PM: Thank you and welcome to one and all, I'd like to welcome my Parliamentary colleague Senator Kate Lundy who is here, who does so much great work for us in the area of multicultural affairs and citizenship. Adam who is here, of course the chair of the National Australia Day Council, and all of his Council colleagues. I've had the opportunity to say hello to each of them, and I really don't know how you make the decisions you make, a very, very tough with so many Australians who deserve acknowledgement.
To the 2011 Australians of the Year, to Simon, to Ron, to Jessica and to Don, and to Jessica in particular, thank you for ensuring I've eaten my first Fruit Tingle in I think, it would be 25 years. Some interesting bet between sister and brother and sister lost but there we have it.
To the 2012 Australian of the Year finalists, thank you for joining us today and thank you for everything you do for the nation. To the 1967 Australian of the Year, Judith Durham, who was awarded with her fellow Seekers, it's great to have her included in these events today and she will be singing a little bit later and I'm sure we're all looking forward to that.
Welcome to The Lodge. This is of course my home, it's been the home of Prime Ministers for 85 years, it stands on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people and I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people and pay my respects to their elders past and present in a spirit of reconciliation.
This is my home but it's so much more than that, it's a place for all of us to honour, visitors and residents alike, our own homes, my home in Altona, our own homes can be bought and sold and rented at will, but here the Australian people are the landlord and that makes this place a important expression of our democracy and by extension the freedoms that make our democracy possible.
And it is today and tomorrow that we will reflect on those freedoms and everything that they mean to all Australians.
Of course there are many other places to reflect, in Canberra and across the country, one of them is on the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin, a memorial to the Australians of the Year. A series of simple concrete pillars with a photo and a name of each, and beyond the row of pillars already filled there are blank pillars, almost as far as the eye can see, for the Australians of the Year to come, including those to be announced tonight. And they point us I believe to the kind of nation we can be, that as a young country our best days still lie in front of us, and there's nothing in our nation's life, whether natural disasters or the challenges of an unknown future, that we can't handle together.
The Australian of the Year winners and nominees are amongst those who will navigate us to a future with your inventions and your ideas, the new ground that you break in the arts and literature, the social programs that heal and unite our nation, the care you show for children, and the honourable service you provide in the armed forces, the professions, the law and public administration. Indeed I am very touched by the depth and diversity of the group that is with us today.
To paraphrase JFK this may be the most talent ever gathered in The Lodge since Gough Whitlam dined here alone, we have artists and scientists, indigenous leaders, community advocates, academics and educators, philanthropists and volunteers and sportspeople just to name a few.
You are people of achievement who make us so proud, the sort of individuals of whom Australian parents can ‘I hope my child grows up to be just like that.'
I'm proud to lead a nation that encourages this kind of work in our society and that has amongst its number people like you. And I'm prouder still that in the 52 years of this award our nation can produce year after year a slate of extraordinary nominees, year after year, decade after decade, without fail. And that I think should give us a great reassurance for the future.
Now I know none of you embarked on your life journeys alone or secured your achievements alone, and you're joined today by some of the people that have helped you on the journey, partners, friends, family members, you are all very welcome here today too and thank you for everything you've done to support the finalists who are here with us.
When we do announce the winners and that will happen a little bit later, I know that we will have some worthy recipients for the nation, and I believe that everyone who is acknowledged in that way should accept that honour without any form of modesty - people have done such remarkable things - but everyone who is here this morning has done remarkable things.
So this is your day and your moment to savour, please enjoy this time at The Lodge, please ensure you wander through the grounds and get to see all of it and I am very much looking forward with a great sense of anticipation to the moment that we will honour each of you later tonight and we will announce our Australians of the Year, people who have led brilliant and selfless lives.
Thank you for joining me here at The Lodge this morning. Thank you very much.