E&OE...........
Well thank you very much Mr Mayor, my Federal Parliamentary colleague Kay Hull, my state colleague Daryl Maguire; Your Grace; group captain; Colonel, other councillors, ladies and gentlemen.
25 years is too long a gap between prime ministerial visits but I';m delighted to be in the city of Wagga Wagga. I';m delighted to be here not only as a guest of the city council but also a guest of my very esteemed, hard working, Federal Parliamentary colleague Kay Hull who does an absolutely fantastic job.
People often say to me, and not least school groups that come to Canberra, and they';ll come around to the Prime Ministerial courtyard and we';ll chat for a while and then I';ll invite them into my office and they';ll gather around the old desk that I';m very pleased to occupy which has been used by most Australian prime ministers since the old Parliament House was built in 1927. And invariably the school children will say to me what is the best part of your job? And I say to them, and I say to you today, the best part of being Prime Minister of Australia are the endless opportunities it gives you to meet different groups of Australians in their home town or city environment, whether it';s in the metropolitan areas of Australia or in the country areas or in big regional cities such as Wagga Wagga. And it';s an opportunity to go around our vast and wonderful country and to have the opportunity of talking to a cross section of Australians in their own home environment.
The city of Wagga Wagga is a remarkable place, I don';t need to tell you that, I won';t have any argument in this audience, you';d expect me to say that but I mean it because it has a combination of just about all you need for congenial living. It is the largest inland city in New South Wales. It relies very heavily on a lot of different industries, it has a very powerful education heart with the TAFE college and other facilities, it is a very important defence centre and I';m delighted that the RAAF base will continue long into the future as a very important element of the life and activity of the city of Wagga Wagga. Not to forget of course the important contribution made by the Army as well to this part of New South Wales and this part of Australia.
It';s a part of Australia that depends very heavily of course, despite all its other industries, it also depends very heavily on the traditional rural industries of Australia. So it';s really got just about everything. But of course on top of that it';s got another characteristic that endears it very much to Australia and that is it has an incredible capacity to produce talented sportsmen and women. I mean I did an interview on the local FM station and the interviewer said to me are you going to drink the water? I said of course, I would drink the water. She said well that';s the reason why we produce so many good sportsmen and women, she said it';s the water. And I can say I had the pleasure of spending some time with one of your, I might say I might be forgiven for saying because of my known passions in this area, arguably the greatest sporting export that';s come out of Wagga Wagga - Mark Taylor. And I spent some time with him yesterday and he asked to be warmly remembered, as did his mother and father, to the people of Wagga Wagga.
So when you put all of that together it';s a pretty remarkable place. But the other thing that makes any community remarkable, and Wagga Wagga is no exception, is of course the network of community services that sustains it. And as I moved around the room this morning, came across the representatives of Mission Australia, of the Smith Family, the principals of the high schools, the teachers, the ambulance services, the police, and a gathering like this is a great opportunity for all of us to remind ourselves of how much we depend on each other.
One of the great things about Australia is that we work together very well for the common good. Because we';re not a pretentious people, we';re not a snobbish society, we don';t have a class structure. When we';ve got a goal that we want to achieve we';re very good at working together because we respect people for what they do and who they are, not where they come from or what particular social strata they might presume to belong to. And a community gathering like this is a powerful reminder not only of the diversity of a great city such as Wagga Wagga but it';s also a very powerful reminder of what we all share in common and Australians through the years and right now we';re doing it again, we work together very very effectively in order to tackle common problems.
Now right at the moment the Australian economy is going pretty well, but that doesn';t mean to say everything';s perfect and I';m very conscious of the fact that we could do with a little more rain, not only in this part of the world but many other parts of rural Australia. And along with everybody else who cares about the future of the country in Australia we hope that rain does come because over the last couple of years our farmers have had a slightly better break than they';ve had for a long time and gee they deserved it because they had years and years of drought and low world prices. Some years ago they had to suffer very high interest rates. So we hope that the good, the relatively good news of the last few years will continue.
Now I don';t come to these gatherings of communities to make partisan political speeches. I think you';ve got a rough idea of which party I belong to but I welcome everybody to a gathering like this because we are Australians above everything else. And at a time when Australia has important international responsibilities we have at the moment more Australian service men and women overseas than probably at any time since our involvement in the Vietnam War back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Not only in Afghanistan but continuing a very large contingent representing Australia in East Timor and a continued presence in Bougainville and various units and groups of Australian defence personnel in other parts of the world.
And it';s an important reminder to all of us, particularly a city that has a very powerful ADF connection, It';s an important reminder that commitment to the defence of Australia and commitment to Australia';s role in the world wide fight against terrorism is a very important national priority at the present time. We have put more money into defence spending and unless circumstances change significantly it may be the case that we will have to put even more money into defence spending in the years ahead. And it';s an important commitment because what happened last year in the United States was an as much an attack on the values that we stand for as it was an attack on the values for which the American people stand. And we all know how interconnected the world is and we can';t wash our hands of some kind of role and responsibility in dealing with that and we therefore have a very important responsibility as part of a world wide response to that.
But ladies and gentlemen can I say to the Mayor that I appreciate very much the very warm words of welcome that he';s extended to me and can I say how delighted I am that so many school children and students are here. And might I say to those school students how much I admire the work that is done by your teachers. The teaching profession is a very important profession in our community. Teachers mould and shape the lives and the attitudes of children very much. A good teacher is priceless asset in the upbringing of a child, it is a priceless asset in forming and moulding the character of children. Sometimes we, as schoolchildren and pupils we sometimes have mixed reactions to some of the things we';re told to do by our teachers. That';s human nature. I was no different when I was at school than I guess you are. But I do remember as time has gone by, can I say to the school students here, as time goes by you will remember it in an increasingly positive way the influence that many of your teachers have had on you.
So finally might I say to you that being here in Wagga Wagga is a reminder to me of a number of things. It';s a reminder of the power of local communities, it';s a reminder that the world doesn';t just revolve around Canberra and Sydney and Melbourne, that Australia is made up of big cities but it';s also made up of small local communities. I';m going out in a few minutes to Ganmain to open a rural transaction centre. It';s a little town with a population of what, 250. It';s a very small community. But it has needs and it has rights, the people who live there have a right to have access to services the same way as people who live on the north-shore of Sydney or in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. And part of what the Government has tried to do in a lot of these areas is where towns have fallen in their population to a certain level and they can';t sustain services what the Government has tried to do is to take those services and to try and put some of them back because we don';t want to see our country towns continuing to decline. It';s good to have thriving hub cities like Wagga Wagga and Dubbo but it';s also very good to have strong, small, local country towns and that gets increasingly harder when there';s a decline in some of the traditional industries. And the role of the Government is to try and not only create the economic conditions to keep people on the land and try and keep the farms more prosperous, but it';s also the role of the Government where it can to take some services back which we';ve tried to do with rural transaction centres.
So Mr Mayor you';ve been very gracious with your words. I want to thank you for that. I want to thank the people of Wagga Wagga for the contribution that they are making to Australia because you are a prime example of a thriving regional city that really has had its act together for a long time and is contributing an enormous amount to our country. And finally can I thank all the volunteers who are here today. That probably in its various guises includes just about everybody because in different ways everybody in Australia seems to volunteer their services for something because we have a great volunteer tradition in this country. It was on wonderful display to the world at the time of the Olympic Games but you and I both know that it';s been there since this country began and it will always be there because it is very much part of the Australia spirit.
So Kay and Daryl and Mr Mayor thank you for inviting me. I';m delighted to be back in Wagga Wagga and I look forward to seeing a little more of you and the surrounding [inaudible] over the next day or two. Thank you very much.
[Ends]