A
PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BlY THE PRIME MINISTER
AT THE HANDOVER CEREMONY Or THE YOUNG ENDEAVOUR
SYDNEY MONDAY 25 JAUARY, 1988
I thank you, Sir John Leahy, for your generous remarks.
And I am delighted to respond to your invitation to accept,
on behalf of the government and people of Australia, this
magnificent Bicentennial gift from the government and people
of the United Kingdom.
This ship the YugEndeavour bears a name imperishably
linked with CpanCook's great voyage of discovery.
And the name itself expresses a great deal of our aspirations
for our country..
This magnificent gift is a fitting tribute to the maritime
history of our two countries.
It is a timely reminder of the sea links that were for so
many years the only lines of communication between Australia
and the rest of the world.
The Young Endeavour will enable the Australian government to
provieteyutof Australia with an opportunity to
experience an adventure under sail.
We have created the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme to
administer and manage an exciting program.
The Youth scheme will allocate berths to the States and
Territories who will select the young people to fill the
berths. There will be an equal number of places for young men and
women. Steps will be taken to ensure disadvantaged youth are well
represented and there will be special arrangements for
disabled youth. 00408t9
The Royal Australian Navy will operate the ship and in a
normal year of operations it is intended to carry out 23
ten-day voyages with an embarked youth crew of 24.
It is with pleasure that I announce today that the first
chairman of the Board of Management will be Mr Malcolm
Kinnaicd of South Australia.
Mr Kinnaird brings to the position a wealth of experience
both in the business community and in the world of sailing.
The Young Endeavour" Youth scheme will be an ongoing legacy of
our Bicentennial Year.
The government and people of Australia express gratitude to
the government and people of Britain for their generosity.
We pay tribute to the devotion and skills of the shipyard
workers who built and fitted out the Young Endeavour.
And I also extend out thanks and congratulations to the joint
British and Australian crew which sailed the ship safely to
our shores.
I am delighted to have this opportunity to reiterate, in
person, the thanks I'have already expressed to Sir Peter
Gadsden, for the efforts of the Britain-Australia
Bicentennial Committee.
And to thank personally today Mr Arthur Weller and members of
the Britain-Australia Bicentennial Schooner Trust.
This gift is only part of Britain's enthusiastic
participation in the Bicentenary a fitting tribute to a
deep, unbroken relationship of 200 years.
S. T. S. Young Endeavour now enters service in Australia, a
reminder of our maritime background but more importantly a
testament to the enduring friendship between our two
countries. 0 0 40
1 411
PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAIN4ST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
AUSTRALIA DAY
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
26 jAkIuARY 1908
Your Excellencies
Your Royal Highnesses
Premiers of the States of the Commonwealth of Australia
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentlemern
we begin these celebrations in no spirit of boastfulness or
national self-glorification.
This is a day of commemoration.
Even more important, it is a day of commitment.
Commemoration of the past commitment to the future.
But, my fellow Australians, today I use the word " commitment"
in a special sense.
For, our commitment to Australia is, in a very real way# the
quality which best defines what it means to be an Australian
in 1988.
For, let us ask ourselveso on this day of all days:
what is it that links us, in our generation, with the
generations which have gone before?
It is not only the fact that, for the past 200 years, and to
this day, we have been a nation of Immigrants.
It is not only the fact that we share together this vast
continent as our homeland.
it is not only the shared inheritance of all that has been
built here, and achieved here, over the past 200 years.
And it is not only the common bond of institutions,
standards, language and culture. 00409.1
2.
Indeed, in today's Australia, our very diversity is an ever
growing source of the richness, vitality and strength of our
comumuni ty.
it is true that all these things I have mentioned go to shape
the Australian character and define the Australian identity.
Yet beyond them, there remains one vital factor in the ansiwer
to the question; Who is an Australian?
And that factor is: A commitment to Australia and its
future. It is that common commitment which binds the Australian-born
of the seventh or eighth generation and all those of their
fellow-Australians born in any of the 130 countries from
which our people are drawn.
in Australia, there is no hierarchy of descents there must be
no privilege of origin.
The commitment is all.
The commitment to Australia is the one thing needful to be a
true Australian.
Today, at ' this historic place and at this historic hour, let
us renew that commitment, our commitment to Australia and
Australia's cause the cause of freedom, fairness, justice
and peace. 004092