Prime Minister
Thank you very much for that very warm welcome.
We gather in Ngunnawal country at our National Arboretum, whose elders past and present and future we acknowledge and respect.
A place where we can wonder at the breadth and the diversity of our land - amongst the 44,000 trees are hundreds of plant species from across our nation.
Our Arboretum looks out across much of our capital - our parliament and its freedoms, our War Memorial and the price paid for those freedoms.
We can see far from here.
And this year, the view is different from last.
The bushfire scarred landscape is recovering. The greyness of the Australian drought is giving way to a new green tinge.
If our land teaches us anything - it is that if we persevere - we can withstand, we do recover and we do renew.
And this land - the home of the world’s only continent nation - has a seamlessness about it that accommodates so much difference.
Nature reminds us there is a place for everyone and everything in our land.
We know from our first Australians that our country teaches us much.
It is a country that requires us to listen to it, and most often, to contend with it.
This past year, we faced adversity again - nature confronting us in a different form - beckoning us again to persevere.
And we have – and we continue to do so even now.
The story of Australia is of a people who persevere and overcome - who know that reward and effort, enterprise and fairness, justice and hope, accompany each other.
Our stories now number more than 25 million Australians, they are all important, they are all respected, woven together to make us strong.
We are a people who contend and prevail.
And we prevail, always by looking ahead - through debate, effort and striving - drawing out the very best in each other.
These awards are an annual reminder of just what Australians can do and achieve.
Of what we can build together - as a country one and free.
The nominees here tonight, like the land they are drawn from, are diverse and different - men and women who strive, and study, they argue, they give, and they engage, they love, they care.
Who share a yearning to make a good Australia an even better Australia.
Like the eucalypts, wattles, the cassias, the wildflowers and grasses that surround us, and the capital that is below us, the nominees here tonight are diverse.
All playing a part. Doing their bit.
Nominees, who when brought together, give us a glimpse of who we are, and even more importantly, who we can all aspire to be.
It is a great pleasure to be with you tonight - to honour you, and the tens of thousands of people who you embody - and to thank you for everything you have done and will continue to do for all Australians.
Happy Australia Day.
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