E&OE...............................................................................................
PRIME MINISTER
Your Excellency, the Governor General, Sir William Deane and Lady Deane,
the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Frank Sartor, Major General Peter Cosgrove and
my ministerial and parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
Today is an opportunity in a very public fashion for a group of Australians
to express their thanks, their gratitude and their respect to the men
and women of the Australian Defence Force as well as the men and women
of the Australian Federal Police for the remarkable job that they did
in bringing peace, stability and freedom to the people of East Timor.
In doing what they did, they followed in a great Australian military
tradition. A tradition that does not seek to impose the will of this country
on others, but rather to defend what is right and to uphold the opportunity
of people to live in freedom and in peace. And I have to say ladies and
gentlemen that of all of the great privileges that have come my way as
prime minister of this great country of ours, none has been more moving
and more important than the opportunity I had to say goodbye to the men
and women who were going to East Timor, understandably feeling a sense
of trepidation and concern about the future, but nonetheless determined
and resolved in a quiet professional way to do their duty by their profession
and by their country. And then the further opportunity, ladies and gentlemen
to visit them in Dili and elsewhere in East Timor, to see the magnificent
way in which they interacted with the people of East Timor and the quiet
professionalism that they were displaying.
So can I say on behalf of everybody gathered, to the men and women who
served Australia so well, who went abroad not in the name of one particular
point of view in Australia, but went abroad in the name of Australia representing
all of us to do a duty, to pursue a mission, to protect the people and
to bring peace in accordance with the great traditions for which Australia
stands.
To you Major General Cosgrove, for your splendid inspiring command, you
have won the respect and the affection of the entire nation. To Superintendent
Alan Blake, and Superintendent Donovan of the Australian Federal Police,
you should also feel very content and proud of the tremendous role that
you discharged in great danger and in accordance with the best traditions
of the professional police force to which you belong.
This is a proud day, not only for the people of Sydney, but also for
the people of Australia. We say thank you to the men and women of our
forces for a magnificent job done in our name which has brought great
credit to you and through you great credit to our nation.
[Ends]