Well thank you very much John Olsen, the Premier of South Australia. To the Deputy Secretary General, Mr Kakakhel. To my Ministerial colleague, Senator Robert Hill who is not only the Minister for Environment in the Federal Government but also the Leader of the Government in the Senate, my other Parliamentary colleagues, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide and particularly our guests from overseas, ladies and gentlemen. And could I particularly pay my respects to the Kaurna people, I thank them for the warmth of their welcome and I acknowledge that this meeting takes place on lands of which they are the traditional owners.
This is the first occasion that Australia has had the privilege of hosting World Environment Day. And it is an opportunity not only to showcase our country, to showcase the city of Adelaide, the State of South Australia and the many environmental attributes that it offers to the people of Australia and to the people of the world. But it's also an opportunity for us at a national level, to associate ourselves very strongly as a nation with what World Environment Day represents and what it means in terms of an on going commitment of the people and the Government of Australia towards the preservation of our environment in all its forms.
We have as a community here, and I'm sure it is true of countries around the world, we have long since passed from that time when the environment was regarded as some kind of peripheral or optional extra, so far as the issues of the day that commanded the attention of people and nations. For a host of very good reasons, concern for the environment has become a very important mainstream issue in our lives. Not only in the lives of people who make political decisions, but also within the lives of our community. We understand as the custodians of one of the most ancient lands in the world, we understand the environmental challenges which Australia faces.
John Olsen spoke a moment ago of the importance of water to this country of ours. The challenge to establish a proper basis for sharing the water resources of Australia and to work out the competing claims of different Governments in relation to those resources, and a fair distribution of what is an incredibly precious asset, is one of the great challenges that face us environmentally in Australia. The challenge of the growing salinity of large parts of Australia goes in a sense hand in hand with the challenges we face in relation to water distribution and water conservation. And I can't think of any more important environmental challenges that this country faces. We're also as a country in a special position, with its special burdens and special challenges in that we are one of the few, if not the only, industrialised nations in the world which is a net exporter of energy. And that particular situation creates special challenges and difficulties so far as our position is concerned in relation to the worldwide debate on greenhouse gases.
Today is an occasion to honour most importantly, the men and women of Australia who have at the grassroots community level, played an important role in building a concern for the environment and making their contribution towards a better environmental future for our children.
You'll be aware of the contribution made by the Government's Natural Heritage Trust. Already that Trust and the payments from it have contributed to about six thousand individual projects around Australia. And although a very important part of it is support for the Murray Darling Basin, another very important element of the programmes administered under the Natural Heritage Trust is the way in which local partnerships between citizens, community groups, businesses with financial support from the Government has developed a concern and a care and an interest in our environment. And what we have sought to do through the Natural Heritage Trust is very much to build community acceptance and community involvement at an individual neighbourhood level in concern for our environment. To encourage people almost instinctively to see a concern for the environment as being the most natural thing in the world that one would want to have in relation to decision-making, affecting their community or their neighbourhood.
We all of us, whether we live in Australia or we live in other parts of the world have a long way to go before we can say that we have any where near achieved the sort of goals that a gathering like this will set itself. But the fact that there is a relatively higher level of understanding and agreement about what is important in relation to environmental issues is encouraging. The fact that we are starting to see a coming together of countries previously with different points of view is also itself extremely encouraging.
I want on a personal level to thank Senator Robert Hill who has done an absolutely outstanding job as Minister for the Environment since the Coalition came to office in March of 1996. As a Government that is both committed to caring for and protecting the environment, as well as a Government that has sought successfully to build a strong economic environment in Australia and to generate another seven hundred thousand jobs over the last four years, it's sometimes not easy to strike the right balance, to get the correct distillation in the making of Government policy between a proper concern for the environment, the demands of economic growth and economic development with all the benefits that that growth and development delivers in terms of jobs. We have tried to do that, we have our critics, we'll have our critics in the future. We don't pretend that everything we've done has been perfect or ideal, but we have sought to build the right balance and to create the correct distillation or achieve the correct distillation. And I want to thank you Robert for the tremendous leadership at a Ministerial level that you have given.
To our overseas guests, please enjoy the pleasures and the civility and the hospitality and the friendliness of the city of Adelaide. Everything that the Premier told you about the excellence of the South Australian wine industry is of course correct. If anything he understated it. It is an outstanding example of the capacity of this country to produce something which wins renown and creates pleasure around the world. Welcome to Australia, welcome to Adelaide. I congratulate in advance those who will receive the Prime Minister's Environmental Awards. But most importantly, I hope that this conference is outstandingly successful. I hope that all of you who participate in it go away with an even deeper resolve to achieve your goals and I hope you go as you should, in the knowledge that the Government and the people of Australia very enthusiastically share those goals with all of you.
Thank you.
[Ends]