Well thank you Gary, Graham Quirk, Campbell Newman, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It's always a special experience to address a community gathering such as this to remark upon the extraordinary strength that our country derives from the volunteer efforts of so many unsung heroes within the Australian nation.
The Government I lead has three broad goals for our country's future. We wish to deliver to it national security in the proper sense of that expression. We wish to deliver economic strength and we also very importantly wish to deliver, or rather maintain, the social stability and the social cohesion of our country. And it's really in that department, that third goal that my remarks are directed towards this morning. Because what keeps a nation together, what is the national glue or the national cement at the end of the day is really the contribution of millions of individuals looking after their families, raising their children properly, accepting their responsibilities as parents and also the contribution that they make to their community. And we often overlook that, we often have this tendency of when there's a problem of saying well the government, be it the local government, the state government, or the federal government, can fix it. The reality is there are some problems governments can fix but there are a lot of problems no government, whatever its political complexion and whoever the Prime Minister or the Premier may be, is not able to fix. And that is really where strong communities matter and if you can have people working together with the government doing what it does best, but staying out of the things that it does very badly and leaving it to individuals and very strong communities to do those things then you have a better nation.
We derive a great deal of pride as Australians from the magnificent success of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. To me, who was a regular attender at those games cheering on every Australian competitor I can find, to me the greatest demonstration that came out of those Olympic Games was the extraordinary contribution made by the volunteers. And the thing that presented that friendly, open, happy, informal face to the world was of course the contribution of the volunteers.
So your Community Awards, your Achievement Awards, Gary, which I'm announcing today for the year 2004 and I think I was actually here at the inauguration of them several years ago, they are meant to recognize the contribution of countless numbers of people in the Moreton community to the happiness and the betterment of the way of life of people who live in this community. And I know that in your electorate, Gary, there is a special resonance in the fact that so many of the people of Moreton have come from different parts of the world. Australia offers a welcome to people from any part of the world, we run an immigration policy which is based on the principle of non-discrimination, we choose people on the basis of the contribution they can make to our country, we ask of them as we ask of ourselves that we give our prime and absolute loyalty with Australia above every other country and every other attitude and point of view. We don't ask them to forget the country of their birth, nobody should be asked to do that. But we do, of course, ask that people having come to this country from all parts of the world that they are received into our community as equals. The only requirement of a patriotic Australian is a total commitment to this country and that applies whether you were born here or whether you came from another country and you embrace it as your own.
And can I take the opportunity of saying to all of you what a great federal member you have in Gary Hardgrave. There's an old saying that if you want a job done, you ask the busy people to do it. And we all know that's true in life. So Gary's been very busy as Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, but I thought he was doing such a good job that I decided to give him some more work. And I decided when I had that reshuffle at the beginning of the week that as well as retaining him as the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, I'd also make him Minister Assisting the Prime Minister. And he said well what part of your job do I have to assist in and I said everything. And you'll not only have to, sort of, do particular things but you don't know the half of it mate. And so I'm going to have a bit of a talk to him next week, but he's done a very good job. He's trusted and respected by the different communities that make up the modern Australia because he's straightforward, he treats people fairly, he asks of them that they make their contribution to Australia and he asks of the rest of us that we extend the hand of welcome and the hand of friendship. And that's the basis of the modern Australian compact, each meeting... each part of the bargain meeting its obligation and Gary exemplifies that and I have enormous pleasure of not only in being here, but I have very great pleasure in launching the Moreton Australia Day Community Achievement Awards for 2004. Thank you.
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