In order to make sure the breakfast does go to 11 o'clock this morning, I'm intending to give you a two-hour speech, the first hour will be on the Salvation Army's Red Shield Appeal, the second hour will be on the Western Bulldogs. So please settle in.
I am simply delighted to be here in Adelaide to launch The Salvation Army's 2012 Red Shield Appeal.
I'm here to celebrate a very worthy cause and a very worthy organisation, in a city which holds such a special place in my heart.
Adelaide is, of course, where I grew up. Where my family made its home following our migration from Wales. And part of that was involving the Salvation Army.
My mother worked at a Salvation Army home as a cook, Sunset Lodge. Many of you might know it, it's on Unley Road.
And I spent a lot of time at Sunset Lodge growing up, as mum worked there in what was then, I think, a first for family-friendly workplaces, my mother who worked from early afternoon til 6:30 in the evening so that she could prepare and serve a meal to around 70-80 elderly women who lived in what in modern parlance we would refer to as residential aged care.
In order to do that, she needed to make arrangements for my sister and I, and so particularly for me, who was the younger child she was able to go in the mid-afternoon, given a little bit of time off to either run across Unley Road to the infants' school I went to, Mitcham Infants, or run down the road to Mitcham Primary School so that she could get me from school in the mid-afternoon and I could sit on a stool in the kitchen where she worked til she finished at 6:30 at night.
And when I tell people that story, it all sounds a bit, you know, Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens, doesn't it.
A small girl sitting on a stool in a kitchen for a number of hours every day, but it wasn't like that at all because it really was a very special place, full of a lot of love and friendship.
And particularly for a small girl who migrated to this country, who didn't have any extended family and certainly didn't have any grandparents in this country.
To be able to spend time with the women who lived in that aged care facility, to stay with them as they gathered in the tea room for afternoon tea and then spend time with them afterwards being taught how to knit, playing cat's cradle, you know playing games and puzzles with women who had a lot of time and had a lot of love to give was a really special experience.
So a big part of my life, and I'm never going to forget it, and it's certainly taught me a lot about the values of the Salvation Army. So it's great to be here today, able to repay what was a very big favour for me, that love and affection in that home at Sunset Lodge.
And we're here, really, remarking on the work of Australians who are there on the frontline in times of crisis. In times of crisis you'll always find the Salvos there, and they're not there expecting fanfare, they're not there expecting recognition, they're just there getting the job done.
The Salvos were amongst the first to fly into Darwin on Boxing Day 1974.
They arrived at Granville before the emergency services.
The Port Arthur shooting, the Thredbo landslide, the Bali bombing and the Asian Tsunami all saw a rapid response from The Salvation Army.
More recently I've witnessed with my own eyes the work of the Salvos first-hand during the Victorian bushfires and in the aftermath of the Queensland floods and cyclone.
Even this day as we meet for breakfast, the Salvos are in communities where floodwaters are still affecting lives.
It was a very great pleasure to award the very first National Emergency Medal in January this year to some very deserving Australians and it was no surprise to me at all that amongst the recipients were people wearing that very familiar Salvation Army uniform.
One of the medal presentations was in Flowerdale, a town almost wiped off the map by the Black Saturday bushfires.
I was reminded that in that region, the Salvos, over a period of nine days, produced more than 29,000 meals and provided clothes and chaplaincy support for a community that desperately needed to know at that time that it wasn't alone.
But care and compassion has been the calling card of The Salvation Army since John Gore and Edward Saunders began its work in Australia, right here in Adelaide, more than 130 years ago.
The style of evangelism of The Salvation Army attracted some robust and at times even violent opposition in those early days.
We are reminded just how courageous those first Salvationists were when you realise that two officers died for the cause and more than 100 were fined or imprisoned for singing or preaching in the streets.
Of course, The Salvation Army's founder, William Booth, experienced heated opposition himself as he set about establishing the mission.
His wife Catherine wrote that he would return from preaching and ‘often his clothes were torn and bloody bandages swathed his head where a stone had struck'.
Courage has been the cornerstone of The Salvation Army's history, as its ministry has taken its officers into prisons, to work with those in our society that too often had been shunned by our society, and the Salvation Army has shown great courage going into theatres of war.
And whilst the Salvos' core mission has not changed over the years, the Army has shown its ability to change and grow as our society changes and its needs change.
The Army's services have ranged far beyond crisis support and soup kitchens, or even the op shops that are our first port of call when we're going to go to a fancy dress event.
The Salvos have offered prison ministries since 1883, rural chaplaincy, and the uniquely Australian outback flying padre service, children's holiday camps, and even Australia's first film production company which not only captured the birth of the nation at Federation in 1901 but also made the world's first feature film.
But the modern Army has become an integral part of Australia's not-for-profit sector which in turn has become part of our vision for a more socially inclusive nation.
And what does that commitment to social inclusion mean?
It means every week, the Salvos locate 40 missing family members.
They help 500 people with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions.
They provide 2,000 homeless people with shelter so they don't have to sleep rough, and they give counselling to thousands more who just can't cope with things anymore.
And all of that is in just one week.
And members of the Salvation Army need to know that we, the Government, and those across our nation want to work with them to support them as they bring their special sort of compassion and care.
In last year's Budget, I was very proud that we were able to restate our commitment to welfare reform, especially for women and children.
And the Salvation Army is helping us get that support to the people who need it the most.
From financial counselling for women in crisis to delivering early intervention services for children and families in disadvantaged communities.
And in the first 12 months of the Government-funded Emergency Relief Housing Service, the Salvation Army has helped prevent almost 1000 families from becoming homeless.
Above all, we all know the thing that shapes a life, that makes a life, is the benefits and dignity of work, getting a job. All of the satisfaction that comes with it, the social connections that come with it, and that all-important pay cheque which is the difference between life on the margins of our society and life in the mainstream.
Employment Plus, by the Salvation Army, is the largest jobs network in our nation.
Getting people those opportunities for work, and the skills and support they need to make it possible.
I'm proud that the founding CEO of Employment Plus, Wilma Gallet, is joining the Australian National Council on Drugs because there is such a powerful link between overcoming substance abuse and breaking down the barriers to work.
This goes to the heart of Salvation Army's beliefs.
Yes, belief in God.
But also a profound faith in the resilience of the human spirit and its capacity for rehabilitation and self-reliance.
In other words, lifting people up, and honouring the human dignity that lies in all of us.
So the Salvation Army is there for those in need, a welcome constant in a rapidly changing world.
The Salvos uniform has and will always stand for hard work, integrity, help, compassion and caring.
It is a welcome sight for emergency workers and disaster victims alike.
It embraces society's outcasts but it passes no judgement.
It is a beacon of hope in many people's darkest hours.
It truly is ‘Christianity with it sleeves rolled up'.
And while not all Australians will be a member of the Salvation Army, each and every Australian can be part of the work of the Salvos' through the Red Shield Appeal, no matter what their faith or their background.
So I encourage every firm and individual in this nation to give as much as they can.
Every cent helps.
Even a dollar scrimped from a fortnightly pension is gold because it speaks of personal sacrifice and also care for the work of the Salvos.
So I say to all Australians - give generously.
And the Federal Government will be alongside you donating $350,000.
It's a worthy cause.
An honourable cause.
And so I proudly launch today the 2012 Red Shield Appeal, and I wish it every success.
Thank you very much.