Picnic Point, Toowoomba
Thank you very much, thank you for that great welcome and thank you to your local Mayor for being such a great community advocate during this difficult period. I've had the opportunity to meet with him to discuss your community's needs and also to hear so much about your community spirit, even during these very difficult days.
I also want to acknowledge my Federal Parliamentary colleague Ian Macfarlane, known as Macca, he's been texting me signed Macca, confusing me because I've got a mate called Macca too, so if we keep doing that I might send you back something on the text you'll be very confused about, but it's nice to be here with Ian Macfarlane.
And can I also acknowledge Mr Kerry Shine, the State Member for Toowoomba North, Mr Mike Horan, the State Member for Toowoomba South and can I say what an amazing job done by your local town crier Ralph, I've had the opportunity to already be at some Australia Day celebrations today and I haven't met a town crier quite like Ralph, so well done to Ralph.
Today across the nation we're celebrating Australia Day and in many ways we're doing the things that we've done on other Australia Days, from Toowoomba to Tassie, from the Rocks to the Rock, Australians are out celebrating what it means to be part of this wonderful nation.
But of course this Australia Day is different. It's different because we are also taking the time to stop and reflect on the devastating floods that our nation has faced in the last few weeks and I know as communities do that around the nation, here in Toowoomba too, you are thinking about what your community has been through.
We are grieving the loss of life, but we are also celebrating tremendous community spirit, as people work together in the most difficult of times, in the darkest of hours and as people are continuing to work together in the rebuilding.
We will never forget those we have lost in this period, but we should also never forget the community spirit that has been shown, by strangers who have done courageous things to help each other as flood water has threatened, by volunteers who have been there to support their fellow Australians, even though some of themselves have faced flooding in their own homes, the work we've seen done by soldiers who cancelled their annual leave and just came back in order to move mountains of rubbish and help their community, the work we've seen done by local councils, by Red Cross, by Lifeline, by local community organisations in all their shapes and form, reaching out helping people when they needed that helping hand.
Today on this Australia Day more than any other we are celebrating that spirit of mateship, that spirit of mateship that caused us as Australians to reach out our hands to each other in a time of desperate need, and in 2011 having reached those hands out in the spirit of mateship we won't let go.
There's a lot of rebuilding to do, there's a lot of grieving to do, there's a lot of families who still need support as they mourn their lost loved ones, as they rebuild their houses, as they rebuild their businesses and farms, as they rebuild their lives.
And in all the many months ahead as we go through that difficult journey of rebuilding we won't let go. This spirit of mateship that we are celebrating today will see us through.
I wanted to come here today to say hello to this fantastic community, but I also wanted to come here because I thought this was the right place in the nation to make a very special announcement about how we will honour in the future those who have done such courageous things, such selfless things, during these dark and difficult days.
Through the Governor-General, I have requested of the Queen that in Australia Day in the future we will have special honours, special honours where we will acknowledge Australians who have done that extra bit during natural disasters and emergencies, Australians who have gone out of their way to extend the hand of mateship to their fellow Australians in times of need.
We will first award those honours next Australia Day, we will backdate the awarding of those honours so that they can catch the heroic acts, the selfless acts, the volunteering that happened here and across Queensland during the time of the floods and we will indeed backdate these honours so that the selfless and courageous acts that happened during the Victorian bushfires can also be recognised because so many Australians then also extended the hand of friendship and they haven't let go.
In the time between now and next Australia Day we will also work together to recognise those who made a special contribution during the days of the flood.
Premier Anna Bligh has announced that Queensland will strike a special medal to recognise those who did those very special things to help others and I will be working with Premier Anna Bligh and with Premiers and Chief Ministers around the nation, so that we can recognise throughout this country those that gave of themselves to help others over this summer, during these floods when time were tough.
Here in Toowoomba I know that you are pulling together, the community spirit is strong, the sense of rebuilding is strong, the sense of mateship is strong. I've come today to share a moment of that with you, so can I conclude by saying a happy Australia Day, a time of reflection, a time of pause, a time of mateship and a time where we will say to each other we will rebuild for the future, we won't let go.
Thank you very much.