Speech delivered on 4 March in Canberra.

Good evening, everybody. As His Excellency has done, I also acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as the traditional owners of this land that we meet on tonight, and recognise all of those with a long and enduring connection to the lands of Canberra, the ACT and the region. I pay my respects to all elders past and present, and of course acknowledge all First Nations people who are joining us here at this splendid event tonight.

I’d like to acknowledge His Excellency Mr. Kazuhiro Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan. As you said in your remarks, we’ve become friends—Simeon particularly, given his history in Japan—but you and your wife have always welcomed us here to the residence with such grace and elegance and the most delicious food. It has always been wonderful to work with you.

I join you in celebrating Canberra. I think I’m the first Governor-General to come to celebrate the Emperor’s Birthday, so I’m proud to do that, and perhaps that’s because I’m the 28th Governor-General. I’m the first to have been born in Canberra, so I was heartened to hear your comments about how much you love Canberra, because I love Canberra too. And as a Canberra girl who came back, I love all the things that you love, and I particularly love the fact that this city welcomes diplomats so generously. We’re a diplomatic town; we’re a national capital. We don’t celebrate that enough, I believe, through our cultural institutions and our status as a capital city, but you’ve reminded us tonight just how important that is.

It’s also very special for Simeon and me to be back here at your residence, because here at the residence there is so much of the culture, history, beauty and peace of Japan embodied in the gardens. You might not see that tonight with 700 people all over the gardens, but this is a seriously beautiful place. So thank you for having us in your residence.

I will acknowledge Her Excellency Betty Pavelich, the Ambassador of Croatia and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. Because there are so many representatives of the diplomatic corps, I also want to acknowledge ambassadors who are here this evening, of course the Honourable Richard Marles MP, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

Simeon and I are truly delighted to be here tonight for this very important gathering to celebrate the 66th birthday of His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. But really, tonight we are acknowledging something very special: the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.

We have such wonderful memories of the warm welcome we received during our call on Her Imperial Highness Crown Princess Takamado and Her Imperial Highness Princess Kako at the Akasaka Imperial Grounds in Tokyo in September just last year. It was a very special moment to be able to present Her Royal Highness with a bouquet of Australia’s national floral emblem, the golden wattle. Somehow, we had been able to transport that wattle all the way to the Imperial Palace, and she assured me that she was interested in pressing it to keep it as an enduring memory of Australia. We were very, very touched. 

We were in Japan to officially visit the World Expo 2025 in Osaka and to celebrate Australia’s National Day in our pavilion at the truly extraordinary Expo precinct. It was an important and beautiful visit, and I want to congratulate, through you, Your Excellency, Japan on the remarkable success of Expo 2025 as a forum to bring nations together from around the world to celebrate cultures, histories and shared futures, and to find unity in diversity.

Now, our family has a personal and deep connection to Japan. My husband, Simeon, was a young exchange student to Japan in the 1980s. He’s fluent in Japanese and has continued to keep his practice up with his language, and has remained deeply in touch with the culture and people of Japan. Together with our daughter, who also studied Japanese in high school—because she had a very good tutor at home in her dad—we have shared many memorable moments during our countless visits to Japan, long before I took on this very, very prestigious role that I know has great honour.

Our experience reflects the deep ties between Australia and Japan, which are of course built on trust, shared values and the enduring friendship between people. It has always been people at every level of society and from every walk of life who bring the values of care, kindness and respect to welcome and share with one another—students, researchers, artists, business leaders and community groups who are connected, engaged and interested in each other and each other’s communities; in the strength of our societies and economies; and in building a future of friendship and cooperation and great success.

I wanted to mention—and I’ve seen the director of the centre here, so she’ll enjoy me pointing this out—that here in Canberra these bonds, I think, are beautifully embodied at Questacon, our National Science and Technology Centre. It remains one of Australia’s most popular tourist attractions for young people. I’m trying to knock it off the top of the list for the students who come for the civics tour and put Government House on top, but it is a very hard act to compete with. It was of course established with funding from the Japanese Government as a bicentennial gift to Australia in 1988. Questacon retains a strong and flourishing relationship with Japan through science collaboration, touring exhibitions, and most recently through participation at World Expo in Osaka with a Science Circus.

Today, I think Questacon, along with so many of the relationships and institutions that we celebrate tonight, stands as a testament to the goodwill and optimism at the heart of the friendship between Australia and Japan. From politics to civil society, business to academia, arts to sport, Australia and Japan’s shared interests began to converge in the post war years, and they flourish today.

In 1976, then–Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser described the Friendship and Cooperation Treaty as “a firm basis for the future growth of the relationship between our two nations, between Australia and Japan.” Tonight, on its 50th anniversary, I am so proud to be able to celebrate the treaty as fulfilling the promise so completely and with so much enthusiasm and optimism for our future. It is a symbol of Australia’s and Japan’s present and future, and of our expertise, our innovation and vitality in a bilateral relationship of astonishing energy and enduring strength.

I particularly like that you’ve chosen the kangaroo as part of the symbol of our friendship. I think you’ve taken that from us at Government House, where we use kangaroo diplomacy regularly to build relationships. It’s lovely to see the kangaroo front and centre.

I do want to celebrate tonight, though, Your Excellency, with everyone here, the great opportunities for our future together. And it is also a very special opportunity, on behalf of Australians, to wish His Majesty the Emperor Naruhito a very happy birthday.