E&OE....................................................................................................
Ladies and gentlemen, it's an enormous delight for me to be here
tonight. And as I watched the names and I saw the people who comprise
the Australian Hall of Fame tonight it was really a fast-forward of
my years and years of watching sport and being excited and inspired
and entertained by the achievements of the men and women of Australian
sport.
I comprise the great bulk of Australian sports lovers. The performance
of people here tonight who are part of the Hall of Fame could only
ever be in our dreams. But we have shared their lives. We have shared
their achievements. For me sport has always been a very important
part of my life and a very important part of our country.
Sport binds Australians together like nothing else. Sport inspires
Australians like nothing else. And the achievements of our men and
women in sport are part of the Australian achievement and a part of
the Australian legend.
My earliest recollections of sport, of course, as a boy growing up
in Sydney, surrounded by names in cricket like Ray Lindwall and Keith
Miller - I saw the great Sir Donald play but once in his last appearance
at the Sydney Cricket Ground - Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor in tennis,
as a resident of Sydney and a follower of rugby league, Clive Churchill,
the great little master who played for South Sydney. And so the list
goes on. And all through my life sport has been a very important part.
But to all of us sport is something that brings out what we think
are the best qualities about being an Australian. They are qualities
of commitment. They are qualities of loyalty. They are qualities of
mateship and they are qualities of achievement. There's nothing
that excites Australians quite so much as the thrill of a sporting
contest and the thrill of an Australian victory and an Australian
achievement.
We could spend all night recalling the great moments that we have
shared in sport, the exaltation that we have enjoyed about the achievement
of individual men and women in sport representing our country. And
the feat seems to go on and it seems to get better. We had the wonderful
experience of Atlanta. We've had the wonderful experience of
the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur. We're at the beginning
of a marvellous Ashes tour. We've just had, of course, marvellous
grand finals in Australian Rules and rugby league. We've just
had a great Wallabies success in defeating the French. And so the
list goes on. And, of course, here in the city of Melbourne, which
Greg Norman tells me has the best golf courses in the world, Australia
is going to host the President's Cup in a few weeks time.
And it is appropriate that this gathering here tonight should be in
the city of Melbourne. I don't know a city in the world that
does its sports men and women as proudly as does the city of Melbourne.
And the facilities here and the great sporting arena of the Melbourne
Cricket Ground and of Flemington Racecourse and of so many other of
the great facilities here are a reminder of just how we honour and
revere our sports men and women and our achievements.
But, ladies and gentlemen, tonight is an opportunity to honour the
men and women of Australian sport. It's an opportunity to recall
the achievements of our past greats. It's an opportunity to honour
our current achievements. It's an opportunity to celebrate the
tradition of Australian sport and all that it has meant to us and
all that it continues to mean to our nation. The way in which it brings
us together, it dissolves the barriers of politics and the barriers
of different backgrounds and unites us all in entertainment, in achieving,
in excelling and, above all, that great thrill we always get when
an Australian succeeds, an Australian is a world champion or an Australian
team wins the match or the contest.
On behalf of your fellow Australians can I say to all of those great
sports men and women of Australia, and every sporting discipline is
represented here tonight, thank you for the enjoyment you've
given to us. Thank you for the inspiration you continue to be to the
young of Australia. And thank you for living out the Australian dream
and the Australian ideal in such a magnificent way. Thank you.
[ends]