E&OE..........................................................................................................................
Thank you very much Mr Skurnik, to the Ambassador, Consul-General,
Mr Oystragh, Dr Goldman, to Mr Aqualina representing the NSW Government,
to my predecessor, Bob Hawke, to the former Premier of NSW, Neville
Wran and to other distinguished guests including my colleague, Mr
Andrew Thomson, the Federal Member for Wentworth, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a particular honour for me to be here today to do a number of
things on behalf of the Government and the people of Australia to
congratulate the congregation and particularly the Jewish community
of Sydney on this wonderful event. It's made special for me by
the fact that the original building destroyed so tragically in 1994
was opened in February of 1960 by the former Prime Minister of Australia,
Sir Robert Menzies.
This is a wonderful occasion for your community and it is an opportunity
for me on behalf of your fellow Australians to express my and their
admiration for the contribution of your community to the life of our
country over such a long period of time. It is important on occasions
such as this to pause for a moment and to honour the contribution
of a community and to recognise the integral role that the Jews of
Australia have played in the life of our nation over such a long period
of time. Their contribution, your contribution, has been in every
field of endeavour. It has been in the professions, in law, in medicine,
in engineering, in architecture. It has been in politics, it has been
in sport. It has produced probably the greatest military leader that
Australia has seen. Two Governors-General of Australia have been of
the Jewish faith and wherever people look through the history of our
country, we can find an honourable contribution by the Jewish community
of our nation. And what you have done in rebuilding this synagogue
in such a short period of time is a tribute to your commitments and
to the loyalty of those things that you hold dear. And it is an opportunity
for me on behalf of the rest of the Australian community to salute
that contribution and to thank you for what you have collectively
done to make our nation a better place in which to live.
It is also appropriate that this new synagogue is open in the 50th
year of the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. No country
could have had its birth in more difficult, hostile, unwelcoming circumstances.
Yet against enormous odds over that 50 year period, the state of Israel
has not only survived but it's prospered and it has been a beacon
of freedom in the Middle East. Successive Australian governments have
defended the territorial integrity and have supported the right of
Israel to peacefully exist within secure boundaries. And I take this
opportunity, on behalf of my Government, of reaffirming the continuity
of that support and our determination consists of that support to
see a lasting peace achieved in the Middle East.
This is also an occasion, of course, to celebrate the spiritual life
of our nation. To honour and respect the role of spiritual values
whatever form they may take within our community. And when we think
of those values, we think of the future and we think of hope and even
in the most difficult circumstances we can find hope. Particularly
today I believe many people around the world will find hope that after
long decades of hatred and destruction, the people of the Irish Republic
and of Northern Ireland have apparently taken a path towards peace.
And that is the source of hope that even in the most difficult circumstances
the difficulties and hatreds of the past can be overcome.
It is also, of course, very understandably a moment for the Jewish
community here today and around Australia to reflect upon the tragedies
that have befallen your community in other parts of the world. And
of course to remember those who've suffered in such awful circumstances.
And for all of us to resolve that such events can never again let
overtake any part of humanity or any part of the world.
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, it is for me a very distinct, personal
pleasure to be here today. My association with the Jewish community,
particularly of Sydney, long predates my entry into public life. And
very early in my life I enjoyed the warm embrace and the welcome and
the sense of community, the sense of family, the sense of commitment
to make which has been a hallmark of the Jewish community in Australia.
And I want to take this very public opportunity of thanking that community
for the friendship that it has extended to me both inside and outside
public life. This is a great community occasion. It's an opportunity
to thank those who have dedicated themselves to rebuilding the synagogue.
It is an opportunity to salute the expansion and the diversification
of the cultural life of the Jewish community here in Sydney. A great
investment in your schools and other community activities. And to
recognise the fact that this building and all the surrounds to it
will become a very important part in the life of your community. It's
an occasion for celebration. It's an occasion for thanksgiving.
It's an occasion for reflecting on all of those great things
that we have in common as Australians.
And ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for honouring me and
on behalf of your fellow Australians, on behalf of the Government
I send you my warmest good wishes. I thank you for the contribution
you make to the life and soul of Sydney and to the Australian nation
and I have enormous pleasure in officially declaring this new Central
Synagogue, I understand the largest in the southern hemisphere, I
have great pleasure in declaring it, in a secular sense, well and
truly open.
Thank you.