Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Paul, for your introduction. Can I also acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, their elders past, present and emerging. Can I also acknowledge any members of the Australian Defence Forces and veterans who are with us and say thank you for your service.
Can I thank Annabel who makes any event one that we always begin with a smile - often at our expense.
[Laughter]
But it is always one with a smile and done with a generous nature. And an author, of course, in her own right, of which my wife is a keen fan of, consuming not only her books but what she writes about in her books, particularly the recipes. And so I am very grateful for your work, Annabel, in particular.
It’s wonderful to be here to celebrate these Literary Awards, the Prime Minister’s Awards. Last week, I was celebrating the Prime Minister’s… It’s a division.
[Laughter]
To be continued.
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[Applause]
Congratulations, Meredith. I was going to say that you’re on my reading list this Christmas. I’m looking forward to delving into your great work.
But as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by the bells, you are the nation’s storytellers. And in that job, it is not just the responsibility that you have to tell your art but there is a leadership role that you play in what you do as our nation’s storytellers.
And it doesn’t matter if those stories are works of fiction, non-fiction, history, poetry, any of these. Children’s books, young adult books - all of these are so instructive in our lives.
I think I reminded this audience last year that there are three books that never leave my consciousness. David Malouf’s The Great World, Peter Carey’s Illywhacker, and Kate Grenville’s The Secret River.
These are books - we’ve all read many books - but you know there are some that just hover over you and linger throughout your experience, and these are three that have always informed mine.
Now, Annabel rightly said that this is a… or Paul did, that this is a generous prize in terms of its prize money, but those who are involved in these great works of leadership in writing, I know you don’t do it for the money.
The reason I know that is because in our own family, and this is probably the reason why I haven’t sought to go on to literacy sort of heights, Annabel, is because the bar has been set pretty high in our family with Dame Mary Gilmore, who was my great-great-aunt.
And what I can tell you is that while she may not have left a great estate for the family in terms of her material wealth, she left this country a great estate in terms of her body of work. And it’s a great privilege for us today to share in her work and her estate, I’m told through my family, was around about 12,000 quid when she left.
She lived in a small apartment on Darlinghurst Road in Kings Cross. Her place was just above the Kings Cross Station and my father, who was a police officer, a beat police officer at the time, would go and visit her quite regularly. She wasn’t wealthy, she wasn’t an A-lister, but her poetry touched people and she touched this country and she touched its soul.
Recently, when I was in the United States and the President was giving a toast to Australia, he started reciting a poem and it was Dame Mary’s. And I thought, well, I’ll have to remind him after he’s finished that this was actually my great-great-aunt and it was something that he already knew of.
And that fact that her stories and her poetry had reached well beyond our shores I thought was great for Australia because she was so passionate about Australia. I can assure you that Dame Mary and I probably would have had one or two political arguments if she were around today. She lived in a different time and there are different challenges but I know this - she was very passionate about her country, as all of you are.
And the great list of names who are part of our great tradition - Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson, Judith Wright, Les Murray, Miles Franklin, Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Patrick White, Bryce Courtney, Colleen McCullough, Paul Jennings and the great Charles Bean our great war historian.
But it’s also how it affects our daily lives with our families. And Jenny has done an extraordinary job in our family, from the very early stages of our children, of investing in them the great mind-broadening activity of reading. She was reading to them before they could even speak and she used to read every night and I would join her when I would have the great opportunity to be there.
And so they’re great, avid readers today. I was just talking to my youngest daughter Lily this morning and she was telling me - I didn’t need to ask, she just told me - about the latest book that she had picked up and it was about a dog that lives in a hotel in Melbourne. It’s actually a true story, ‘The Adventures of Mr Walker’, and she was really excited about getting home to read it tonight.
And that’s why you do what you do because it’s opening minds, it’s exciting the passions, it’s unleashing the creative spirits of Australian all around. You don’t have to be an author to get it, you just have to be a reader, I think, to get it, and in so many ways with those things.
Next time I come back I promise to talk about the prizes!
[Laughter]
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So this is a speech in three acts.
[Laughter]
And I just was literally coming to point of saying thank you to all those who have been nominated. Thank you to all of those who have supported those in their tremendous work. No writer works without a muse or those who support them through what is a very difficult and emotional process and an incredibly taxing intellectual process as well.
I was reading this week about some of the processes people go through to try and crack through when the block hits and as you’re seeking that inspiration. People go for a walk or go to the pub or do whatever they need to do.
But I want to thank you for your perseverance in going through to produce the magnificent works that you have done for our nation.
Can I also thank, as Annabel did, the judging panel as well. This was a tough call with all of these works so thank you very much for the effort that you’ve invested in paying great respect to all of these authors who you have treated with great sensitivity and care and respect in the way that you’ve assessed their works. You would acknowledge, I’m sure, all of their great contributions, as do I.
But, as is always the case with awards of this nature, one is singled out. And you’ve already heard from Meredith and I think that this is… I couldn’t agree more with what you were saying as I heard you just from the wings there. Bringing and shedding light, I think, to expose myths and at the same time focus these important discussions where they need to. So I am genuinely looking forward to having a good read of your work over the Christmas break.
So with that, I want to congratulate everyone for being a part of this. I want to thank Paul for his work and his Department’s work and how they have worked to ensure they have been able to bring this day together again this year.
And without further ado, let’s hand out some more awards, Annabel.