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But I would want to salute the people of Shepparton and the people of the
Goulbourn Valley on the tremendous contribution that they are making to
the economy of Australia. In many ways this is the food basket of Australia
and there is around something like 80 000 Australians employed directly
in the horticultural industry in this country. It is winning new domestic
and international markets. Only a few weeks ago I was in Japan and I spoke
of the way in which for the first time we have been able to get fuji apples
into Japan. It was a pretty hard fight I can tell you, but in the end we
were successful. The first exports are largely going to come from Tasmania
but there is no reason why exports shouldn't spread from other parts of
Australia but it is an illustration of the sort of things that Australia
must increasingly do in the future. Now these enterprises are normally the
product of tremendous skill and dedication and hard work often based on
a family enterprise and Santo, you and your family are illustrations of
that because you built a tremendous business through the dint of hard work
and the dint of application to a very very difficult task and you played
a very significant role as well in the Australian community as a result.
But I also want to say that not only have I had the experience this morning
of talking to and being informed by such a successful operator in the horticultural
industry. I have also had the chance this morning to learn something about
cutting edge youth services. To be told that this great private programme
that takes government services to young people directly to those young people.
I was very impressed with what Rowena and the people from Centrelink told
me about the Project. I want to congratulate the Uniting Church, I also
want to thank the offices of Centrelink and I want to commend to the business
men and women of this and other communities in rural and regional Australia
the desirability of supporting projects like that, there is no reason why
there can't be some commercial association with pluses like that, if you
can have the Uniting Church logo on it, if you can have the Centrelink logo
on it, there is no reason why you can't have the logo of some kind of business
organisation on it because what that does, what that service does it to
take facilities and services directly to young people, particularly in areas
where they may not be available in a building. But ladies and gentlemen
this is not an occasion for long speeches it is an occasion to say thank
you to people like Santo for the contribution that they are making to the
Australian economy and the contribution that they are making to their local
community, the example they set to other small business men and women around
Australia and most importantly the example they set of successful family
enterprises and I want to thank the children of the local school for the
wonderful welcome that I received this morning. It is always the most enjoyable
part of a visit to any part of Australia to be welcomed by the children
of the local community and this morning has been no exception and can I
say again how delighted I am to be here in Shepparton to be sharing the
platform with my colleague and friend Sharman Stone, who is doing an absolutely
remarkable job, a very energetic job, a very important job and can I say
a very pugnacious job when the occasion arises in representing the interests
of the Murray electorate and the people of Shepparton in the national Parliament.
ends