Australia Day - message from the Prime Minister Today, at community breakfasts and BBQs, flag raisings and citizenship ceremonies, in backyards and on beaches, millions of our citizens will celebrate one of the greatest gifts imaginable – to be an Australian. While Australia Day formally marks the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet, today we celebrate something richer and deeper. We celebrate the nation and people we have become. We are the grateful inheritors of two strands of history: a British heritage and an Aboriginal one. We honour both today. Along with the millions of settlers from around the world who have made their home in Australia since 1788, we have become one people sharing the one land. We are fulfilling the aspiration put forward in the opening of the Australian Constitution: ‘that the people….have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth’. Twenty three million of us have found unity in our diversity, respect in our differences and have built a modern nation on the idea that anyone can get ahead provided they are prepared to “have a go”. Today, almost 18,000 men and women will take the Citizenship Pledge and “join our team”. It is a fitting day to celebrate our new citizens as it was on 26 January 1788 when Australia’s first modern migrants arrived. We have always been an immigrant country. Since 1949, more than 4.5 million people from across the globe have chosen to make Australia their home. I am proud to say that one of those families was my own. On 7 September 1960, my father, mother, oldest sister and I left Tilbury for Australia. My parents had a deep sense that there was no better place to raise a family. In a co-incidence that reminds me how much I will always owe our country, fifty three years to the day after embarking on that journey with my parents, I was elected Prime Minister of Australia. Australia has been a place for people to realise their dreams - if not all of them, at least many of them. Australia didnt disappoint my parents when they left Britain and it hasnt disappointed my wife Margie since she travelled ‘across the ditch’ from New Zealand. My hope is that our country will always live up to the faith that its people place in it. Today we celebrate the history that has made us who we are; the country that we love and the values and institutions that underpin it. It is a great day to be Australian - Happy Australia Day! Regards, Tony Abbott Prime Minister
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 05:32:21 +0000
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