Ladies and gentlemen, Janette and I would really like to thank all of you for taking the trouble to join us tonight to celebrate Australia regaining The Ashes. I hope you all have a drink on that and you all enjoy that immensely, but there is another reason as well and that is to welcome you all to this worldwide gathering of Advance and I am particularly delighted to welcome Ken Allen in many ways is the inspiration for this wonderful thing, to Brad Orgill and to Elena Douglas and to everybody else who has come back to Sydney for the conference. The concept of Advance is really quite superb. What it does is to challenge in the most emphatic way, that rather silly notion that in some way Australia is diminished by some of the brightest and the best of our country going overseas and making an enormous contribution to the societies and the economies of other parts of the world. And your coming here and the breadth of talent and achievement and success that is represented by the group that's gathered here is I think something that sends a very strong message to our fellow country men and women that in the globalised world in which we now live forever, it is enormously to Australia's advantage that we have a talented, energetic, achieving, highly successful diaspora.
That's an enormous global investment made by this country, it's an enormous asset because it brings with it an understanding of the countries with which we interact, and it brings with it a sophisticated involvement of Australia in the modern world and it's also a reminder that Australia, proud though it is to be known around the world by sports men and women, by its entertainers, by people who are part of popular culture, it is also a country that is also a high performer in business, a high performer in science, a high performer in areas of research and this gathering to say to the nation, and particularly to those who occasionally lament the so-called 'brain drain' to say to them that this is a country of all the talents in all parts of the world. And that's something that as Prime Minister I am very proud of and I know that Australians are very proud of it indeed. Ken it's great to have you and the other members of the board here. I know how hard you worked when you were in New York as Consul-General doing wonderful things representing our country in that fantastic city, what wonderful things you did to get Advance going and the fruits of that endeavour is here on the lawns of Kirribilli House to get this extraordinary number of people here, although Sydney is not a bad place at this time of the year - Kirribilli House is not a bad place at this time of the year either I have to confess and it is particularly tonight.
Anyway it's great to have you all here, Janette and I welcome you, we wish you well and I will invite Ken Allen to say a few words. Thank you very much.
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