Thank you very much Jason. General MacLachlan, Mr David Moffat, my fellow Australians. I think it's great that we have gatherings like this in what General MacLachlan described as a fair dinkum old RSL hall because this is a community hall par excellence. It's small, it's crowded, it's filled with memorabilia and we feel somehow or other a connection with our past and our history in being here.
And can I take this opportunity, because it is in a traditional RSL hall to say publicly something I said privately yesterday morning to Mr Kerry Stokes when I knew, before it was made public, that he was the person who contributed more than a million dollars to make certain that that Victoria Cross, won at Lone Pine, remained in Australia. And it was an act of great generosity, and on behalf of the Australian people as well as the Australian Government, I extend my thanks to Mr Stokes. I think it's great. It is an example that there are people in our community who do very well and are fortunate and become wealthy, that they use some of their money very wisely in the national interest for a genuinely philanthropic person, and I think it is a wonderful example and full marks to Kerry Stokes for his great generosity.
But this morning I want the opportunity of meeting you. I take this opportunity of paying tribute to all the great community organisations of the electorate of La Trobe. Of course this is an RSL Sub-Branch hall. The RSL does great welfare work as well as keeping alive the traditions of the men and women who fought for Australia. I want to also acknowledge the presence of so many other people who worked hard to keep our community together. It is a prosperous country, we are enjoying good economic times, but there are always people in our midst who are missing out. And I guess the more fortunate most of us are, the harder it is for those in our midst who aren't fortunate. And therefore the assistance of local welfare organisations, of churches, of other community organisations is all the more essential.
I'm pleased I heard some people saying about the right to work, well the right to work seems fairly alive in Australia at the moment because we have the lowest unemployment rate for 30 years and we've created about 110,000 jobs in the last three months. But I'll pass on from that, and I might say something to the media about that later, because this is a community gathering, and I acknowledge that not everybody here agrees with everything that I say or everything that I do and that's fair enough in a great democracy.
But I do want to pay tribute, whatever your politics are, I do want to pay tribute to the energy of Jason Wood. Jason knows a thing or two about tough assignments and hard work, given his previous career in the Victoria Police. He knows something about the modern, contemporary threat of terrorism and he has brought to the Federal Parliament in the short period of 18 months that he's been there, he's brought to the Federal Parliament an understanding of those things. And more than that, as demonstrated by the emphasis he placed on what has been done in relation to local projects here in recent times, he's brought an enormous amount of commitment and effective representation on behalf of the people of La Trobe.
This is a very diverse electorate. I'm quite familiar with many parts of it. Bob Charles used to bring me here on many occasions. I saw Bob in Chicago a few months ago and he's well and he sends his regards to all of his former constituents. But this is an electorate that has got a lot of the small business ethos and activity of this part of Melbourne. It's got areas that place a very high premium on environmental issues. It's got sections which have all the challenges of growth and of providing services for families, it's a very conscious of the importance of home ownership and the aspiration of so many Australians to buy and to pay off and to own their own home and in other words it is something of a microcosm of middle Australia and it needs somebody who is of middle Australia here to understand it and Jason certainly fits that build. He is a very plain speaking person and he is somebody who does in so many ways, give you powerful representation.
I guess the only other thing that I want to say is to echo, I'm sure, the feelings of millions of Australians that, as we have watched our television screens and we have seen our fellow Australians come back from mainly Lebanon, and despite some rather foolish things that were said last week by some of their self-appointed, and I underline self-appointed spokesmen or leaders, about the Government not doing enough. The thing that struck me and again I saw it this morning was the overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude people had about being back in Australia and their experience was a vivid reminder to them of how fortunate we are to be Australian and it is only when we, some of our fellow citizens are touched by something like that and put in danger that we are again reminded how blessed we are in this country and therefore what a particular obligation we have to make sure we keep it that way, make sure we keep it fair and tolerant, make sure we keep it secure and make sure that we keep it prosperous, and also make sure that Australia stands up for what it believes in around the world.
Sometimes it is easy in these international disputes to duck for cover and the easy thing is to say 'oh well I'm sort of on the one hand this and on the one hand that.' Life is, really, never quite like that and you really do have to have a view. I have a view in relation to what is going on in the Middle East, I don't think we will ever have a lasting peace in the Middle East until we embrace two things. The first thing is that every part of the Arab world has to accept Israel's right to exist behind secure defensible boundaries. The idea that you can regularly argue, as some have, that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth and to expect that nothing is given in response to that kind of thing is quite ludicrous. The other thing we have to recognise is that the people of the Palestinian Territories also have a right to a national home and what is called the 'Two-State Solution'. That is, you preserve and defend Israel's right to exist and by the same token and at the same time you work to establish an independent Palestinian State. Now that has been the policy of the Australian Government now for many years, it is the policy of many others and unless there is a total embrace of that by everybody, sadly we may end this current conflict and it may settle down for a while but it will come back again because the root cause of the problem has not been tackled. It has not been addressed. Now that may sound a simple solution and in a way the solution to many complex problems is simple. But the hard thing is persuading enough people to embrace that concept.
But enough of that. I am here to meet all of you, it is very nice of you to share this day with me and can I just say again I am delighted to be here, I wish this Club well, this Sub-Branch well, I wish the community of La Trobe well and again can I say what a fantastic bloke you have in Jason Wood representing you in the national parliament.
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