Thank you very much Senior Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, High Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. Today is a brief but very pleasing ceremony for me - a ceremony to confer upon the Senior Minister and Prime Minister from 1990 to 2004, the second Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Goh Chok Tong, the Honorary Companionship in the Order of Australia.
Chok Tong and I first met each other at meetings of the Asian Development Bank when he was Finance Minister and I was Treasurer and years later we came together, he coming to the Prime Ministership of his country a few years before I came to the Prime Ministership of Australia. He has been a firm friend and ally of Australia all of his public life and I found in my dealings with him as Prime Minister of Australia that he was a ready and good friend and the ease of our communication, the strength of our friendship, was a metaphor for the closeness of the relationship that has existed between our two countries.
In the time that he was Prime Minister, the defence and intelligence co-operation between the two countries strengthened, we were able to conclude successfully negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between Australia and Singapore. His views on the threat posed by terrorism to our region have been clear and unambiguous and absolutely correct and his understanding of the need for countries such as Singapore and Indonesia and Malaysia and Australia to work together to fight the threat of terrorism is absolutely correct and none of us should delude ourselves, he certainly does not, that if this threat is left unattended it ultimately will devour us and we will pay a very heavy price and spend years reproaching ourselves for not having acted earlier.
Can I finally say that he's a person who has found in Australia not only a country at a political level to have very close relations with, but also possessed of some marvellous facilities in a certain sport in which he excels greatly. As somebody who has come I suspect to golf a little later in life than he did I'm rather envious of his accomplishments in that particular sporting endeavour.
But ladies and gentlemen, it is with very great pleasure that I participate in this ceremony and to award this honorary degree, honorary order rather, you have an honorary degree, to a very thoughtful, strong, and for Australia, friendly leader and a great friend of the people of Australia.
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