Thank you very much, Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt, Nick Warner, Colonel Flowers, High Commissioner, ladies and gentleman. I come here to do a very simple but very important thing and that is on behalf of those Australians who are here today, on behalf of your fellow Australians to wish you a Merry Christmas.
I know that it's always hard to be separated from your family and other loved ones at this time of the year. Some of you have done it before, some of you are doing it for the first time. Whatever your situation is, I want you to know that your country is aware of the sacrifice you're making, aware of the separation from your families and is very appreciative of your efforts.
To our colleagues from other contributing countries can I convey similar sentiment. This has been a great cooperative, distinguished effort. It really has demonstrated the friendship amongst the countries of the Pacific and one of the reasons why the RAMSI intervention has been so very successful is that it has been a joint effort. It's not just been an Australian effort, it's been an effort of Australia, and New Zealand and Fiji, and Tonga and Papua New Guinea and other contributing countries -Vanuatu and the list goes on. And that is terrific.
Another reason why it's been successful is that it's been integrated. We not only have people from the defence forces, we have people from the police, we have senior public servants in finance and treasury departments. We have people from the prison systems of Australia and other countries. We have people who are giving technical advice in so many areas. And it does represent a very concerted effort to bring about change for the benefit of the people of this country.
This is our patch, this is our part of the world in which the countries of the Pacific have a particular responsibility. If we're not willing to help our friends who need help, nobody else will. And it's the proper obligation, the proper intervention by Australia and other countries and it does properly carry the description, the code word, the code expression of operation "Helpem Fren" - you don't need any translation to know what that means. And it conveys in that one expression what it is all about, we're not trying to throw our weight around, we're trying to help. And we have brought law and order to the people of the Solomon Islands and they appreciate it.
We've also engaged with them and talked to them and won their support and won their confidence and that is part of a modern military policing operation. You don't just need a show of force, you certainly do to indicate that you mean business but you also need to demonstrate a willingness to reach out and engage with people and if we can bring through the almost half a million people of this country a greater sense of security and safety and stability - it not only helps them but it sends a wonderful signal to people in other parts of the Pacific and a very strong warning to others in those other parts of the Pacific that would do evil to those countries that there are people who are willing to help.
[inaudible] a great act of providence that we're very grateful to the fact that we haven't had any casualties and we want to keep it that way. And that is a great tribute to the professionalism of the men and women who have been involved in the operation. It's partly due to the fact that we intervened in sufficiently large numbers to send a very clear signal from day one that we weren't going to muck around and that those who would seek to oppose the intervention knew that they were opposing a force that they couldn't possibly overwhelm. There's a lot of work to be done, the first stage has been very successful, but what lies ahead is equally challenging. There's the consolidating of bringing to justice through the proper processes of the law those people who have been charged, to batten down the proceeds of economic recovery and that is why people from our various Federal Government departments advising in relation to economic reconstruction and economic reform are equally important parts of this intervention.
All of you have an integral role to play - police, army, civilian advisers, prison system, justice system, it's all an integrated part. But I particularly before finishing want to pay tribute to the work of Nick Warner who has been the civilian overlord of this whole operation. He's done an absolutely fantastic job, he's worked to get the confidence of everybody. Ben McDevitt who has been the senior Australian Police Officer and Assistant Commissioner, and Colonel Flowers, the commanding officer of the ADF contingent. To all of you and to Patrick Cole who took over as High Commissioner only a few months ago because of his great experience with matters affecting the Pacific has helped coordinate the operation from a diplomatic level.
You have every reason to be proud of what you have done for Australia, for New Zealand, for Tonga, for Fiji, for Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the list goes on. You have done a wonderful job. Thank you. Merry Christmas. I hope you have contact with your families through email and mobile phones and so forth. I know they'll miss you. We understand that. We're thinking of you. Your country is very grateful of what you've done - have a wonderful Christmas.
Thank you.
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