Subjects: Australia Day
E&OE..................
To Gary Humphries, the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Admiral Chris Barrie, Major General Peter Cosgrove, my parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
In this quite magnificent setting and with the support of the magnificently and newly formed federation guard, this is as Marjorie said, a very special Australia Day. It is Australia Day in the year in which we celebrate the centenary of the federation of Australia.
It is an opportunity, and I join Marjorie Turbayne in the doing so, to welcome to the family of Australia those people who have become Australian citizens on this Australia Day, the 26th of January 2001.
We are entitled because of the community we are, to celebrate Australia Day in whatever way we choose to do. And that is, we reflect upon the last 100 years in particular, it is an occasion to honour those who have done to so much to build such a magnificent nation over that period of time. And especially in this year of the centenary of the formation of the Australian Army, we acknowledge with great depth the people of Australia who laid down their lives in the wars in which this country was involved and who defended this country and the cause of freedom around the world.
It is also an occasion to honour every other section of the Australian community which has built such a harmonious and united nation. We were on display magnificently to the rest of the world last year with the Olympic Games, but as a freedom loving, tolerant and cohesive community we are always on display, not only to ourselves, but to the rest of the world.
We have much to be grateful for in this country. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to those four generations of Australians who over the last 100 years have built this nation to what it is today. That places a great responsibility on current generations to preserve the values of the past that are worth preserving but also to address those flaws and those difficulties and challenges within modern day Australian life that need to be efffectively addressed to build an even greater future.
I invite all of you to celebrate Australia Day, celebrate in whatever way you see fit, but I think most of all that we will together celebrate the sheer joy of being Australian. Thank you.