Ladies and gentlemen, this is a fantastic conclusion on what has been a remarkable few days. It';s one of those occasions that you have in public life where it really all becomes something worthwhile. We have together, proper credit has been given, and thanks has been extended, but together a lot of Australians plus a number of Americans and others from other countries have all worked together to produce an outcome that really makes us feel very good and making us recognise that there is more to life than just a straight statistical assessment of what the profit and loss might be at any given time, although we hope that as time goes by, the profit and loss is very attractive. I';m sure it will be. And if the advance bookings are any guide I';m sure it is going to be.
But there was an investment of a lot of people in this project, there was an investment of a lot of dollars, taxpayer dollars, courtesy of the national government, the Territory Government and the State Government of South Australia, let me say given the proportionality, the contributions made by South Australia and the Northern Territory were very, very significant. And a great amount of commitment by the private sector and the businessmen and women who over a period of years have been exhorting this project and talking it up must feel a very great sense of satisfaction.
The other great thing about this project is that it';s enabled us to put on display to our own countrymen and women and to the world, the great engineering proficiency of this country. During the building of this, the shortness of time involved from the turning of that first sod that I remember very well, I was suffering from laryngitis, it was a combination of laryngitis and having cheered Australia to victory over the British and Ireland Lions a couple of days earlier in Sydney. No disrespect to you Alistair and welcome to you. You turned the tables two and a half years later. But it';s been done in a record time and it';s an enormous tribute and I just want to pay a special tribute to the builders, the people whose great technical skill has had so much to do with it.
Finally, can I also pay tribute to somebody else and that';s, I hope I don';t embarrass her by doing this, my wife Janette because some of you may know that she was the daughter of a railway engineer. My late father in law was the chief civil engineer for the New South Wales railway and all my married life I';ve been told how important rail is, Tim Fischer, she was years ahead of you. She had a rails run, no pun intended, but so really the secret of it all is that she kept saying to me you';ve got to support this railway (tape break) and as a result, we both, for a whole lot of reasons, are delighted to be with you tonight. I think it was one of the most far-sighted, sensible, long term decisions that my government has taken. I have never doubted the widsom of this decision, it was the right decision and years into the future people will say that the right decision was taken by the relevant people at the right time for the long term benefit of our country, and that is our job, creating long term good things for Australia and we';ve all been part of that and we should celebrate.
Thank you.
[ends]