Well thank you Lisa, ladies and gentleman. I'd like to thank all of you for coming this morning, all of you for the tremendous contribution you each, in your different ways, have made to the wonderful nation that we have in Australia in 2005. I've read some of the biographical detail of the various finalists in each category, and when you add it all together, it covers every conceivable aspect of human endeavour in this country. It covers people who have excelled in professions, it covers people who care for newcomers to this country and extend the hand of welcome to them, it includes people who are working with men and women with disabilities, it includes people who have overcome tremendous personal challenges of their own, and it includes people who relieve the suffering not only of our fellow Australians, but the suffering of people all around the world who are in need of the special tender care, and help and affection of Australians.
The four categories we now have, I think are terrific - Of course the Australian of the Year, the prime category's been there from the very beginning, but to have the Senior of Australia, to have the Young Australian of the Year, to have the Local Hero - to have these different categories which I think recognise the different ways in which various Australians in our community have contributed so I always enjoy these presentations. I always enjoy more particularly though, the opportunity of meeting people who've become the finalists, and people who in their different ways have contributed to our country.
We have discovered as a nation a lot about ourselves over the past few years. We have discovered the enormous warmth and generosity of the Australian spirit; we've seen it on display in recent weeks. You as a group of people represent that sprit as well as any group we can find anywhere in Australia, and I congratulate you on being finalists, I thank you for the contribution you make to our nation, and its reputation and name around the world. I wish all of you good fortune in whatever you may do in the years ahead, and finally I would like to thank Lisa and her committee for the wonderful work they do in organising I think this increasingly appropriate celebration of Australia Day, not only here in Canberra, and after the tremendous success of the concert last year and having the presentation ceremonies outside Parliament House, I thought we should continue to have it in Canberra year after year, as the national capital and the focal point of our Australia Day celebrations. I'm looking forward to tonight not only to the presentation ceremony, but I am also looking forward to everything else associated with Australia Day. Thank you Lisa. Congratulations to all of you. It's lovely to have you for morning tea.
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