Thank you very much Mr Mayor, Barry Wakelin, his wife Tina, ladies and gentleman, it's a great pleasure to be back in Whyalla. I think I last came to this city as Prime Minister probably about five or six years ago and I have of course visited on many occasions in different disguises over the years, and what the Mayor was saying about the magnificent investment by OneSteel in the future of Whyalla and how reassuring that investment is - is really a metaphor for the way in which this city, has in many senses, has been an example to communities around Australia, as our economic needs, or our economic structure has changed. The way in which the city and the people of Whyalla have adjusted to the changed economic circumstances of Australia, and they have faced those changes in a positive fashion and as a result, the city looks forward to a very bright and stable and prosperous future.
I am very happy of course to note along the way that the position the Federal Government took to support the construction of the Darwin to Alice Springs Railway, meant that a large number of additional jobs were created in and around, or maintained in and around Whyalla, and of course the production of steel needed in connection with that railway provided a very valuable boost to this city. The economy of Australia of course has changed a lot over the last 10 or 15 years, most of those changes have been for the better, but in the process of change it's always challenging and there is always a tendency for communities to say well I have had something in the past, I need to hang onto that, because it gave me assurance and it gave me confidence. The only difficulty with that attitude is that because the world circumstances have changed, it's never possible entirely to hang on to what was the case in the past, and what I think the people of Whyalla have done and I pay tribute to the community, I pay tribute to the companies, I pay tribute to the contribution that unions also have made to the changes that have meant that the city has altered the way it operates. It's maintained a strong manufacturing base that has diversified into service industries and of course as I move around here, I am conscious that this audience comprises people connected with rural industry with service industries, with manufacturing industry, of course it also comprises people who represent all the many community organisations that make a community, make a town, and make a nation strong and unified.
I have just, as you know, come back a visit from a number of countries and the last port of call I had was to visit the Australian forces stationed at Al Muthanna in southern Iraq and leaving aside people's views about Iraq and let me say that everybody agrees that our men and women are doing a magnificent job. Just before coming here I dropped by at a sheep station in the Eyre Peninsula and one of those that was devastated by the fires earlier this year and I met the three shearers and one of them stopped for a moment and he said how were the boys in southern Iraq, he said I think they are doing and absolutely fantastic job. I think he spoke for all Australians in expressing our admiration for the outstanding work that the men and women of the Australian Defence Force do wherever they are sent anywhere in the world.
But the strongest impression I get when I go abroad, hopefully doing some good things for Australia, the strongest impression I get is that I am privileged to be Prime Minister of a country that is respected and admired around the world for a number of things. It is respected and admired around the world because it is regarded as a stable and peaceful democratic society. It is respected around the world because we have a very strong economy, our unemployment rate, along with the unemployment rates of Britain and the United States and New Zealand, are the envy of countries in Europe. You go to France and Germany, the unemployment rate is 10% or 11% which is double what it is here in Australia. We are respected because we've undertaken a lot of economic change and reform over the last 15 years and we've been able as a result of that to strengthen our economy and to diversify the character of our economy and diversify our export base.
We are also respected around the world because we are a friendly open people. I had the opportunity when I was in London of having a talk over dinner with Sebastian Coe who (of long distance running fame) who is the Chairman of the successful bid by London to secure the Olympic Games for 2012. I mean you remember, it's almost been blotted from our recollection because the terrible terrorist attack on the London Underground occurred 24 hours after London had won that bid, but Sebastian had said to me that he was very grateful for the help that he'd been given in putting together the London bid from people connected with the Sydney Games in 2000. He said that one of the things he was determined to emulate at the London Games of 2012 was the wonderful use of volunteers which were in my mind as somebody who as you may have noticed, attended the Games fairly frequently to cheer for the wonderfully successful Australian athletes, the friendliness and the openness of those volunteers was one of the absolute highlights of those Games.
So on all of those scores, Australia is now regarded as a nation respected, a nation listened to, a nation regarded as open and friendly, but also a nation regarded as very confident in itself. You may have noticed the other night, when our Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was in Vientiane at that meeting of the East Asia Summit when they all had to sing, and I said to Alexander Downer when I spoke to him over the weekend, I said I will only go to that as Prime Minister to that meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December of this year on one condition, and that is I don't have to sing. I know my limits and I intend to stick to my day job and I have no false pretence, I have no false pretensions about any of my entertainment capacity.
But Alexander was asked that question by one of the journalists from one of the countries and the journalist said to them, now Mr Downer that Australia is joining the East Asian Summit, 'do you feel an East Asian?' And he said, 'no', he said 'I feel an Australian', and I thought that is exactly what he should feel, that is exactly what he should always have felt. We went through a rather silly phase a few years ago in this country of wondering whether we were Asian or East Asian or South Asian, or European, or western or whatever and all the time we were something that people have always recognised, they have for decades, and that is that we are Australians, and we have some distinctive characteristics of our own which the rest of the world undeniably recognises and it's a great feeling to know that the characteristics of the nation you represent, are so widely admired and so widely respected.
Can I say my friends that this gathering is like many gatherings I have the privilege of addressing as I go around Australia. It's a gathering of people who have come together to make a community and to make a town and to provide that solid mass of identity and support that keeps the Australian nation going. We are a great volunteer society and without the volunteers we wouldn't achieve all the things we want to achieve. I've tried in the time that I've been Prime Minister to promote the notion of what I call the social coalition. When you hear the word coalition, you tend to think of it in political terms. I'm talking here not of it being in political terms, but being in social terms. There are a lot of things that we need to do in our community and we are a wealthy nation, we are a very lucky country, but there is still a lot of people in our midst who need help and no one section of the society can do it on its own. The Federal Government can't do everything on its own, the State Government can't, the Local Council can't, individual organisations, magnificent though they are, and I met some people in the short time I've been here from the St Vincent De Paul Society, a wonderful organisation that for decades has provided relief and support to the needy in our community. Those organisations can't do it on their own, but if we work together, if we provide the financial resources of the Government, if we provide the on the ground compassionate personal commitment of individuals, if we provide the wealth of experience that great welfare organisations have acquired over the years and if we tap the philanthropic spirit of individual Australians and individual business men an women, we can together as a coalition, we can tackle so many of these problems.
I have noticed over the past few years, a growing incidence of how a business organisation, a welfare organisation and also involving often financial support from the Government, they'll come together to solve a problem, where as 20 years ago they tried to do it on their own and they saw themselves as working separately and apart and I think that notion of a social coalition is spreading because the reality is that the more I see of the Australian community, the more I believe that we really do all need each other, we can't achieve these things on our own and yours is a community that has done that and yours is a community that has demonstrated the great value of people sinking their differences and ignoring their different backgrounds in order to work together to achieve some common public and community aspirations.
The last thing I want to say to you and I'd then like to resume my wander around the room to meet everybody, is to commend the magnificent job that Barry Wakelin does as your Federal Member. Barry has been your incredibly energetic member since 1993 which is only 20, what 12 years ago, and he's done an absolutely magnificent job - 20, I am sorry, its 12 years ago, you are only a young fella, I came in in 1974. So can I just say that Barry does a terrific job, this is a very big electorate, my electorate is 8 1/2 square miles or a bit less, its one of those pocket handkerchiefs sized electorates in metropolitan Sydney, very very small. Barry's is a very big electorate, it covers most of South Australia and it's not easy to represent an electorate that, you've got to understand the diverse needs of farmers, of heavy manufacturing industry, of the fishing industry, of small rural communities, and of small outer urban communities as well. He does a fantastic job and I very warmly commend to all of you the very great job he does on your behalf in Federal Parliament. It is great to be back in Whyalla, I congratulate again, the spirit of this town, has changed with the times, has secured its economic future, as a result and is recognised that the only that you can preserve prosperity is to take advantage of the opportunities in a changing world.
I'll finish on this note, people often say to me when I go abroad, why is it that the Australian economy has had 15 years of unbroken economic growth? Why is it that the Australian economy is so strong, what are the reasons and I say there are many reasons and I even presume quietly on occasions to give my Government a little bit of the credit for it too. But I said the main reason, overwhelmingly is that the individual Australian worker, and the individual Australian business man and woman has proven themselves to be remarkably adaptable. Australians are an incredibly adaptable people, we are not hidebound we are not people who are governed by too may pre-disposed attitudes because of our essentially classless society that we can adapt to changed circumstances. I have watched the Australian economy and the Australian people over the last 20 years with fascination and I have seen them change their ways of work, I have seen them adapt and acquire, not only a capacity for, but a deep commitment to the hospitality and entertainment industry, something that a generation ago, Australians felt totally alien in being involved in, and we have changed and we have adapted and that's been one of our great strengths. So I would say that the adaptability of the individual Australian, more than anything else that has been responsible for the remarkable economic success of this nation of ours and it's been demonstrated here in Whyalla and I congratulate all of you for it, thank you.
[ends]