E&OE................................................................................................
Well thank you very much Michael. To Ron and Barbara Walker, my friends,
to the Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne,
Your Grace, Professor Morrison, my ministerial and Parliamentary colleagues,
and members of the Sisters of Charity, ladies and gentleman.
It is a double privilege, or pleasure, to be here this morning. It's
an opportunity for me to open a centre that will improve the quality
of life of hundreds, indeed thousands of people, predominantly but
not only from Victoria, over the years ahead. It is another illustration
of what Australia does very well and that is to combine the resources
of the government and the public sector more broadly defined, and
those in the community and welfare sector, and the business community,
to achieve outcomes that will improve the quality of life in the community.
And it's also a pleasure for me to be here this morning to publicly
honour the contribution to the community of Ron and Barbara Walker
because for the reasons that Barbara has explained, and also for reasons
for which many in this audience know in relation to Ron, this is a
marvellous illustration of their great capacity to help the community
in which they live.
But it's also an opportunity for me to honour on behalf of the
Government the great service to the Australian community of the Sisters
of Charity, and the health care activities of the Catholic Church
more generally. The name St Vincent's of course is synonymous with
healing and caring and medicine throughout Australia. And there would
over the years literally have been millions of Australians whose lives
have been helped and enriched in hospitals bearing that name and in
the work of the Sisters of Charity. And I do want to say on behalf
of the Government how much that work is appreciated and how much we
value the involvement in the broad health care sector of Australia
of the volunteers, the religious sector and the private sector generally.
You can't have a good health care system in Australia without
both the public sector and the private sector. I think you may have
heard that remark made a little bit over the last few weeks and I
won't dwell very heavily on it. But today is a sort of....you've
got us all here. You've got the Federal Government, you've
got the State Government, you've got the Sisters of Charity,
you've got the medical profession, and you've also got some
many many conspicuous and generous members of the business community
here in Melbourne that have contributed so much.
Today of course we've heard in a very moving way Barbara's
own experiences and I pay tribute to her personal courage as I do
to the philanthropic generosity of Ron Walker who has done so much
to help so many causes. We have an opportunity to open a marvelous
new facility that will improve the quality of life of so many Victorians.
It's an opportunity to reflect on how eminent Australia is in
so many areas of medical discipline. We have I think 0.3% of the world's
population but we contribute something like 2.3% of medical research.
Australian names are well known in medical achievement and although
we are wont on occasions to dwell on some of the imperfections in
our health care and our medical system, I think it is important on
an occasion like this to recognise just how good we are and how many
eminent people we have, and how many world firsts Australia has delivered,
and how much so many countries around the world can learn from what
we do in this area.
The association that the pain management centre will have with the
Bernard O'Brien Microsurgery Unit of course will be a very important
association. And its placement as part of the broader St Vincent's
family will mean it is, as the years go by, it will become a very
important part of the health activities of the City of Melbourne.
Barbara told us of her own personal experiences [tape break] as well
as a very fine and capable and compassionate health minister spoke
of his own professional experience of the advances that have been
made in this field, and the contribution that this centre will make
to the alleviation of suffering and the contribution that this centre
will make as time goes by will further add to the reputation of St
Vinent's. I want to thank all of those who so far have supported
this centre. The Government itself has been pleased to make a contribution
of a quarter of a million dollars towards the centre and I note that
there are many in this room who have been responsible for supporting
it in a very generous fashion and I hope that continues and I again
commend the energetic efforts of Ron Walker in chairing the fund raising
activities and bringing his usual energy and usual commitment to any
project with which he is associated.
I have the opportunity, I welcomed all of those who were participating
in the great sporting tournament, the President's Cup, of remarking
just how well Melbourne did events of that kind. Can I again take
the opportunity of remarking how well this city combines the commitment
of people who hold public office, people who work in the volunteer
sector, and people who are active and successful in the business community
in supporting causes that are important to the civic life and of the
quality of life generally of the people of Victoria and the people
of Melbourne. And today is another example of that and I think the
support that is evident here today bodes very well for future support
for this centre.
I thank all of those associated with, the medical staff, the nurses,
the doctors, the students, the teachers, all associated with these
activities. I wish you well. I have great pleasure in declaring the
Barbara Walker Centre for Pain Management open. I do again pay a personal
tribute to Ron and Barbara who've done so much for this city
and of course have done so much for this magnificent project. I wish
it well and I know it will have your tremendous support. Thank you.
[ends]