Well, thank you very much for having me here today. To the Principal and to my federal parliamentary colleague Gary Nairn and Andrew Constance the state member, ladies and gentlemen.
I visit a lot of schools. This is one of the nicest ones I';ve been to for a while. It';s nice and new and everybody seems very happy and I don';t wonder why with that beautiful view of the ocean as I came in and this lovely atmosphere and I understand that you moved from another part of Batemans Bay which didn';t quite have the same view as you have here. But I think the nicest thing about this school is the attitude that you obviously had. And, as I listened to your school song, I thought to myself if every Australian lived according to that song and took the advice of what was in that song, we';d be an even happier and better country than we are now because learning and caring and sharing and playing, we like#8230; Australians like to play, they like to play a lot of sport, perhaps more of them should play sport and not just watch it. And I think it';s a very good idea that everybody gets plenty of exercise and physical activity of all ages, but working together as one big team and that';s what you';ve really got to make the country do #8211; work together as one big team. We can argue about some things and that';s healthy in a free country, but we have to remember at the end of the day we are all Australians before we are anybody else.
The other two things that I say when I visit schools is #8211; always take notice of what your teachers tell you. I know you sometimes wonder whether everything they say is right but can I tell you it is, it really is, I can assure you your teachers are never wrong, I can assure you of that. And as you get older you';ll realise that all the things they tried to tell you to do were very very important.
Australia, as you know, is a very very big country but it';s a very fortunate country and as I go around visiting people, young people in schools #8211; I';ve just been to a retirement village and talk about older people many of whom who lived through World War II and the depression and all those years, and I think of the contribution that they made to the country that you are now going to grow up in and enjoy and get the benefits of.
And the last piece of personal advice I';d like to give you is the bit of advice that I give all school children, and I think it is worth listening to, and that is that the happiest people I have found as I';ve gone through life are the people who always try to find something good about people they meet. You meet a lot of people and, you know, you think of the person sitting next to you and sometimes that person might annoy you #8211; I mean, that probably never happens in this school, there';s probably nobody that ever annoys anybody in this school. But what you';ve got to try and do is find something good about people even when sometimes you find that a bit difficult. And if you do look for and you find the good in somebody, you end up remarkably being a lot happier. The happy people I';ve found in life are the people who always are positive and always try and find something good about everybody they meet even if they might be a big grumpy about that person. And the really unhappy people in life are those that sort of always try and find fault in people. They end up being so miserable and so unhappy and if you take the positive in somebody, even though it';s difficult on occasions, you will find to your great delight that you live a much happier life.
Thank you very much for having me here. It';s a great privilege and I wish all of you well. It';s obviously a very happy school and I hope that it continues to be so and I wish the parents and the teachers and all of the school community the best of good fortune in the future and if you keep learning and caring and sharing and playing together you';ll always be a very happy school and make a great contribution to Australia.
Thank you.
[ends]