Thank you very much. Premier John Brumby, former Federal Member for Bendigo, Steve Gibbons, present Federal Members for Bendigo. Steve has a remarkable power of gentle persuasion to get me to fly from Melbourne to Darwin, to Indonesia, to Melbourne and drive to Bendigo in 48 hours. Well done Steve.
Bob Cameron MP, State Member for Bendigo West, Jacinta Allan MP, State Member for Bendigo East, Damian Drum MLC, State Member North Western Province, Kevin Gibbons the Mayor of Bendigo, Robert Johanson, Chairman of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Rob Hunt, Managing Director, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and you, the good citizens of Bendigo. It's good to be here.
And I too begin by acknowledging the First Australians on whose land we meet and whose cultures we celebrate as the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
What a great day for Bendigo. What a fantastic day. Here we are on this wonderful sunny morning, in this great, vibrant regional centre, in regional Victoria, celebrating a great Australian regional and now national institution, the Bendigo Bank.
As I stand here this morning and look out at this crowd I am reminded very much of a community in regional Queensland I grew up in. The great thing about communities like this is that you stick together. You work together. You have a civic pride. You have a community pride. You believe in building local institutions. You believe in adding to them year on year, decade by decade, generation by generation.
And it's that great sense of continuity and commitment that I believe is the lifeblood of regional Australia. And you see it writ large in this great civic community, this great wider community of Bendigo and I congratulate you and the Bank on your contribution to the nation.
Bendigo has always has a special grace and special grandeur about its public buildings and its monuments. With the landmark buildings that speak of the city's origins from Gold Rush days, Bendigo has always been one of Australia's great regional cities.
Even as a kid growing up in regional Queensland, we learnt all about Bendigo. It was part of our grade three, grade four, grade five, grade six, grade seven curriculum at school.
But you know Bendigo is not just a city of the past. Bendigo is a city of the future.
With this outstanding new landmark, Bendigo says to the world - this is not just an historic city. This is now a very modern city. A city for the future.
This is a city that can drive innovation that changes the face of something as basic to towns and cities across our nation as community banking.
A few generations ago, Bendigo's Lyric Theatre stood where the Bendigo Centre now stands. I understand the Lyric Theatre was the hub of activity in its time.
Just as the Lyric Theatre brought the Bendigo community together on this site last century, the new Bendigo Centre revitalises the city centre today. Not just with a new place of work but also with new public space that the Premier has just opened, through the new Lyric Square.
The Bendigo Centre has also achieved the highest standards of environmental sustainability. In fact the builders have been unable to identify any other major building outside of a capital city that is Five Star Green Star rated.
It offers to save four and a half million litres of drinking water annually by recycling 75 to 80 per cent of its water usage. With innovative design features like sunshades, an abundant use of natural light and an under-floor displacement air conditioning system, it promises to cut power usage and cut down its carbon pollution.
And can I say having just had a wander through this building, it's a fantastic building. It's alive, it's open, it's a place where staff like to be and like to work. And also when you see the abundance of natural light through it, you've got to congratulate the architects and those who had the vision to place this great building at Bendigo's centre.
This remarkable building is worthy of the remarkable story of Bendigo Bank. If we wound back the clock 150 years, all that we'd see around us might be few clumps of makeshift tents for the miners who had rushed here to build their fortunes.
But inside one of those tents, a few locals might be talking enthusiastically, sharing a dream - that one day, but one day, here in Bendigo the miners might be able to live in cottages of their own.
This was the dream that inspired 150 people to throw in five pounds worth of capital each and establish the Bendigo Permanent Land and Building Society 150 years ago, in 1858.
Today, we call it the Bendigo Bank - or to use its full title, the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, following the merger last November.
It was a remarkable beginning for an organisation that today is known around the entire nation and manages more than $43 billion in loans under management.
What is remarkable about Bendigo Bank today is not just how it has grown but what it stands for in the eyes of Australian customers.
From the top end to the southern tip, and from towns lapped by the Indian Ocean to the nation's east coast, Bendigo Bank stands for local community banking and local community spirit.
A bank that believes in local communities and invests in local communities. A bank that gives local communities a real say in how their banking service is run. A bank that helps Australians make the dream of owning their own home a reality. And a bank that also helps local businesses grow.
Some in local communities across Australia, when people see the name ‘Bendigo Bank' they don't think of Bendigo. They think Atherton or Innisfail; of Bundaberg or Bunbury or Mount Gambier or Mildura. They think of their own home town.
This is a remarkable achievement, a remarkable accomplishment given that the idea was born here. It helps explain why we're opening this building today and why Bendigo Bank now provides jobs to 1,000 people in this city and in this building.
Australians remember that when many banks were leaving local towns and suburbs, Bendigo Bank did, as the Premier noted before, exactly the opposite.
They swam against the tide, opening new community branches, supporting local communities and creating local jobs. And they've been rewarded for it.
Today, Bendigo's community banking model continues to grow, with 220 community banks now operating around Australia. Bendigo Bank now helps more than 1.3 million customers to achieve their financial goals.
It makes an important contribution to a competitive and innovative Australian banking sector. Bendigo's record of innovation goes well beyond the community banking sector for which it is most well known.
It being the first financial institution to introduce Visa debit and credit cards back in 1982. Being the first financial institution to introduce a mortgage offset account, introducing Australia's first Green Loans in 2002, forming its banking joint venture with the not-for-profit sector known as Community Sector Banking, in 2002 as well.
In addition, Bendigo Bank is a leader in social responsibility, with its charitable arm, the Community Enterprise Foundation, giving back to the community through many local charities and community projects.
Ladies and gentlemen 2008 has been a very tough year for the financial sector around the world. Indeed, it has been one of the toughest for the financial system of any of the 150 years that Bendigo Bank has been in business.
The global financial system came close to complete meltdown. We saw more than 30 major banks around the world collapse, or have to be bailed out.
Many institutions and many businesses got caught up in the global financial crisis through no fault of their own.
This crisis has made it necessary for governments around the world to step in - to stabilise institutions, to inject equity and to restore confidence.
Australia has not suffered the extremes seen in the markets of many of our closest friends and allies. But Australia has not been immune from the global financial crisis.
The Government has taken early and decisive action to do everything possible to protect the Australian economy, families and jobs from the full impact of the global financial crisis.
That's why the Government acted decisively in October to offer a guarantee for all of Australia's 15 million bank deposit accounts - unprecedented in the history of the Commonwealth. That is why we've also acted to provide a guarantee for banks, building societies and credit unions. Unprecedented again in the history of the Commonwealth.
It's why we injected $8 billion into residential-backed mortgage securities market. Unprecedented, again, in the history of the Commonwealth. All these measures necessary to stabilise the Australian financial system. And the global financial system is still not out of the woods yet.
The global financial crisis has of course become a global crisis in credit markets, stock markets and through that also, in property markets. The global financial crisis has become therefore a crisis for the real economy. And a global crisis in the real economy becomes a global crisis in employment.
And that is why the Government has begun, through the Economic Security Strategy, providing payments to families and to pensioners, carers and people with disabilities all around Australia - as part of a $10.4 billion package to stimulate the economy, to support jobs, and create through it 75,000 additional jobs.
That's why we've backed the new car plan for Australia, a $6.2 billion plan for the future. That's why we've also invested $300 million to support local activity and investment by local authorities across Australia through the recent meeting of the Council of Australian Local Governments.
And why we have in the week just passed, agreed on a package of $15.1 billion with the States and Territories to invest in hospitals, schools, education and social housing. Again with a capacity to generate a further 133,000 jobs across the nation.
Can I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Bendigo that this for us must just be the beginning. This will be a very difficult year ahead. The Government stands ready to take what additional action is necessary to support Australia through this most difficult time. And the difficult times are with us.
Let us not forget that in dealing with the global financial and economic crisis, these are not simply statistics and numbers on some balance sheet.
It's the financial security of hard-working Australian families, of pensioners, of carers that is at stake. It's the livelihood of working Australians that is at stake. It is also the jobs of Australians that is at stake.
And these are the things that matter and therefore the task of Government is to whatever is possible to reduce the impact of the global financial crisis on Australian jobs. And we've been reminded of the difficulty of that task today with the announcement of Rio Tinto's job cuts.
I believe as a community, as a national community, we can steer our way through this crisis for the future. I believe as a community, if we all pull together and recognise that we in this boat together we will come through in a strong way. I also believe that this is what the Australian people expect of us.
You know the great thing about Australia is that when you are in a crisis our habit and our custom and our history is to stick together. And guess what, we're in a global financial crisis and the challenge for the period ahead is for us all to stick together.
Each and every person of this great gathering in Bendigo today is in this together. Business, unions, employers, employees, governments - Federal, State, Local all of us - community organisations. And if we unite through this crisis we will take Australia through this crisis and we'll emerge stronger for it.
Ladies and gentlemen congratulations to those responsible for this striking building design. Bligh Voller Nield Architecture and GrayPuksand, working with ESG Consultancy Connell Wagner.
One of Bendigo Bank's property team, Richard Hasseldine, comments on the short video about the building on the Bendigo Bank website that this building aims to send the message to the local community that “we're here for long term”.
I would have thought after 150 years you didn't actually need to say that.
Congratulations to the staff of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and to Robert Johanson and his board. May Bendigo Bank continue to thrive and prosper and give life and energy to this great city for many years to come.
And having made those remarks, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure and great delight that I declare the Bendigo Centre open, finally and formally for business.