Thank you very much.
I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and in the spirit of reconciliation pay my respects to elders past and present.
I'm here to introduce President Obama to you, and I know that you are going to give him a wonderfully warm Darwin, Northern Territory welcome.
We're here for three reasons.
First, President Obama said when he came to Australia that he wanted to get out beyond Canberra; he wanted to get out and about and meet some real Aussies and no better place to do it than here in Darwin, here in the Northern Territory.
President Obama, a few characteristics of these real Aussies, having spent some time last year in Afghanistan watching the AFL grand final replay with them, they love their sport even when Collingwood wins. It's always a controversial call.
They like having a drink with their mates, but when they're deployed overseas we feed them this toxic brew called Near Beer. I'm sorry about that. They love their country, they work hard - they work hard in a spirit of mateship and accepting responsibilities. So, President Obama here to some real Australians.
Second, President Obama is here to say to the serving military personnel, to the people from our Australian Defence Force and to some Americans friends as well, thank you for what you do, thank you from me as Prime Minister of Australia and from President Obama. Thank you for everything that you do in our own nation, in times of natural disaster. Thank you for the hard work and training you do in this place. Thank you for the way that you hold up the standards of our country and hold our flag high, whether it's in East Timor, or the Solomon Islands, or the hard fight in Afghanistan, you are there doing what we need you to do.
You are there because you want to serve and we are so tremendously proud of you, and particularly tremendously proud of those of you who have been to Afghanistan and who are looking to go back; those who know that that fight has given us days of sorrow, as well as days of reward, days of progress; those of you who have shown fortitude and bravery, no matter how tough it's got.
Thank you for your determination, and we share your determination to see the mission through.
And last, but by no means least, President Obama is here because he and I have been working to strengthen the great alliance between our two countries, working to make sure that the alliance lives anew in this place, in the Northern Territory, by bringing 250 Marines here initially, going to 2,500 Marines over a staged process, so that shoulder-to-shoulder with our American friends we can train with them, we can be with them to meet the contingencies in our region.
We are conscious that when we talk about the American-Australian alliance, when we talk about ANZUS, really we're talking about you, because you are the ones who do the heavy lifting, you are the ones that make this alliance live, day in day out, through the work that you do.
We admire your sense of duty, we admire your courage, we admire your experience, we admire the fact that you face down adversity.
And the President of the United States of America is here to tell you that himself - ladies and gentlemen, one and all, President Obama.