Subjects: The Smith Family; social coalition.
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Elaine Henry, Brian France the Chairman of the Smith Family, to Mr Howarth and Mr Chandler, Mr Carpenter, the State Minister for Education and Aboriginal Affairs, my federal colleague, Senator Chris Ellison, ladies and gentlemen.
I';m delighted to be associated with the launch of the activities of the Smith Family into Western Australia. It is a well known, very highly regarded organisation that has done in simple language, great good work for many people over a long period of time. It was formed by a group of decent public-spirited businessmen who wanted to do their bit in a very unostentatious way to help relieve the underprivilege of children in certain parts of Sydney way back in the 1920s. And out of that has grown a great organisation.
But today is also significant because it is another milestone in the development of something I';ve been very keen to support in the time that I';ve been prime minister and that is the notion of partnerships between welfare organisations and business for the benefit of individuals and the benefit of the community. I speak a lot about the social coalition and that is a concept that brings together the government, welfare organisations, business and individuals, each pooling their respective talents and each working together in ways that they are best suited to do to bring about very positive outcomes. And recently I was present at a gathering where Westpac committed $1 million towards to the Learning for Life programme and it';s partnership and that of Challenge Bank. And the partnership of many other companies with the Smith Family is supporting this wonderful Learning for Life programme and what it seeks to do is through a variety of ways has been outlined to you by Elaine Henry and by Mr Chandler. It seeks to provide not only financial support and educational opportunities but also the accumulated wisdom of life that can be transmitted by people who are willing to spend time as mentors with individuals. I suspect that in the next generation mentoring will bulk more largely in the activities of organisations. Increasingly over the next twenty or thirty years we will have large numbers of people who';ve been very successful in life who are in active and physically healthy retirement with a willingness to make their time and their talents available to help people who, with the personal guidance of a mentor, can achieve so much.
I';ve heard a little of the contribution that both John and Oral McGuire have made as role models to many people in the indigenous community here in Western Australia. And one of them of course is to participate next week in a very important cricket fixture between the Chairman of ATSIC';s XI and the Prime Minister';s XI at Manuka Oval. And it will be a way in which we can demonstrate to the Australian population the great talents of young indigenous Australians in that very fine game. But of course their talents have not only been in cricket, they';ve also been in football as well.
But today is an occasion for me to honour the contribution of the Smith Family to not only the relief of distress and underprivilege in the Australian community over eighty years but also having the wisdom and the foresight and the vision to diversify its activities, maintaining its strong commitment to its core responsibility of looking after underprivileged families but also recognising that there are new and different ways of helping people and it';s to be commended. But also to be commended is the Challenge Bank, KPMG and all those other philanthropic organisations that are so keen to work in partnership with welfare organisations.
My plea to business is always not so much that business should give more but rather more businesses should give and the involvement of so many companies and the growing embrace of the concept of corporate philanthropy, the burgeoning number of partnerships between business organisations and welfare organisations is a wholly welcome development in our society. And it does give the lie to the rather stereotyped, inaccurate view that so many people hold of the business community of Australia that they';re only interested in making profits. Of course they';re interested in making profits and so they should be because making profits generates revenue for governments that enable them to provide welfare services for people who need help. And anybody who decries profit making is of course decrying the basis of our economic and social wellbeing. But they do have social obligations, they have an obligation to put something back as we all have an obligation to put something back into our community that has given us opportunities in life and I welcome the fact that so many Australian companies are magnificently discharging those social responsibilities and it all makes for a better society. And on the eve of Easter it is important that we reflect upon those ways in which we can work together as a community to build a more decent, sensitive, caring Australian community and the Smith Family';s been doing that for almost eighty years and the Learning for Life partnership is a great demonstration of the co-operative effort of corporate Australia and welfare Australia.
I have great pleasure in formally launching the Smith Family, I think I';m meant to do that, into Western Australia. I know you';ll flourish in this vibrant Western Australian environment that I know so very well on my numerous visits to the state. I wish you well. I thank the Challenge Bank. I thank all of those who';ve contributed so magnificently to the work of the Smith Family.
Thank you.
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