope, of freedom, of fairness, of progress.
President Obama's message of hope is a message that resonates not just across the continent of the United States but across Australia and across the globe. Hope is the fuel of progress. Hope is the fuel of human progress, and the fuel of human progress throughout our human history.
And President Obama's message of progress, fuelled by that hope and achieved by hard work, has rarely been a message as prescient as it is, given the challenges of today.
Economic storm clouds are on the horizon. The task of tackling climate change lies before us. As allies we share great challenges in Afghanistan and beyond. But in President Obama I say this, Australia will have a friend and an ally to shoulder these challenges together.
To mark this historic day I'll be writing to President Obama on behalf of the Government of Australia and the people of Australia, to offer him our congratulations and to offer him our support in shouldering these challenges of the future, together.
Today we honour the memory of this great Australian Bernie Banton in opening the world's first dedicated asbestos research centre.
This centre has just one purpose - to improve the lives of asbestos victims and their families through new inventive treatments and solutions to asbestos related diseases. The centre's work is important for the lives of every person whose exposure to asbestos, however small, has resulted years later in asbestos-related diseases.
I believe Bernie would be proud of everything that we are doing here today. Bernie was a true believer. Bernie was a true believer from central casting. Bernie was a fighter. Bernie was a prize fighter. Bernie was an Australian through and through.
He never gave up in fighting for a fair go for the asbestos workers and their families. A fair go from James Hardie, for a fair go in getting access to good and decent medical care for all who needed it.
Because of Bernie's tireless efforts, many more Australians are now aware of the terrible nature of asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma. But few of aware of just how this incidence is rising.
Every year around 600 Australians are diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases, of which 350 occur here in NSW. Next year around 750 Australians will be diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.
These are bad figures. The incidence of these diseases is rising because it takes decades from the time of exposure to the time of diagnosis of the disease. By 2020 it is estimated Australia will have 13,000 cases of mesothelioma, and a further 40,000 people will have contracted asbestos-related cancer. These are very bad figures.
All kinds of Australians can receive the diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease. Of course many of those who contract these diseases were exposed at work, especially in asbestos production.
Some were full time factory workers, others just students or casual workers doing a summer-time job. Some may be once, maybe a few times inhaled a few of those deadly fibres, like the wives or mums who shook out and washed the dusty worker's clothes.
And others were just kids having fun playing around on a building site in their street or in their backyard when renovations were being done and there were building materials lying around.
These were just honest Australians. These were just innocent Australians. These were just working Australians, supporting their families, supporting themselves. Doing no harm to anybody but great harm was done to them. Working Australians whose lives and whose families' lives were changed forever because of a few tiny fibres breathed in some 20 or 30 years ago.
I am proud and we are proud to have known well one of those victims - the bloke we honour today in the naming of this new research institute.
The establishment of this centre is a major boost to the research into asbestos-related diseases conducted here on the Concord Hospital Campus where Bernie was treated. I am pleased that the Asbestos Disease Research Institute has recruited Professor van Zandwijk, an internationally renowned thoracic oncologist and asbestos researcher to lead the centre's work.
You're a welcome guest in our country.
The Australian Government is committed to being a partner in the national efforts to improve the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related diseases.
From 2007 the Government has provided $6.2 million over three years to the National Research Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases, which links together 11 asbestos research centres around Australia.
Last month the Government announced $2.5 million from 2010 for the establishment of a Centre of Research Excellence into Asbestos-Related Disease. The Government has also announced the Bernie Banton Asbestos-Research Fellowship, to support an eminent researcher working in the area of mesothelioma or asbestos-related diseases.
To build on these initiatives I'm pleased to announce today that the Commonwealth will contribute $5 million to support the Bernie Banton Centre's final fit-out costs and to provide a dedicated research facility.
Asbestos carries a terrible human toll. And it is important for the Commonwealth to partner in national efforts to improve treatment which will give hope to the victims of asbestos related diseases.
Let me say a few more things about Bernie and some of the things that he stood for, and the movement which supported him through it all. Bernie Banton was a union man. Bernie Banton was about the rights of working people. Bernie Banton was about jobs for working people.
The truth is 2009 will be one of the toughest years Australia's faced in decades as the global financial crisis wreaks havoc on Australian jobs.
The financial crisis began in the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States. But because of the excesses with the extreme capitalism it has now spread across the world. This statistics are bad. But the human reality behind those statistics is much, much worse. Every job that is lost is a person or a family anxious about how bills will be paid, how children or dependents will be cared for, how they can contribute to society without a job.
We're all in this together, each and every one of us. This crisis was not of Australia's making. Let me tell you the Government of Australia will be at it day and night to respond with strength and determination in dealing with it. The Government's been up front about the fact that Australia will be affected. Growth will slow, unemployment will rise. And given the deteriorating global outlook we must acknowledged that conditions could even get worse.
Already we've seen job cuts at many Australian major corporations. And many small businesses are also finding it tough to keep their staff employed. In the coming year it's jobs that matters most, because the global financial crisis has been the destroyer of jobs and Australian jobs.
I simply say this to you and to the nation. In the year which unfolds, I don't intend to gild the lily one bit. What I intend to do is to be upfront about the impact of this global financial crisis on the economy and on jobs all the way through. I intend to be upfront with the Australian nation about what we are doing and intend to do about it. The great thing about Australia, the great thing about a bloke like him, is that we come through tough times together.
Bernie Banton. You know something, he meant a lot to those of us who met him for a time. But for those for whom he was a loved member of family, husband, dad, grandfather, and others, he was something much deeper. He was a dad, grandfather, husband, mate. For the rest of us he was also an Australian hero. You know, he was a hero in an age where we've now come to believe that there weren't any heroes anymore. Bernie proved all those cynics wrong. He's one of them.
He was in so many ways, some would say, an ordinary Aussie bloke. But an ordinary bloke with an extraordinary heart, and an extraordinary resolve, an extraordinary strength, an extraordinary determination. A man who just didn't spend years battling his own diseases, horrible as they were, but who also lost his brother Ted from mesothelioma. He lost many of his mates and also saw his brother Albert contract asbestosis.
Yet Bernie never became bitter. Through his darkest days he stayed full of fight and full of life. He never stopped thinking of how he could help those who suffered from these devastating diseases. To make sure they'd have support and help in those long years they'd spend battling declining health. And to make sure their families weren't left with nothing after their loved one had gone.
Bernie was as tough as nails. He had to be to keep up the fight campaigning across the country and in and out of court cases, year after year. I still don't know how he did it. I still don't know how he could front each day and take up the fight. Any of you who had been sick at anytime, think about the national preoccupations of life. How do I physically get through the day? How do I mentally get through the day? And then, okay it's time to front in court to take on the other mob. What an extraordinary quality that this bloke had. Extraordinary. Anytime you feel sorry for yourself, have a look at this bloke's life. Extraordinary.
Many of you here today stood alongside Bernie through his long battle. And for those, too numerous to name in this gathering, I would salute your continued solidarity with him through to the end. The political level, the union level, of course his family, his mates and his loved ones.
As I said before my own association with Bernie was fairly short, just a few meetings during the course of 2007. I remember sending him greetings on election night 2007. Those meetings left me with a strong and lasting impression of this man of great courage, determination and heart. And one of my earliest duties after being elected Prime Minister, and one of my saddest, was to attend his funeral.
Yet ultimately, Bernie's life was about hope. It's about how you can make things different. How you can make them better. Not sit around and mope and wallow, do what circumstances may cause you to conclude you can only do. Bernie was elsewhere engaged. How can I make this better? If not for me, then for a whole bunch of other people. That's what marks him out there in that extraordinary column of human beings that make a difference.
You couldn't help but be with him and not be inspired by him. He took everything life could throw at him and yet at the end he was still standing tall. That's why Bernie caught the nation's imagination, something we saw in the extraordinary response to his death in November of that year. And I believe Bernie will long be remembered as one of the great Australians of our times.
I would like to congratulate everyone who's been part of making possible the vision of this dedicated research facility. In particular the University of Sydney. The ANZAC Research Institute. The Government of New South Wales. The Dust Diseases Board and Concord Hospital. As well as Bob Carr, who I referred to before. Each of whom, each of which, has played a key role in supporting and funding and building this centre.
I listened carefully to what the Professor had to say before about the motto - informal or formal I'm not sure of this new centre - ‘join forces'. I think that's a good motto because when you're dealing with a disease as insidious like this, it's across the spectrum. Translational research taking an observation of a patient through to how we conduct a clinical research and laboratory about what the patient exhibits, back to the patient for further trial, and then through to a better outcome.
I plied the Professor before with key and searching questions about how long it will take till we get to the cause of this thing and to a cure of it. These are tough things and scientists hate those questions posed by politicians.
But you know something? The job of all governments is to get behind you. What we've done today is volume one. You need more - come back to us. This is important stuff.
It's important because it affects working people everywhere, here and around the world. And it's important because this bloke taught us it was important. I thank you.