Today I chaired the inaugural meeting of the Prime Minister's Community
Business Partnership which has been established to foster partnerships
between business, government and the community to develop practical ideas
for helping people in need.
The Business and Community Partnerships initiative has been steadily gaining
momentum since I convened a round table meeting of distinguished business
and community leaders in March last year.
We are building on the Australian ethos of helping each other in times of
need to develop a strong and lasting tradition of corporate philanthropy
and community participation.
The willingness of these 11 high profile Australians to participate in the
Community Business Partnership is testament to their enthusiasm to
find new ways to support the community and to maximise the benefits to Australia
of a new social coalition.
I commend them for their support and commitment.
The social coalition is about drawing on the expertise and resources of
the various sectors of Australian society, including government, business,
individuals and the community sector, to address problems that cannot be
solved by one sector working alone.
It is only through a partnership approach that we can come up with real
solutions.
The recent Regional Summit has highlighted the need for us to pay particular
attention to the needs of rural and regional Australia, and this will be
one of the areas of focus for the Community Business Partnership.
The Community Business Partnership agreed to adopt a mission statement
which focuses on fostering a tradition of the Australian business and non-profit
sectors working together in partnership for mutual benefit and the benefit
of the Australian community.
The list of members of Community Business Partnership is attached.