This week we celebrate Australia Day. There seems a new pride in being Australian. In a way I could not have imagined fifteen years ago when we faced so much media pressure to change our flag, the Australian flag today is flown, waved and worn with pride as never in our history. The Aussie pride was noisily announced during the recent Test matches. Nothing is more dead in our society than that minority that want to change our flag!
I get an advanced copy of the list of people being honoured under the Australian honours system, and I take time to ring and write congratulations to twenty or thirty I know. We can be proud of these wonderful Australians who are recognised for their achievements.
They demonstrate what makes our country great. Any Australian can nominate a person to be honoured for what they have done for our community, and any citizen can be honoured. The task of choosing such Australians is a difficult one, and it is completely above all political and commercial influence.
I also think of those who are becoming citizens of our nation. Australia can be proud of its long tradition of immigration. For more than two hundred years our nation has been indebted to successive waves of immigration from different parts of the world. These new citizens have embraced our language, culture and institutions. We expect our new citizens and arrivals to give a first commitment to Australia. That is why the Australian Government is preparing new immigrants and citizens to understand Australian values and ethos.
Although people have different attitudes to our involvement in Afghanistan, asylum seekers, the boat people, Christmas Island Immigration clearing centre and the like we can understand why people want to come here from their war-torn countries. It was the same with European refugees after World War Two.
Further, as we celebrate this day we count it a privilege to be Australians, we pay respect to the first Australians — the indigenous people of this country — and we look to their full enjoyment of the benefits and the bounty that Australia brings to all of its citizens. We celebrate the immense joy and privilege of sharing membership of the great Australian family.
Forty years ago, after returning from my first visits to the United States, I called upon Australians to develop a similar pride in country, in our flag, and in our Christian heritage.
Everyone does not have to be the same and to hold the same views and values, but everyone should recognize our heritage and those who made our nation what it is today. There is no other place on the face of earth where we would rather be. Fellow Australians, we salute you.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC