Thank you very much and thank you Commodore, Admiral, Tanya Plibersek - representing the Leader of the Opposition, Trent Zimmerman - representing the Minister for Defence, and the families of the ship’s company of HMAS Darwin.
What a joyful day and so I will be brief because the HMAS Darwin is almost here. And we have here little babies that are now toddlers, toddlers that are boys and girls, little boys and girls and a few babies that have been born while their fathers were away.
This is a joyful day.
I want to reiterate that the service that your sons and daughters, your husbands and wives, your children do on HMAS Darwin would not be possible without you, without your love and your support – you make it possible to enable them to perform their outstanding service for Australia.
These men and women on HMAS Darwin are defending Australia. We live in dangerous times. We understand that – we are reminded of that every day. The events over the last 72 hours in Turkey and in France remind us of that yet again and it is a global effort and the work that the Australian Navy does is absolutely critical in providing security for the world, providing security for Australia. It is a vital commitment and the professionalism and the courage and the dedication of the men and women of the Australian Defence Forces is critical in ensuring Australia remains safe.
We do live in dangerous times, we know that, but the professionalism and the courage of all of those men and women of the ADF and all of our security forces enables us to maintain the security of our nation.
So now the ship is almost back. HMAS Darwin is approaching – we will welcome them with joy just as we bade them farewell with pride in December. Over that seven months, they have done Australia proud and we will thank the ships company, its commander and all the ships company when they return here on the dock but above all I want to thank you. The Australian Defence Forces, the Navy is a big family and you are part of it. The service that our men and women do would not be possible without you.
So this is a day for welcoming them, for honouring them and as your Prime Minister I thank and honour you as well.
It’s a great day. Welcome home HMAS Darwin.
Thanks you very much.