Excellencies.
Members of the Commonwealth family,
Friends,
In particular thank you Sir Mark and Ambassador Charles for co-hosting this event.
Thank you Ambassador Charles, and Minister Bellingham for your kind remarks.
I am grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge Commonwealth Day with you here.
This year's Commonwealth Day celebrations focus on women as agents of change.
I think this theme is particularly appropriate for Commonwealth Day as the day itself focuses so much on reaching young people through schools.
There's a marvellous practicality and idealism in the selection of the second Monday in March as Commonwealth Day.
The ideal of sharing our hopes for a better world with the children of our countries the practicality that this particular day is chosen because it is a day when all our countries' children are in school!
It is a very Commonwealth approach.
A billion women and girls live in Commonwealth countries.
If every one of those girls lived in a safe home, had good food and clean water and could get health care, we would live in a different world.
Not just because of the difference it would make in their lives but because of the difference they could then make in the lives of their communities and the world as agents of change.
I have spent several days of this week here in New York and at the UN in wide ranging discussions with quite a range of people.
Coming here to mark Commonwealth Day after that range of conversations I am very strongly reminded of the things Commonwealth countries really share.
We share a distinctive way of doing things internationally.
Consulting and co-operating, in the common interests of our peoples, and supporting international understanding and world peace.
Events in the world and the issues we discuss as leaders regularly remind me:
Not every country in the world shares this way of working.
So it's good to be here with so many Commonwealth partners.
We also share a distinctive set of concerns internationally.
International peace and order. Liberty for individuals. Deep opposition to racism. An ever-growing commitment to development. And addressing climate change.
So it's good to be here with so many Commonwealth friends.
The nations and peoples of the Commonwealth - nations and peoples of six continents and five oceans - are enormously diverse.
Taking in one quarter of the UN's members ... one third of the world's population ... and acting as a voice for some of the smallest countries in the developing world.
Yet these values we share - our distinctive way of doing things in the world and our distinctive set of concerns for the world's people - unite us in a way that is truly wonderful.
Our association of sovereign nations shares a remarkable international friendship.
COMMONWEALTH HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING 2011
I'm delighted Australia will be hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October this year.
Australia was honoured to be selected as the host nation, in our western city of Perth.
Our preparations are well advanced and the setting for our meeting could not be more appropriate.
Perth is a beautiful city.
Perth overlooks the Indian Ocean and serves as a gateway to the beautiful state of Western Australia.
It is a vibrant multicultural city, a centre for Australia's burgeoning minerals industry and enjoys rapidly expanding links to Asia, India and Africa, with many Commonwealth countries included.
A fitting symbol of Australia's engagement in the world.
As Chair of CHOGM, I want Australia to make a difference for the small and medium countries of the world. No-one should have a monopoly on global decision-making.
Australia's history and geography combine to give us a unique perspective: a perspective of both the North and the South. Ensuring small and medium states have a voice in international decisions is an important priority for CHOGM.
AUSTRALIA'S APPROACH AT THE UNITED NATIONS
The presence of so many friends from so many countries does give me an opportunity to describe Australia's approach to the challenges the nations of the world face today.
Combining practicality and idealism ... in service of our distinctive way of doing things in the world ... and our distinctive set of concerns for the world's people.
The challenge of international peace and order.
When ordinary people think of the UN, they often think of peacekeepers - blue helmets.
And increasingly we think of UN peace-builders. These functions are a crucial benchmark for the UN's success or failure in an increasingly complex world.
Australia has participated in more than 50 UN and other multilateral missions across the globe, and led several of these in our own region - in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Today we have 3500 troops deployed globally for peace and security operations.
The challenge to foster liberty for individuals.
Australia has an enduring commitment to the aims and purposes of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Earlier this year, Australia was examined at the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and we feel our record is worthy of our democratic aspirations.
As we have recently been reminded, the desire for human dignity and respect is universal. Governments forget this at their peril.
The challenge of racism.
Australia has a strong human rights record. But like every country we can do better.
Our own great challenge lies in closing the gap between Indigenous Australians and our society as a whole.
In 2008 the Australian Parliament issued what is now simple know as the National Apology to our indigenous people.
This was an historic and emotional moment in our modern history.
And our work goes on, to “close the gap” between indigenous people and all Australians.
Global poverty.
The 2000 UN Millennium Summit fundamentally changed the way world leaders saw development.
We put the Millennium Development Goals at the heart of our development cooperation program.
Australia has more than doubled our development assistance in the last five years and we are intending to double it again to 2015.
Climate Change
We played an active and constructive role in the formation of the Cancun Agreements which built on the Copenhagen accord.
Small island states under threat of climate change and rising oceans know Australia is doing everything possible internationally.
Our Fast Start funding of around $600 million was announced early and almost 80 per cent of it has already been allocated to developing countries.
This is part of the $1.2 billion we are spending on climate change in developing countries over the next few years.
This is an ambitious agenda, addressing many challenges in many ways.
I believe this ambition is appropriate.
We are ambitious for the UN and for the countries of the world.
We hope others will share our ambition too.
I have appreciated the opportunity to present some of these thoughts to you.
It is against this background that Australia has presented its candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2013-14. I believe we have something to contribute.
Australians are proud of our modern, multicultural people.
We are a global people: one quarter of Australians were born overseas.
And Australians are proud of our enthusiasm, energy and ideas.
We are straightforward: we do what we say.
We believe in the multilateral system and its capacity to address global problems.
We believe in the ideal of good global citizenship.
We believe we can make a difference for the small and medium countries of the world.
Happy Commonwealth Day!