PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much, Gordon. Mark Vaile, your Excellencies, John O';Neill, Rod McQueen, Ladies and Gentlemen. I think all of us know that at various stages in our lives in different situations, some very public, some very private we sort of pinch ourselves and say can this be real, can this be really happening. And I think collectively as a nation and particularly people who are followers of rugby, this week and indeed the whole of the time that the World Cup has been on since its opening on the 10th of October, is collectively just one of those moments. It';s hard to think of anything so far that has gone wrong. So far. But even if something were between now and the end to go wrong we would all have to celebrate this as one of those great sporting achievements and most importantly to me and, I know, to everybody in this audience we celebrate it as a wonderful occasion on which our country has been put lately on display to the rest of the world and it';s been a source of enormous pride to me as Prime Minister to see such a superbly organised World Cup and can I say to you, John, and through you to all of your colleagues in the Australian Rugby Union, what an absolutely fantastic job you have done for our country.
I was in England last week. Thanks very much for those, different kind of welcome, world in union and now some fire works. But in England last weekend, I lost count of the number of people who came up to me and spoke warmly of how well the World Cup had been organised. I had the opportunity of watching the last ten minutes of the game between England and Wales with Tony Blair in the kitchen at 10 Downing Street, as the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland he was doing a very good job of maintaining impartiality between England and Wales.
And then I had the tremendous pleasure of the previous evening of ringing George to congratulate Australia on its quarterfinal victory and George very calmly said to me, “well, we look forward to welcoming you in the dressing room next Saturday night for a celebratory drink. And I thought, gee, that';s tremendous, and great confidence. And it has been an occasion where all the best things about Australia have been on display to the rest of the world – our hospitality, our warmth, our openness, our lack of pretention as a nation which makes it so easy to welcome in an uninhibited way people from all around the world. And also, of course, our fiercely competitive character which is a hallmark not only of Australian sportsmen and women, but also of Australians in business.
But a competition like this isn';t made by those who organise it and isn';t made by a host country. It';s also made by those who come to our country and symbolically here tonight I know the British High Commissioner, the New Zealand High Commissioner and the Ambassador of France, the Diplomats representing the other three countries in the semifinals then and through them to all of the visitors from overseas who have together enjoyed this great occasion. I think the notion of combining the Australian passion for sport, the Australian commitment to sport, the great worldwide fraternity of rugby, the warmth and strength of which is one of which is the distinguishing characteristics of the game to combine those things together and the way in which the rugby club, the business rugby club has done – it doesn';t surprise me to hear from Rod that is has been so incredibly successful.
And, of course, all of this is happening at a time when it';s fair to say that Australia has never been more self confident, it';s never had a stronger economy, it has never had a more outward looking view of the world than we do at the present time. We';re not a nation that will ever allow ourselves to be pigeonholed by associations. We';re a nation that sees itself as a full participant in the affairs not just of our region, important though it is to us, but also of the entire world. Rod was reflecting a few moments ago on the qualities that make up the Australian businessman or women. And one of the things that we Australians, if I may modestly say on behalf of all of the rest of you without too much fear of contradiction I hope – one of few things that I think we are very good at is being adaptable.
We';ve never had the experience of thinking for a moment that we ran the world. We';ve recognised that we';ve had to punch above our weight. We only have a population of 20 million people. We are a nation with very strong European roots that is now cast in the region in which we live and we have learnt to combine the attributes or our past associations with the opportunities that present themselves in our region. And the way in which we';ve been able to draw on the talents, and the contributions, and the capacities of people of different ethnicities which contribute so richly to the modern Australia. All of those things have given us a special capacity to reach out.
We are known as fiercely competitive sporting participants and we';re not ashamed of that, we';re very proud of it. But I think we';re also known as people who recognise the necessity to adapt, to get on with others, recognise the necessity that the world doesn';t owe us a living unless we';re prepared to go out there and fight for our market share, it';s not going to fall in our lap. And in a way combining the enthusiasm of our sports participants, be it rugby, be it cricket, be it the Olympic sports, tennis, whatever sport you wish to name – combining that enthusiasm with our adaptability in business in a sense is what the organisation that Mark has and his colleagues in Austrade have been responsible for over the past few months is what it';s all about.
So tonight, is of course an opportunity in a very expected way to come together in this very exciting moment in Sydney';s history, in Australia';s history to look back on some weeks of enormous achievement the way in which most importantly of all our country has looked good because it has been good, because it';s welcomed people from all around the world. It';s played great sport, it';s played great rugby. And those people who have represented us have been an ornament to the sporting tradition of our country. So can I just finally say, to all of those, to you Mark and Rod, and everybody else who';s been associated with the Business Rugby Club. I hope much prosperity flows from it. You combine two things that are very important to Australia';s future that is playing sport and doing good at business. I think we';ve done both of them pretty well to date. I hope we continue to do well and I pray for a very dry and warm Saturday night.
Thank you.
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