Well thank you very much Madam Mayor, Stuart Henry, my other Federal parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. And can I especially express my thanks for that very warm, traditional welcome, and acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this gathering takes place.
This is not the first time that I've met your Mayor. She and some of her Councillors were in Canberra a few months ago and we had some very pleasant discussions about the challenges of the City of Gosnells and also about the extraordinary opportunities of this rapidly growing part of Australia. She transmitted to me on that occasion a sense of enthusiasm and hope about the future of the City of Gosnells and certainly about the wider community in which this Local Council is placed.
And that is the note that I would like to strike this morning and that is a note of hope and optimism, not only about the future of this community and the hope and optimism that I feel for the State of Western Australia, but the sense of hope and optimism I feel about the future of our country. We are living in very challenging times internationally. I don't think I can recall a time in recent years where there have been so many individual challenges, some of them related, some of them unrelated, confronting us on the international stage. And perhaps, at a time like this, we inevitably fall back on our strengths and we look to the things that are going to enable Australia to continue to be a strong, prosperous and tolerant country.
We are experiencing very strong economic times. I've never found the Western Australian economy stronger than it is at the present time and the unemployment rate here has got a three in front of it, and it's a long time since that's been the case. And the resource sector, which is so important to the nation's overall prosperity, is making a mighty contribution to the growth of this State. Of course growth in a state imposes a lot of stresses and strains on local councils. I'm aware of that, and that's one of the reasons why, in the last Budget, we not only maintained the Roads to Recovery Program, which is so valuable to local councils, but we also made an additional injection of some hundreds of millions of dollars into that Program, which is a Program where money is paid directly by the Federal Government, there's none taken out by the state government by way of a handling fee or commission along the way. It goes straight to the local council and the local council uses it to built local roads. And I mention that because I do want all of you, particularly those involved with the facilities and infrastructure of the local community, to know that I am very well aware of the way in which rapid growth in some parts of Australia imposes particular responsibilities on local councils and local communities.
Now if we look at this rather uncertain world, the strength of our economic management, the strength of our economy is a fundamental. And it's very important that we never take that economic prosperity for granted, and it's important that we always understand the need, from time to time, to make changes and to enact reform to maintain prosperity and to maintain growth. Today's prosperity is a product of yesterday's reforms. Tomorrow's prosperity can only be the product of today's reforms. And those who romance in the idea that once you've reached a certain level of economic activity you can go to sleep and rest on your laurels and not do anything more, are doomed to live through a decline in economic circumstances.
So one of the things that helps Australia in this uncertain world is our great economic strength. Another thing that is of enormous value to us is that we are a tolerant and open society. We have welcomed to our shores people from the four corners of the earth. We ask of them one fundamental thing, and that is they put loyalty and commitment to Australia above loyalty and commitment to any other country. It doesn't matter where they come from, whether they come from the United Kingdom, from Ireland, from Greece, or from Lebanon, or from South America, or from Malaysia, or China, or anywhere, or Africa, it doesn't matter. One thing we ask above everything else is that they place loyalty and commitment to the values and the institutions and the customs and the traditions of this country above everything else. We don't ask them to forget their homeland. If somebody's been born in another country, it's likely to they day they die that they will retain some special place in their heart for the country in which they were born. But the great success of this country's migration program has been the way in which we have been able to absorb people on those two conditions. We ask of all of them, Australia first, second and third, but recognising that there's always a particular place in your heart for the country in which you were born, and we continue to do that.
It's very interesting that the surveys that have been carried out over the past few years about attitudes to migration, they actually show that there's more support for reasonable levels of immigration to Australia now than there was five or ten years ago. I think one of the reasons for that is they believe the immigration program, although its larger than it was a few years ago, is under control, and that we are deciding who comes to this country. We're deciding to have a greater emphasis on skilled migration. We want people who will make an immediate contribution and through this country enable all people to feel that the immigration program is now being run in a well and truly effective fashion.
But that unity and cohesion of our nation is a very important asset because we are seen around the world as a success. I meet a lot of world leaders and Australia is regarded as one of the stellar performers. We've got a strong economy, we've got a tolerant society, we know where we stand on issues. We're prepared to pull our weight as needed; we're prepared to stand up for what we think is right, even though on occasions it may be a little bit unpopular. But we will nonetheless be willing to do that. And if we continue to maintain that economic strength, we continue to maintain that united and cohesive society, then those are extremely valuable assets.
And the third thing that we have to continue to do as a nation is to remember that in this sea of prosperity that so many are experiencing at the moment, we shouldn't forget that there are some people, who through no fault of their own, are not enjoying the prosperity of the rest of the nation. They are doing it tough. They are falling between the cracks. There are still 700,000 children in Australia who live in jobless households. It's lower than what it was a few years ago. It's down from about 900,000 but it's still far too many and in ways, the more prosperous the whole nation is, the harder it is if you're not part of that prosperity because you feel the gap and you are conscious about it.
And that's why, on an occasion like this, which is a community gathering, I would like to pay tribute to all the community organisations. I pay tribute to the welfare organisations. The work of the welfare arms and the activities of the local churches, whatever their denomination might be, they are often at the forefront of caring for the less fortunate within our community. And all the other volunteer organisations, they are part of the cement and the spirit that keeps this country together. So to all of the organisations that help the less fortunate, our fellow Australians. I say thank you today.
And my last message is to say to you what a very good choice you made in October of 2004 in sending Stuart Henry to Canberra as your Federal representative. I thought that was a very good choice indeed because he brought to Canberra extraordinary experience. He has a successful background in the small business community and as someone like myself who is a great believer in the contribution of small business to the competitive capitalism in Australia, he does bring a special understanding of what it's like to run a business, to employ people. You know, the only way that you continue to keep unemployment low in this country is to keep small business profitable, because it's the small and medium sized businesses that provide the employment growth in this country. They're the ones that take on the extra three, or four, or five, or ten people and take a risk in the future expansion of a business and involve the recruitment of more people. And Stuart brings, with great energy and great understanding, a very special commitment to developing policies in relation to that.
So Stuart, thank you very much for that contribution and congratulations to the people of the electorate of Hasluck who had the great good sense in October of 2004 to elect Stuart Henry as your Federal Member. It's nice to be amongst you again, and to you Madam Mayor, it was nice to see you in Canberra. It was nice to meet all of your colleagues. You gave me quite a spiel. It was very, very well put together. She's a great champion of this area. And I said then that I would come and visit the City of Gosnells. You and Stuart both put the weights on me, and here I am, and I look forward to meeting all of you and thank you very much for the contribution you're making to our wonderful country. Thank you.
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