Thank you very much for that introduction. My Ministerial and Parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. What a fantastic day for Australian science. What an absolutely fantastic day. Whatever the scientific equivalent is of the ticker-tape reception that was given to the Sydney Swans should be extended in their home city to Professor Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren. I may, as a self-confessed cricket and other sports tragic but I'll just settle for cricket, have said in the past that I looked to the day when the exploits of Australian scientists will be as revered and remarked about as the exploits of our sports men and women. I guess in the nature of popular culture that is hard in literal terms to achieve, but in symbolic terms and clearly at a gathering like this we should take immense pride in the fact that once again two very distinguished Australians for the first time since 1996 have joined the ranks of Nobel Prize winners. I understand that Professor Barry Marshall is flying in from Western Australia and he will be here a little later this evening. And that will be a wonderful opportunity for his peers in the scientific community of Australia and more generally here in the Great Hall of the National Parliament on the day that the announcement has been made for him to be in a very genuine sense honoured by people who have shared his commitment and his dedication to his work and also the extraordinary contribution of his collaborator Dr Robin Warren. And to see the media coverage of it this morning, competing sadly with some tragic events, and to witness the coverage through the day filled I know all of you, as it did me, with a great sense of pride at what has been achieved.
These awards which have now been going in their current form for five years, and the predecessor being the Australia Prize, are an attempt by the Government to emphasise in a symbolic way as well as in a practical way the extraordinary contribution of science to this country and to honour the great capacity of Australian scientists to perform and to contribute to humanity. And the various recipients over the time that I have been Prime Minister have come from a wide range, people who have been involved in all different branches of science. And tonight's prizes will be no exception.
I am particularly pleased that again we have two recipients of the prizes for primary and secondary school teaching. It is so important to encourage and to reward the teachers of science in our community because they hold the key to the future. I've had the opportunity on earlier occasions to recall the great experience, and I do it again tonight, that I've had as a person who is not greatly skilled in the sciences but rather had what might pass as a liberal arts education, the great stimulus, intellectually and otherwise that I've had from chairing the Prime Minister's Science Council - something I've done with great pleasure over a period of nine-and-a-half years. And the recipient of the Prime Minister's Science Prize tonight will join that Council as a member for 12 months and not only has that been of enormous stimulus and have been a great eye opener for me and my senior colleagues, but the contributions of people at the gathering and the gathering surrounding that meeting have played a very significant role in Government decisions. I think of the contribution it made to the Backing Australia's Ability announcements which laid out a programme of financial commitment at the beginning of year 2001. I think more recently of the discussions I had in the lead up to the last Federal Budget about establishing the Air Link, a very pragmatic thing between Australia and Antarctica which we were able to bring forward and announce in the Budget and it directly, as a result of a very passionate case put at a meeting earlier this year of the Science Council. It's been a wonderful opportunity for the Government to interact with the science community and I hope in a tangible way build a stronger and closer partnership.
But tonight very much is a night for exuberance and celebration because we've had worldwide recognition of the quality that we know has always been there, it doesn't come very often but given the size of Australia it comes in relative terms perhaps more frequently to this country, and deservedly so, than to many others. May I thank all of you in your different ways for the contribution that you have made to humanity through the sciences. Can I thank the teachers amongst you, can I thank the healers amongst you, can I thank the inquiring minds amongst you. That is not the limit of the categories, but those three come to me very instinctively as being demonstrations of the importance of science to our being and to our future.
Can I also take the opportunity of particularly thanking my Minister responsible for science, Brendan Nelson, who brings to the portfolio of education, science and training enormous energy, enormous commitment, zeal. And I like ministers who have zeal, providing it's in the right direction and he has lots of zeal in the right direction and he is a very committed proponent for and advocate of the cause of science. But ladies and gentlemen, may I again thank all of you, I welcome you to this great gathering and just say how absolutely incredibly fantastic it is that it should be held on the night of the day of the announcement of the Nobel Prize winners, these two wonderful Australians, these two wonderful people from Perth - Barry Marshall and Robin Warren. And we'll look forward in a short while to welcoming Barry and honouring him for his wonderful contribution.
But thank you my fellow Australians for the wonderful contribution you make through your endeavours to our nation and to our collective future.
Thank you.
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