Well thank you very much Dr Moriarty, Professor Clark, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I am not a stranger to this centre, I have followed this wonderful technology over many years and I'm especially delighted to have been asked to come here today to open this new centre. It enables me to do a number of things, it enables me I know on your behalf to salute the magnificent humanitarian contribution to our country and to many others of Professor Graeme Clark who really is one of the great national treasures of this country. He is a person whose scientific skill and personal dedication over many years has brought unfathomable, to the rest of us unimaginable joy and pleasure to people who have benefited from this wonderful technology.
It is also an occasion for me to collectively salute, or salute the collective of the Australian medical science community. We are very good at many things we Australians, and we're not reluctant to say it in appropriate terms on appropriate occasions. One of the areas where we are exceptionally good is the area of medical science, this country has for years punched above its weight in the area of medical science. When you look at our population and you count the groundbreaking contributions that have been made by Australians in the field of medical science, and of course the bionic technology for which Professor Clark and this centre, or this institute, is famous is but one, an important one, of those many examples. Anything that brings joy to children is something that touches us all in a very special way. And that of course is what this centre has done and what Professor Clark and his colleagues have done over a very long period of time and the opportunities that are now in front of them and the potential to transfer the science and the technology from the ear to the spinal cord is something of which I have to confess as very much a layman in the area of science, an enthusiastic layman, is something of which I was not particularly conscious until recently, to have that described to me and the possibilities that exist this morning was a real education.
It is true that I take a great interest in the workings of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Technology Council, I chair it regularly. For somebody who was not educated in the sciences it's a new experience and something that I hope in my halting layman's way I can make a contribution. But it's revealed further to me the wonderful array of talent that we have in this country, not only the more mature and experienced doyens such as Professor Clark but also the very young whose technological ability and scientific skill and sense of adventure in their research is a thing of which all of us can be proud.
Can I say how generous it was of Professor Clark to donate the entirety of the $300,000 of the Prime Minister's Science Prize to this new centre. We had previously contributed some $700,000 but inspired very much by Professor Clark I am very pleased to announce today that the Federal Government will contribute an additional sum of $5 million to the new centre. And of course separately from that the, I know the centre will of course be competing for support in relation to the normal research grants that are available.
But this is a great institution, this city without in any way of course denigrating the efforts of medical research in other parts of Australia, one of the very special things that Melbourne brings to our nation over the years has been a particular measure of community and philanthropic support for scientific and medical research and it's one of those great characteristics of the people of Melbourne and the business community of Melbourne, so many of whom are represented here today - their generosity and their willingness to contribute has been quite special and one of the things that marks the contribution of the city and the people of Melbourne to our national life.
I have enormous pleasure in declaring this new centre open, I wish it well, I know it will be successful because it's going to be run by a very dedicated team, it's going to be staffed by talented professionals and it's going to have a great humanitarian goal and that is the further relief of human suffering and if the first quarter of the 21st century in the fullness of time is marked by anything I would venture to suggest that the application of nanotechnology and related activities to the areas of medical science will probably be the thing that distinguishes that 25 or 30 years of the 21st century more than anything else and we as Australians should be very proud that we're in the forefront of it, we have the people, we have the commitment and we have the desire to play a major role and this centre will do it. I have great pleasure in declaring it open, I wish Professor Clark well, I again thank him on behalf of his fellow Australians for what he has done for our nation and what his team has done, he has made us all very proud and I am especially delighted to be part of this special occasion.
Thank you.
[ends]