E&OE...................................................................................................
Well thank you very much Quang and to Nigel Milan the Managing Director
of SBS. I'm here today to do two things, to express the Government's
ongoing support for SBS. SBS was created by a Government of which
I was a member back in the 1970s and it's provided a marvellous
link amongst people of non English speaking background within the
Australian community.
It provides a very high quality service, it provides certain services
for English speaking as well as non English speaking Australians which
are denied or not available in quite the same magnitude, and I'm
thinking of particular sports, on other free to air channels. But
it has been a very successful Australian exercise in keeping communities
together and providing members of individual communities with important
cultural links and important associations with the heritage that they
treasure so much.
This wonderful outside broadcast van which is the second and more
proximate reason for my being here today, will enormously enhance
the capacity of SBS Radio to take its services and to take its facilities
to the people that it wants to reach and wants to service.
This van has a number of features unique to outside broadcast vans
in Australia. There will be two, primarily located, I think, in Melbourne
and Sydney but they will travel around the country and in that way
SBS Radio will be able to improve and to upgrade the quality of the
service which is available.
Can I say from my own personal experience that SBS does provide a
great service. A good example of it was that I was able to do an interview
on SBS Television before departing for the APEC Meeting and it was
an ideal forum with its particular interest in foreign affairs for
me to appear on and I've had many opportunities to appear on
both television and SBS Radio over the years.
I therefore have very great pleasure in launching the van, commending
SBS Radio and commend you Quang in particular on the leadership that
you've brought to that organisation and I wish it well and this
new van will add enormously to a very, very important part of the
Australian community and a service that is particularly valuable and
particularly appreciated by Australians who speak a language other
than English.
Thank you.