11 February 1997
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON. 3OHN HOWARD MP
SPEECH TO THE 1997 AUSTRALIA PRIZE PRESENTATION
DINNER, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
Sir Arvi and Lady Parbo, to Mr Tim Fischer, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia,
Mr Peter McGauran the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr John Stocker, the
Chief Scientist, many other very distinguished people here tonight, ladies and
gentlemen. It really is a great privilege to be invited to say a few words tonight and to
present to the three winners of the 1997 Australia Prize the acknowledgment of the
great achievement that each of them has enjoyed and may I say on a personal note how
appropriate it is that tonight's proceedings should be presided over by Arvi Parbo.
Arvi Parbo has made an immense contribution to Australian industry and an immense
contribution to the understanding of the role of science and technology in Australia.
He really is one of those great post-war Australian treasures. He came to this country
without being able to speak a word of English. He hurled himself into the future of
post-war Australia and I can't think of anybody of that generation that has made a
greater contribution to the reality of modern Australia.
We inevitably, as we come towards the end of this century and of this millennium, we
inevitably look towards the Year 2001 and to the new millennium and I can't imagine a
discipline or a sphere of understanding or an area of experience which is more
appropriate as we look to the future than the area of telecommunications. Such
impeccable timing! I am used to interjections but not.. most of the interjections I
receive are not of the telecommunicating kind., but when you think of the future and
particularly when you think of the future in Australia, you really can't go past the
overwhelming relevance of telecommunications. One of the great things about
Australia, one of the great things about Australians is that we've always had an
incredible appetite for new technology. We are voracious devourers of new
technology and of new devices. It goes right back to things that, heavens above, we
take for granted now like pop up toasters and vacuum cleaners and all the sort of
things that years and years ago were regarded as great sort of household agents but
now of course you regard as very much part of past history. The way in which
Australians took to video recorders, the way in which we took to mobile telephones,
the fact that there I think are about 2.6 million Internet connections in Australia at the
present time, and I am told that we are going to have about 4 million by the end of this
year which is an extraordinary, when you've got a nation of only 18 million people, it
is quite an extraordinary thing. 22 percent of Australians are registered mobile
telephone users.
I remember the American President telling me on three occasions when he was here
how absolutely transfixed he was by the sight of people with, as he put it, mobile
telephones fixed to their ears as he drove down Oxford Street coming in from the
airport in Sydney. So in so many ways Australia is, of all the advanced industrial
nations of the world, has an immense appetite for new technology and for things
technological and I am so delighted that tonight's gathering brings together such an
elite cross section of the scientific community here in Australia.
I won't endeavour to identify all of the people who are here tonight. Suffice it for me
to say that it really is a full parade of so many of the great Australian names in science
and technology over the last ten years and that is how it should be. We are never
reluctant as a community and as a nation to honour the immense contribution of our
great men and women of sport. Last Friday night I had the opportunity of awarding
the Sports Awards of the Year for the Confederation of Australian Sport in Melbourne
and that is perhaps something that over years has attracted more publicity and more
popular interests than prizes and honours of the type that we recognise tonight but as
the years have gone by I think there is a new maturity in the Australian community
about the importance of science and technology as there is a new maturity about the
role of the arts in our society. It is not a new maturity that in any way diminishes the
importance in our national psyche of sport and the extent to which a love of sport
provides a great national cement, that it is a recognition that Australia is a very diverse
community and any community that lauds excellence must have at the top of the list of
the people it honours those that have made a massive contribution to science and
technology. And so tonight we honour three outstanding Australian contributors in the area of
science and technology. We honour Professor Allan Snyder, Professor Rodney Tucker
and Dr Gottfried Ungerboeck, all of whom, as displayed by the video, have made an
enormous contribution in the area of telecommunications. They have helped make
communications absolutely indispensable and invaluable to the future not only of
Australia but of the entire world and in their different ways each have made a unique
contribution, and you do have to be a special kind of person, a special man or woman
to achieve what each of these have achieved tonight. And I am delighted that my
friend, although political adversary, Barry Jones, the person who inaugurated the
Australia Prize is here tonight because respect for r the role of scientists and respect
for the role of science and technology and the importance of it in the light of our
country is something that transcends political division. It is something that all
Australians who care about the future of this country now recognise quite instinctively
and having said that I want to thank Peter McGauran for the work that he's done as
my Minister in my Government responsible for matters relating to science and
technology. He's brought very great energy to it and he has in his very enthusiastic
way and very committed way lifted the profile of the science community and the
importance of science and technology in the eyes of all members of the Government.
The telecommunications market all around the world is expanding at an exponential
rate and nowhere more dramatically of course than here in Australia.
Telecommunications will break down economic but also very importantly it will break
down social barriers. The way in which telecommunications will bring people
together, not only people from all around the world but people who are isolated and
alienated within the communities of our own nation should never be underestimated.
The way in which links between people living in what they still regard as their new
country and their relatives in their old countries, wherever those countries may be in
other parts of the world, the way in which modern and cheaper telecommunications
have diminished those barriers is one of the things that should never go unremarked at
an occasion like this because one of the great things about modern telecommunications
is the way in which it has really aided people in coming together, the way in which it
has diminished distance, the way it has broken down barriers and helped to forge
friendships and almost daily now we learn of these marvellous stories of romances
being forged through the Internet. I mean, it's not one sort of instinctive sense of the
romance of person meeting person but in time it's making a very, very massive
contribution. So it is absolutely not only part of our present but it is a fundamental part of our
future, telecommunications and the information and technological explosion that is
bound up in it. So I want to congratulate the three winners. I want to say on behalf of
my Government how very strongly committed we are to the central role of science and
technology in the future of Australia and the contribution that scientists and engineers
make to our nation is something that will never go unremarked and will never be
ignored so far as my Government is concerned and I think I can speak confidently in
that context on behalf of all political representation here tonight.
But on a personal note, to the three gentlemen that are receiving and sharing in the
great Australia Prize tonight, can I congratulate each of you unreservedly on the
personal commitment and dedication that you have brought to your disciplines and to
your professions. It is a unique accolade to be honoured with the nation's most
prestigious science award. It is a unique accolade that your peers should have
recognised your special contribution. It is a unique accolade that all those years of toil
and dedication and commitment and that creative genius that people who can reach
heights like this must obviously have. That also is a unique accolade and on behalf of a
very respectful and a very grateful nation that is proud to acknowledge the
contribution that you are making to the discipline of science, may I congratulate you
and wish you well and thank you for your contribution to science and through it the
contribution to the great human family to which all of us belong.
Thank you.
ends