Madame President, First Gentlemen, Mr Vice President, Majority Leader, Your Excellency President Aquino, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Janette and I are delighted to be your guests and have the opportunity tonight of reaffirming a very long friendship between our two peoples. It';s a friendship that has been close for many years. We fought together for the liberation of the people of this country, and in more recent times Australia has greatly valued the support that your country extended to the coalition of the willing in the campaign to liberate the people of Iraq.
I want to emphasise to all of you tonight the great value that Australia places on the people to people links between our two countries. More than 100,000 Australians owe their heritage to the Filipino Republic, and they are making an invaluable contribution to the contemporary Australian society which is drawn from so many peoples from so many parts of the world.
We live, sadly but unavoidably, in an age of terrorism. And all of us must combine, particularly those in our own region, to work together as closely as possible to fight the scourge of terrorism, to address some of the basic causes of it and to remember that in the end terrorism opposes us not because of what we have done, but because of who we are and what we stand for. Extremists oppose free peoples. Extremists abhor open societies such as Australia and the Philippines, and we all do well on occasions such as this to remember the values of freedom and democracy that we have in common.
Can I say on behalf of all of the Australian people that we wish you well, we admire the commitment to change and reform which is important to your future. I pledge on behalf of the Australian Government the continued cooperation of our agencies, our military, our police force, in working together to combat the common enemies that our two nations face.
Might I invite all of you to join in a toast to the very good health of the President, her husband, her family, and I';m delighted that so many of her family are here tonight, and to the continuing friendship and close cooperation of the people of Australia and the people of the Philippines. Cheers.
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