Well, thank you very much Mr Smith, Gary Nairn, Andrew Constance, ladies and gentlemen.
This is a terrific place, I';ve just#8230; it';s fantastic. I mean, no wonder there';s a waiting list. I wouldn';t move out of here. I mean, you';d be mad to. It';s an absolutely terrific place and on a morning like this with the sun streaming in and meeting all of you lovely people, it';s a very very pleasant diversion from some of the noise and vigorous exchange of Canberra. But it';s a great part of the New South Wales south coast this and it';s very nice of you to have me here.
I spend quite a bit of my time, as I move around Australia, visiting different retirement villages, they come in all shapes and sizes. Overwhelmingly, they provide very good care and this particular facility, of course, which has a wonderful component of independent living and the size of the units is terrific. And Mr Smith said that they felt here at Banksia they were establishing something of a benchmark. I think that';s right because the size of the quarters and the ambience is really very good. But so it should be because your generation has contributed an enormous amount to our country.
So many of you lived through the difficult days of World War II and some stretching it back, of course, to the difficult days of the great depression and then have witnessed this extraordinary transformation and change in Australia that';s occurred over the last 30 to 40 years, most of it pretty good, some aspects of it perhaps you';re not quite as in favour of. But overwhelmingly the way our nation has changed and it';s got stronger and better and we';re such an open, confident, strong people. And I';m filled with tremendous enthusiasm and optimism about the future of our country. And whenever I pay visits to electorates like this, I always try and have as a component to visit a retirement village, but also visit a school so I have an opportunity of talking to people who are about to leave school and go into the workforce or go to university or go to TAFE college and to start their career and it is a source of great encouragement to me to have contact with the generation that';s given so much to make Australia what it is today and also the generation that will enjoy and inherit the legacy that earlier generations have given to them.
We had a bit to say about aged care facilities and support in the budget last Tuesday night, I';m not going to bore you with all the details of that, you want to have morning tea, you don';t want to hear a long speech from me. But we do place a very high store on aged care facilities and providing a necessary level of support to them, along with all the other responsibilities such as defence and supporting families and looking after our intelligence agencies that we endeavour to do in federal budgets.
The Australian economy';s doing pretty well at the moment compared with most other countries and we';re pretty proud of that and we';re going to keep working hard to keep it that way because if you don';t have a strong economy you can';t afford to pay for anything. It doesn';t come out of thin air, it doesn';t belong to us, it belongs to you, the resources that governments have, and you';ve got to manage the economy well to be in a position to provide for necessary areas in the Australian community.
The last thing I want to say to you ladies and gentlemen is that I have, of course#8230; I';m being accompanied by two of my parliamentary colleagues and Andrew, because he';s in the state parliament, I don';t see quite as much of, but I know he';s doing a very very good job as your new Member. But Gary Nairn, who';s been the Federal Member for Eden Monaro since 1996, is a fantastic advocate of the electorate and I know he';s been a great advocate of changes and improvements in relation to aged care facilities in this electorate and I couldn';t commend him to you more strongly and more warmly. He';s a great bloke and he works very very hard for this area.
But ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for having me along. I hope I can have the opportunity of meeting all of you over a cup of tea. Thanks a lot.
[ends]