Well thank you very much Annie for reminding everybody I entered politics in the last millennium. But can I say to my parliamentary colleague Kay Patterson, to Aunty Silvia Scott, and thank you very much for your warm and gracious words of welcome, all the members of the Government's community business partnership group who represent large companies, smaller companies, welfare sector as well as people who have had a long philanthropic tradition all of their lives.
It is true, as Annie said, that back in 1999 we established the community business partnership. I guess the first time that I publicly alluded to a concept that took form with the establishment of that group in 1999 was when I addressed a meeting of ACOSS just after the 1998 election and I'd been thinking for some considerable time that both in Australia and in other comparable countries we had spent an enormous amount of time, both at a political level and also as a community debating whether it was better for the public sector to do something to help people, or whether it was better for the private sector to do something. And we said that to expend an enormous amount of energy in a debate about exclusive roles, we had people saying the government has no business in this, or we had other people saying only the government can perform a function and the private sector has no role in it. And I came to the view that really that was a pretty futile debate, that if we were going to achieve the goals that we wanted to achieve as Australians, if we wanted to strengthen our economy, if we wanted to build further the great social stability which has been a hallmark of Australian society, we really had to recognise that there were some things along the way to achieving those goals that only the government could do, only the government can provide a social security safety net, only the government at a federal level can provide national leadership for certain things, only a national government has the capacity to co-ordinate national efforts. But there are some things that governments are terrible at doing, and those things are best performed by others within the community. And if those we can harness the government, the business sector, those who dedicate their lives to helping others and also well motivated philanthropic individuals, each recognising that they have a role, not competing with each other, not trying to prove a point, that it was really something for the government or something for the private sector, we might begin to find some solutions. And I developed the notion of a social coalition and I said something about that coalition when I addressed ACOSS back in December of 1998. And out of that I formed a view and my colleagues in the Government formed a view with a lot of good advice from people who'd given a lot of their resources and given a lot of their time to helping the less fortunate in the community, we developed the idea of a community business partnership. And we were talking about it at the board meeting this afternoon and the thing on which we all agreed was that the idea has really taken off over the last five years, we like to think that in a small way each of us has made a contribution to it, and over the last five years the idea of corporations forming partnerships with community groups, the idea of treble bottom line accounting, the idea that it was part of your responsibility of a successful corporate citizen to give something back into the community and to work together with others who achieve goals for Australia, those ideas have really taken root and I think it says something about the good shape of the heart of the Australian business community and it gets a lot of criticism from some ill-informed people on occasions, and on occasions some members of the business community deserve all the criticism they get, but generally speaking that is not the case. I think it does say something for the good heart of that community that at a time when this country is going through great economic prosperity, when the profits share of Australian business is probably at its highest level at any time since Federation, that's a remarkable claim to make, but I think it is probably true if you analyse the statistics, or very nearly at the highest level it's been. It is also coincided at a time when more than ever before the business community has got involved in partnership with organisations designed to build better lives and provide greater hope and provide greater opportunity.
So I see the last five years as being very much a journey along the path to living out in the area of building stronger communities, those ideals of mateship and of partnership between different sections of our community that is so much a hallmark of this society of ours. We are very blessed to be Australians because we have opportunities and we have qualities and our egalitarian nature and our capacity to easily mix with each other and dissolve barriers more readily than many other societies has meant that we have been able to take to our activities the notion of community business partnerships in a quite special way.
So can I say to all of you who've been involved in this, to the business community, to all of the community groups, to all of those who are here tonight, many of you as finalists, many of you as participants, but all of you know I very much committed to the notion of Australian mateship which really is at the heart of the concept of community business partnerships. Thank you for what you are doing to build an even more socially stable Australia and to build an even more generous Australian community.
Ladies and gentlemen, this year's awards have attracted 308 nominations, which is a 15 per cent increase over 2002. And it's a demonstration of the work of the partnership and the leadership role that it's been displaying during that period of time has been very very successful. And one of the things that we have been able to do with the advice of our business members and those who've contributed in response to requests is to make a number of quite important changes to the taxation legislation to encourage and make more easy the contributions of those and the investment of their resources by those who would want to help. And I think it's also worth recalling in that context that in September the Government announced a new initiative based on the work of the partnership to enhance the ability of charities to use special events such as dinners to fundraise, I've found a very technical thing to mention at a gathering such as this, that those of you who have been involved in those activities, and I guess this includes just about all of you, will know that the previous rules represented in their technical operations quite a significant barrier to the full amplitude of fundraising by many charities. At the 2002 awards presentation I spoke about a new partnership brokerage service and now fully operationally I would like to formally launch that service tonight. And the service will match small to medium sized community organisations and businesses and encourage them to build strong partnerships. The service will be operated by Our Community Pty Ltd an on-line gateway to 700,000 community groups and schools, in conjunction with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Municipal Association of Victoria.
More recently the partnership has also been looking at something that is very important to Australia's future and that is how to improve the workforce participation of older or mature aged Australians. And a special committee has been formed to tackle this issue, made up of people from business peak bodies, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, National Seniors and Jobs Australia. And I expect to receive their recommendations next year. And can I also finally announce that given the range of work the partnership is now undertaking, I've broadened the membership of it this year and I want to publicly welcome to the partnership Elaine Henry, the Chief Executive Officer of the Smith Family, Mr Rob Hunt, the Managing Director of the Bendigo Bank, and Dr David Morgan, the Managing Director of the Westpac Banking Corporation. Each of them will bring particular skills to an already highly talented and skilful board. And can I thank all of the members of the board for their tremendous contribution, can I thank all of you for the support you have given to the values and the objectives of community business partnerships, I am very quietly proud of what we have been able to achieve, I think we have helped to accelerate a very desirable change that perhaps was underway anyway in Australian society, I think we have in the process built partnerships that will of great value and partnerships that will contribute towards building a ever more stable and stronger Australian community.
Thank you.
[ends]