Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Welcome everyone. Your Excellencies, Governor-General, Mrs Hurley, Danielle Roach and your wonderful team at the Australia Day Council, to our Australians of the Year, you are magnificent, thank you so much, to Ministers who are here with us today, parliamentary colleagues and importantly, Australians all.
But especially to you, Aunty Tina, and to the Ngunnawal people. I start today by acknowledging you, our first Australians and pay my respects to elders past, present and importantly emerging, which is the future.
And I also acknowledge on this very important day all who have served or are serving our nation today day in our defence forces, wherever you are. Our veterans as well and simply and say, on behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your service.
And on this day, Australia Day, we acknowledge all those who have gone before us, from ancient times to modern. We stand here today because of their sacrifice, their learnings, their stories, their efforts, their trials.
My great great aunt Dame Mary Gilmore I though put it best in her verse ‘Heritage’ where she wrote;
Not of ourselves are we free/ Not of ourselves are we strong/ The fruit is never the tree/ Nor the singer the song
The strength we give is the strength we make/ and the strength we give is the strength we take/ Given us down from the long gone years/ cleansed in the salt of others tears
The fruit is never the tree/ Nor the singer the song/ Not of ourselves are we free/ Not of ourselves are we strong.
In this season, we've been reminded anew that Australia’s story has always been one of achievement but also one of pain, effort, prosperity and struggle, and it is the story of a people from ancient times until now, overcoming the many challenges and learning the important lessons that come from living in this great continent.
This summer as we stand in trial, Australians have rallied to each other.
This Australia Day we honour and especially celebrate our wonderful volunteers. Our firefighters - especially those who never returned home from the fire grounds.
Our emergency services and forestry workers. The members of our Defence Force, including the 3,000 reservists who answered the call.
Our community, church and wildlife groups and the many young people involved. Those who set up evacuation centres, distributed supplies, and tended to the needs of our animals.
And the generous support of an amazing nation – our school kids donating their pocket money.
Through it all, the work has not been easy. The homes lost, the lives lost, the businesses destroyed.
But there are remarkable stories.
The Captain of the Wingello Brigade, Mark Wilson described the night fire swept through Wingello in early January.
The crews moved from house to house and in his words, it was “run, run, run”.
He said near night’s end, he felt like “we were losing”.
But when the sun rose, he realised their efforts and those of other brigades had saved the town.
14 houses, yes, were lost that night in Wingello - painful for a small town, excruciating for the families - but 80 homes were saved. The General Store was saved as well.
That’s the story of this summer. It’s the story of our today.
A story of perseverance and struggle and overcoming.
A story of pain and loss and seeming failure at times and yet at the same time, a story of courage, perseverance, and a willingness to fight until the sun rises.
It’s a story that prevails, of everyone playing their part.
Many more stories will never be known, but all of which will remind us, those who know them, what it means to be Australian.
Raj Gupta, a pharmacist in Malua Bay kept the pharmacy open, even without a payment system, right throughout the worst of the bushfires – even though he’d lost his own home in the blaze.
He wanted to make sure the medicines got through.
In Gippsland, a local Indian restaurant have been cooking thousands of free meals of curry and rice for bushfire victims.
The owners said they’re simply following the Sikh way of life, and also “just doing what other Australians are doing today.”
In Yeppoon, the local Big W manager refused to take any money from customers who’d lost their homes and only had the clothes on their backs.
In Bega, a supermarket trolley attendant offered his own home to parents and kids sheltering overnight in the underground car-park, and countless others opened up their homes as well.
And on Kangaroo Island, teenagers gathered frightened and injured koalas into their car, mirroring so many other efforts protecting our wildlife.
Eight indigenous men from Bourke and Brewarrina in western New South Wales, chosen by their Elders to care for their country. They’ve been protecting sacred sites, caring for kin, and fighting fires.
An all-Indigenous firefighting crew, matched this effort, the Gunaikurnai women, the all-Indigenous, all-female firefighting crew of the Lake Tyers Brigade, fighting to protect family, community and sacred land.
That’s the spirit of our nation on display.
Fighting fires, caring for people, tending animals, helping others, not counting the cost.
Our volunteers understand that the best lives stem from making a contribution, rather than taking one.
As my late father John taught me through his own life’s example, life is about what you contribute not what you accumulate.
We have so many liberties and as Australians, they are only exceeded by our individual responsibilities to make Australia even stronger.
The spirit of the volunteer understands that our nation’s greatness lies not in the great buildings behind me here, but in the strength and vitality of the thousands of local communities that together make up our incredible nation.
A sum greater than its parts.
And all of these communities are dependent on the strength of the families and individuals that make up them up.
These bonds are not found in the compulsion of governments, but the autonomy, self-expression and sovereignty of local people.
That is what our volunteer spirit serves - our communities, and the families and individuals they comprise.
They serve us all. That is why I’m so pleased to announce on this special day that Australia’s brave fire, police, ambulance and emergency services volunteers and workers, along with Defence Force personnel and reservists and overseas personnel who came to our aid, will be eligible to receive a medal in recognition of their service and sacrifice during the current bushfire season.
The National Emergency Medal will honour the selflessness, courage and sacrifice that we have all witnessed this summer.
Ladies and gentlemen, our national identity which we celebrate today is not a negative or exclusive tribalism.
Rather, it is the positive identity that comes from living a life as a good citizen and who thinks and believes in something greater than their own self.
This is the greatness of Australia. This is the strength of Australia.
This is our secret. This is why, as Australians, we prevail.
Because of that, our instinct as Australians has always been to look over the horizon.
To look to the hope that is there, that we know is there.
It is why we are hopeful even during difficult times.
And we are so because of the example of those, as I said, who have come before and those who are there today - who dream big, work hard, and think of others rather than themselves.
And because of them, we have been granted to us this amazing country that we claim today as Australians as our own.
The best place on earth.
Happy Australia Day!