Can I say first of all that one of the great things about our anticipation of Australia Day is a reflection of the contribution of indigenous Australia, to Australia's past and to Australia's future. So I begin by acknowledging the first Australians whose cultures we celebrate as the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
Reflect on that fact; the oldest continuing cultures in human history. When I mention that or it is mentioned to me by heads of Government and heads of State from around the world, it causes a moment of reflection and awe that we in this country are so privileged as to have among us those who represent the deepest link to antiquity. And our future.
It's great to be back at Government House. I remember coming here the first time as the slightly acneous private secretary of the then Leader of the Opposition Wayne Goss. Wayne I think is here with us this evening. And that was as he was about to go through that magical transformational moment of becoming, from Leader of the Opposition to becoming Premier of Queensland. And always being a publicity hound myself, the official photograph has me doing this [leans into shot] in the background as a mere private secretary. I still have it in my office in Canberra.
It's great to be back. I've been here a few times since.
As I reflect on the extraordinary history of this State of Queensland, it has been an extraordinary transformation. Your Excellency, I have never been able to successfully, repeatedly pronounce the word sesquicentenary; so I'm not going to. 150 years is a good innings.
And think back on those 150 years. This is where the briefing papers of the Commonwealth constantly are different from those of the States. My briefing paper says that when this colony was separated from the colony of NSW, in fact the public coffers stood at ninepence, not seven pence ha'penny.
As Sir Leo Hielscher will recognise, there is a continuity to this theme. Queensland under-Treasurers always understating the case when it comes to the actual case of Queensland finances as they make representations to the Commonwealth. Or in those days to the Crown.
But those 150 years have been just extraordinary. The events of 1859, the small band of dedicated souls who assembled at the Botanic Gardens to greet the Governor-elect, or the Governor-appointed, and Lady Diamantina Bowen. And from those extraordinary humble beginnings to fashion this great State. It's a remarkable achievement.
If you travel around the world and see what has happened with the evolution of democracies and economies and communities and societies across the world, these have been fashioned and shaped not just over a century or two but have been fashioned over the millennia. It has not been the case here.
This State, this great part of Australia was fashioned from the soil. There was nothing. And in so doing, this great contribution to Australia has been brought 150 years later.
One of the great contributions of Queensland is not as it once did, constantly celebrate how different it was to the rest of Australia. The great contribution and transformation of Queensland has been now this - to say how much it contributes to the rest of Australia. And it does. In every field of endeavour.
Whether it is through the appointment of Her Excellency the Governor General Quentin Bryce, who is performing an extraordinary function as the first woman in the history of the Commonwealth to occupy that position, or whether it is through the contribution of extraordinary Premiers, like the one you are blessed to have in this State - Anna Bligh.
Or whether in the field of business or the professions or in medical research, the extraordinary contributions that are now made from Brisbane and the rest of the State to the country at large. These are good contributions indeed.
And they bespeak, I believe, a sense of quiet assurance and confidence about our part in this great Federation called Australia. And that is good. And we have much to contribute. Although I keep have to wondering, wonder to myself if I can continue to say ‘we' because those south of a particular river, wonder who I am speaking for when I say ‘we'.
As they say you can take the boy out of Queensland but you can't take the Queensland out of the boy.
Australia Day. The Federation and its future. The history of this Commonwealth is one of equally remarkable achievement. To think that those who came up with this idea of founding a nation and to fashion a nation for a continent and a continent for a nation. The Federation dream, the Federation vision. And barely a century later to have turned this into the modern reality we celebrate as Australia.
This too is an extraordinary achievement. An extraordinary achievement of all States of the federation and those who have crafted the federal vision and turned it into a national reality. But if you go to its core, beyond the achievements of politicians, beyond the achievements of those in business, beyond the achievements of those who have been formally charged with the administration of justice and the laws of the Commonwealth, what has actually caused this country to come into its own are deep qualities of our people. Deep qualities of a type referred to by Anna just before.
What are those qualities? They're qualities of extraordinary resilience. Extraordinary resilience. A capacity to actually confront obstacles and to see a way through and to emerge from those obstacles and those challenges stronger and more determined.
Resilience, also courage. Recently in Canberra we had the opportunity to honour a recipient, a new recipient of the Victoria Cross; the highest order for gallantry in this country. As I signed off the letter to Her Excellency the Governor General to be passed to the Queen to approve that Honour, I read the citation of this young man and what he had achieved in the fields of combat and the mountains of Afghanistan.
And if any of you ever doubt or question what quaint concepts, as described by some, are these words courage, valour and gallantry - read this young man's citation. It is the stuff of heroes.
But he also reflects a value deeply embedded in this Australian soul as well and that is a value, the value that we've seen writ large in our men and women in uniform over so many fields of conflict, over so many decades, back to the engagements at Gallipoli.
But courage more broadly as well. Those of you in the medical and caring professions deal with courage with the tragedy and the adversity with which people are confronted. Of a dying child, of a relative who is afflicted sadly. And the courage of those who care and the courage of families who support says something deep and great about the values which are writ large in the heart of our nation.
Which leads me to the third of those qualities and that is compassion. Compassion is not the sign of weakness, compassion is I believe is a sign of greater strength. Because it has about it a sense and quality that says ‘when I see someone in need my response is automatically one of immediate empathy and identity and as a consequence of that - action'.
We call it different things in Australia. Some call it the fair go, some call it looking after your mates, some call it making sure that everyone gets a fair shake of the sauce bottle. But you know what it's about? It's about looking after people and regarding a fundamental Australian value is this, that it's not just how I look after myself by how I in fact care for others.
And those are great Australian qualities. Whether people are of faith or not of faith, it is a deep, I believe, Australian value. Writ large in our history but also to guide us for our future.
Resilience, courage, compassion, care for others. The Premier has made mention - as I have in recent days as I've travelled across the country and I travel to Perth tomorrow - one of the great challenges we face with this global financial crisis, which has become an economic crisis, which has become and employment crisis, affecting the jobs and lives of working Australians and working peoples across the world.
Those affected by this crisis did not cause it. The causes of this crisis lie beyond our sores and regrettably the causes of this crisis lie in qualities we would not wish to speak much of. Qualities of greed, qualities of unrestrained greed.
But our job as a community, as a nation, is now to attend to the problem which we have been given and in so doing deploy the qualities of resilience, of courage and of looking after one another.
The Government is determined to chart a course through this time of crisis. We'll do so by acting to support the stability of the financial system. We'll do so by acting to support the continued supply of credit to the Australian economy. We will do so by actively taking the resources of Government and seeking to fill that gap which is left by the problems now caused within the private economy.
And through the demand and the investment of Government and the critical things we need for our future - our roads, our ports, our bridges, our railways, the needs of broadband, the needs of new communications technology, our new hospitals, our new universities, our TAFEs, our schools - to lay out a greater investment than would otherwise be the case called upon by Government at a time like this, to fill that gap.
That's the task of Government. We're embarked on that task, we'll be resolute in its execution but much lies ahead.
That is one half of the battle. The other half lies with each of us as human beings, each of us as members of our community, each of us as members of families, each of us deploying those other qualities of which I spoke before.
That is, when we see our neighbours, we see our friends and we see others doing it tough through these times, we actually extend out the hand to help. We do that without complaint, we do that as a sense of duty, of obligation and just doing the right thing.
We've done this in times past, we're going to be called upon it to do it again. But these values which guide the direction which the Government I lead, which guide also I believe the heartbeat of the nations it seeks to deal with the damage of these extraordinary damage being wrought by this extraordinary set of events, will see Australia through.
And this State, Queensland, will help see the nation through.
Thank you for your kindness in greeting me back home. It is good to be among you. Being home is part of being in Queensland and I've got to say this is a great State and Therese and I are so blessed to be here with you tonight.
Happy Australia Day.