Speech delivered on 14 October 2026, at Old Parliament House (also Museum of Democracy Australia). 

Thank you, Andrew, for that lovely welcome. Thank you for announcing me as FECCA’s new patron.  

It's a great privilege to both be here in Canberra at your conference, but also now to be your patron. The energy here rivals the energy I saw at your Brisbane conference two years ago. I think you're rivalling that at the moment, and I think it's going to be throughout the conference. You have three days of conversation, learning, and friendship ahead of you.

It's appropriate that you are here, your 2026 national conference is opening at Old Parliament House, where the Museum of Australian Democracy now lives. You, everyone in this room, you are an essential part of the story of our great democracy, and this has been the first time in 26 years that the conference is being held in Canberra.  

Something tells me it’s a very important time with our nation's discussions on social cohesion and belonging that you are in Canberra for this conference. So, it's wonderful that you are here.  

Now, Aunty Serena Williams, who you realise is a friend of mine, she asked me to dance while she was dancing. I couldn't say no, together with your CEO, and that's a great privilege to be asked to dance with Ngunnawal and the Ngunnawal women. Those dancers from Yukkumbruk Dreaming, as Serena said, are generations that are going to hold culture here. I pay my deepest respect for Ngunnawal and those who have a long affiliation with the lands of the ACT and pay my deep respect to the traditional owners of this country.  

There are a few people I'll acknowledge very quickly, but I know there have been lots of acknowledgements tonight. There are some members of Parliament here: Luke Gosling OAM MP; the Honourable Allegra Spender MP, I saw, the independent member for Wentworth.  

There are so many members of the diplomatic corps here. Thank you for coming along to celebrate the communities that you represent as our Ambassadors and High Commissioners here in Canberra.  

Of course, I really want to acknowledge Peter Doukas OAM, the Chair of FECCA; Prerana Mehta, the CEO of FECCA – only eight weeks in the job. Welcome, it's wonderful to have you on board. I also want to acknowledge all the FECCA board members who are here and all the FECCA team for bringing us here and their work to get the FECCA conference underway.  

There are many others of you. Malini Raj, Executive Director of the Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance; Priyanka Rai, the Director of the Australian Multicultural Health Collective; Andrew introduced me, but of course, as the president of the ACT Multicultural Council, is very important here; Jane Palfreyman I want to acknowledge, tough crowd to keep quiet, but Managing Director of SBS NITV.  

I just wanted to say that SBS NITV, some of the strongest supporters of our modern Australia, our multicultural Australia. I can't imagine the world where we don't have SBS bringing news back home. So, it's lovely to see you here.  

And Madly Bodin and Bronwyn Elbourne from Waverley Council, who are here tonight. They're going to be presenting ‘building connections differently’ as part of their Council's program on resilience building in response to that terrible, terrible Bondi terror attack. We're about to approach the first anniversary of that horrific antisemitic attack, attack on Jewish people, but on all Australians and all humans at that time, still dealing with the consequences of that terrifying event.

The largest terrorist attack on Australian soil, and what Wavely Council is doing together with many people across Australia, but particularly across Sydney – and I know what Allegra is doing a lot within her electorate is to make sure that we come together and we don't let this weaken us and destroy social cohesion. But we stand with each other. We stand against antisemitism. We stand against racism, and we celebrate the very unity that always holds us.  

As we go into December, it's going to be important for us all to hold strong to that. So, I'm delighted to Waverley Council tonight, given the work they did in their immediate aftermath. But they were doing a lot of very good resilience work before the Bondi terror attack. So, you're privileged to see them tonight.  

Now, last week on a Victorian regional visit, I was delighted to join the Ethnic Council of Shepparton District for breakfast. Before I say something about that, I want to welcome every regional and community council that's come from all over the country. So, our host was Sam Atukorala OAM and the council's president Maria Brown-Shepherd, who are both here. But so is the former president, who I can see right there, who also I think was president for 14 years in Shepparton. And we spent the morning with the team in Shepparton. It's very special to see them all here again so soon after that trip last week. I want to thank you and your council for welcoming me and my team so warmly to Shepparton.  

Around that table were people that you all know and recognise, nurses, police officers, small business owners, every part of the community. Each had a different story about coming to Australia and arriving in Shepparton in regional Victoria, and all spoke about the people who helped them find their footing in arriving in this new country.  

And I know that Sam, where is Sam? There he is. There he is. Thanks. Sam, I know you had that experience yourself. You found a very warm welcome in Shepparton, and you began volunteering to teach English to other new arrivals to the region. I was so glad to see you recognised with an OAM in the Australian Honors System recently. After our visit, you spoke so beautifully about valuing people for their humanity, dignity, and potential. Thank you for bringing us together in Shepparton.  

I'd love to see more councils around the country as we do our regional tours. It's always a very special part and the Governor-General's privilege is to be with you in your communities. Because the people that I meet when I travel around this country, who have come from elsewhere, or their parents and grandparents have come from elsewhere, are part of the continuing story of modern Australia.  

It's a braided story, drawing strength from 65,000 years of continuous First Nations history and culture and language and connection to country. Then to our democratic institutions, the British foundations, of which, of course, I represent as your Governor-General, and then generations and generations of migrants and refugees who have made Australia home, you making Australia home in the past 80 years and more.  

I think it's these three elements that continue to strengthen each other within a braided way that brings us to modern Australia. They're all dependent upon each other and buttress what we now have as modern Australia. There is no modern Australia without those three things woven together, but of course, the last 80 years tell us about what built modern Australia.  

Now, I've been reflecting on that before something I did this morning, which I was delighted to do. I hosted His Majesty King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to Canberra on his State Visit. I spent the day, half the day, with His Majesty. It was a very special event, and during the day, we talked about the shared humanitarian spirit of Australians and Jordanians, particularly through such a tumultuous time across the world. But of course, that humanitarian spirit is ever present across everyone here tonight.  

Your conference theme, ‘Many Stories, One Future,’ invites us to think about what belonging really means in the lives we actually lead together. And we should all care deeply and actively about belonging and about the opportunity for everyone to build a life of independence, connection, and purpose, and to feel loved.  

Last month, the Settlement Council of Australia published research following a group of humanitarian migrants over 10 years. It linked early settlement support with greater confidence using public services and greater ease making friends in their first years in this country.

Many of you who came from other places now do that patient, generous work for others every day, and we should all care deeply and actively about belonging and about the opportunity for everybody to build a life of independence, connection, and purpose.  

That means bringing care, kindness, and respect into every part of our national life.  

Care for one another. Care for those who do the caring of others. Care for our extraordinary continent and its environmental richness and beauty. Another way of saying care for country. Importantly, care for civics and institutions, and care for the way in which we discuss and debate the really tough issues of our time without judgment, anger, division, or violence.  

We can wrestle ideas without wrestling the person. We can always pay respect to people with views we don't always agree with without bringing harm to them. We can disagree well. We don't have to hold the same opinions, but we respect one another and care about the way we have those conversations.  

And belonging also includes having a voice in the country we all call home.

I met Sohelya at The Social Outfit, a Sydney social enterprise that employs and trains refugee and migrant women. She'd come to Australia from Afghanistan after years in Iran with her young daughter.  

Sohelya had made a shirt that I had worn, and she spotted it on our social media feed. I can't tell you how proud that made her feel that the Governor-General was wearing a shirt made by her in Marrickville, in Sydney.  

She was eager when I met her in the factory in Marrickville to tell me about why our democratic system matters. It's why it's important you're here in Canberra. Just two weeks after she became an Australian citizen. She had voted not just for the first time in Australia, but for the first time in her life. She had a 14-year-old daughter beside her, and Sohelya’s face was bursting with joy as she told me that her daughter would grow up knowing that she would be seen and heard here in this country, and that her vote would matter.  

Now I'm wearing The Social Outfits latest community print shirt tonight, and every year, in addition to the other clothes that these women make, they go and find something that inspires them. These were photos taken in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, and the women chose all of the patterns and are making the most beautiful clothes.  

And I am so proud to be wearing the latest community print for them. And you may know that I was wearing a very special suit made by The Social Outfit by Han. She recently arrived and went to Australia. She was a sewing technician, and I asked her to make my suit that I wore into Parliament House to be sworn in as your 28th Governor-General. The first time she and members of The Social Outfit came into New Parliament House and sat in the chamber for the first time in their lives.  

Today, Han is now, not just a senior sewing technician, but she now works on the day-to-day operations of The Social Outfit because she's been given a chance – which is what all of you are doing, giving people pathways to economic freedom and a voice, and it matters a great deal.  

And I hope that every Australian feels the same joy in having a say that all of you and those around me are having a say for the first time by coming to Australia and being part of our democratic traditions, because our institutions have a responsibility to help make that participation possible.  

Earlier this month, with SBS, I was delighted to launch ‘How Australia Works.’ It's a new podcast we launched in Sydney at Admiralty House. A five-episode podcast; L-FRESH The LION is the host. It's a brilliant, brilliant podcast. It will be translated into 60 languages, and it speaks to the connection between belonging and a healthy democracy.  

There are few more powerful contributors to a socially cohesive Australia than feeling a sense of belonging. Through people's stories, as I said, versions in 60 languages, the podcast explains how government works, how laws are made and changed, and how we can all take part. I think it's competing with me on social media for the democracy stories that I tell. Yours is more effective, but I keep trying, I'll keep doing it too, because knowing where you all turn to for help, how to question a decision, or how to know that your views are considered can give you a great confidence in shaping your own life within a democracy. And when people do raise a concern or offer an idea, they deserve to be heard and to receive a thoughtful response.  

Here at Old Parliament House, we're reminded of how deeply the work of government reaches into people's lives every single day. Our institutions need to understand modern Australia in all of its great diversity and how the same policy or service can affect people differently.  

The knowledge and experience gathered in this room tonight over the conference is going to help with this, because through FECCA and your member organisations, you bring people's lived experiences into decisions about their health, work, and family life, and you always help to challenge racism and exclusion.  

To the young people joining us through FECCA’s youth scholarship program, a pretty special welcome. What a group! Your ideas belong in these discussions. Young people's ideas always matter. They're not future leaders. They're leaders. They're young leaders.  

I have the great privilege as your patron to present three FECCA life memberships, recognising years of remarkable service. I really hope that those recipients and their families, friends, and colleagues tonight take enormous pride in what's about to happen with that recognition. And with Sam's recent investiture of an OAM - an Australian honour, it reminds us that we should all be nominating people for honours in the Australian Honours system.  

The decision of that honour is not made by a council sitting remotely. The council sits here in the Canberra and actually reviews nominations from the community. Every honour starts with the nomination process, so don’t forget to nominate people. Because it requires people who are quiet, hardworking, patient, and generous and humble in our community. Because the work that they do, and you do so patiently, and the way you so consistently do it, I see the care, kindness and generosity at the very heart of the social and human infrastructure that holds us all together.  

So, thank you to all of you. We make modern Australia a place where everyone knows they belong, and where we celebrate a successful nation we all built together.

I'm very proud to be a new patron. I'm looking forward to seeing much more of your work up close.  

Just remember, if you take lots of photos of me, I'll just take lots of photos of you back, and that's the way I can share your stories. So, I want to congratulate FECCA on the conference, congratulate all of you for traveling to Canberra.  

I think it’s been a mighty time we had together. Enjoy it all and thank you for having me tonight.