Thanks very much and congratulations to you and Muswellbrook Council on what you're doing here which is quite magnificent, and I think is leading the country.
Can I also begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting today, pay my respects to elder's past, present, and emerging. Thanks very much to the dancers and for the Welcome to Country here. We’re enriched by celebrating our history in this country that, of course, goes back beyond 1788, and will be enriched further by acknowledging it in our Constitution, which all of you will have the opportunity to vote on in the last quarter of this year.
It is indeed a great pleasure to be here with my mate, Dan Repacholi, the member for Hunter - this is my second visit here in three weeks.
I acknowledge as well, I was at Singleton Roosters clubhouse just a couple of weeks ago, a private visit that we made. And all of the families of people who are impacted there, I know that has had an impact not just on this region, but on the entire country, that tragedy. And my heart goes out to those people who are still hurting in that community, and I thank them for the very generous welcome that I had in the clubhouse on that day. It was a private visit, but it was a very moving one.
Can I acknowledge as well the state member for Upper Hunter who is here, and all of the councillors who are here, as well as the community, out in force today. And why not? Because this is an amazing celebration. The building, of course, bears the name of Donald Horne, who grew up here and became such a powerhouse of Australia's intellectual life. Telling Australia's story as he did so phenomenally, particularly in the famous book that I studied as a very young man, as did most Australians I think, ‘The Lucky Country’. He said this:
The Lucky Country isn’t so much an examination of the role luck has played in Australian life, as an impassioned call for us to be a country where intelligence and imagination are prized as much as the other good qualities that have helped make the place what it is.
What a fitting statement for the Center of Innovation here in this great regional centre that has helped to drive the Australian economy in the past, and will drive the Australian economy in the future if we take and seize the opportunities which are there, right before us.
This building is a perfect encapsulation of Muswellbrook, it's an act of respect for your heritage that simultaneously looks ahead to the future. We are in what is by production of course, Australia's largest coal producing region and one that has made so much possible for our nation. It has brought wealth not just to this region, but to the entire country. But there are new opportunities on our doorstep that will, if we seize them, create economic growth and secure jobs for decades to come.
I noticed in today's papers there's a bit of a discussion about productivity. Anyone who comes here to this Center and discusses what it will do, it is about just that driving productivity. Getting start-ups, and creating what begins as a small idea into a large activity that brings jobs and economic activity and growth to the region, as well as inspiring young people.
Muswellbrook, and more broadly, the Hunter have for so long been at the heart of Australia's energy story, but of course we know that change is occurring. And it's important that communities seize the opportunities and not get left behind.
The Hunter Innovation Precinct, to which the Donald Horne Building is the latest addition, is such an important part of that. Part of ensuring that we shape the future, instead of allowing it to shape us. That we seize Australia's rightful future as a renewable energy superpower, a future that's built on new technology, on innovation, on advanced manufacturing, on making things here - every Australian stands to benefit from that. That was a major part of the pitch that we put successfully to the Australian people in May of last year - a future made in Australia.
One of the things that clearly will define us is how we respond to the challenges which are there.
And during the pandemic we were reminded that if Australia just remains at the end of supply chains, and we continue to see the decline in manufacturing and making things here and our capacity to be resilient in the century ahead, then we'll go backwards.
If we though seize the opportunity to make more things here, through buildings such as this, through the incredible foresight that the council has, and that the people I've spoken with this morning have, then our future is incredibly bright.
We've created as well the National Reconstruction Fund, a $15 billion fund, to back advanced manufacturing, to back new industries to make sure that we can make things here. And I see this hub as really benefiting from that in the future because we want to make sure that regional economic growth is the key to our success as a nation.
This building will be where intelligence and imagination are prized for what they are - the key ingredients that go into making as a great nation, the ingredients that with the right nurturing help make what is the greatest nation on Earth even greater in the future, and I'm very confident that we can do that. We can do that by shaping that change, that's what this building embodies. Shaping that change for existing innovators, but also inspiring the students who will come in here over the coming weeks, months and many years ahead.
I think together with the revitalisation here of the Muswellbrook Town Center, I think Muswellbrook, this town, has a very exciting future and a very positive one. And I'm very pleased and honoured to be invited to be here today. I get a lot of invites, I’ve got to say, but when I read the pitch from the Council for what this was all about, I was determined to make sure that I was here because I can't think of anything that embodies where we need to go as a country more than what is taking place right here in the heartland of the Hunter Valley today.