Opening and closing remarks, delivered on 19 January 2026.

Opening remarks

Good evening, everybody. It's been wonderful for Simeon and me to welcome you to Admiralty House tonight here on this beautiful land. It's been lovely to actually meet each of you, to look into your eyes and to welcome you here to this very special place. We are, of course, on the land of the Cammeraygal people, and I pay respects to elders past and present. Spending a lot of time on Cammeraygal land here means that we are quite often looking across that beautiful view to Gadigal land. And I often think about what it must have been like before, all of the Eora nation and all over this country, to think about how life was then and how different it is now, and the generosity at the heart of First Nations peoples always welcoming all of us who came afterwards and sharing their hopes and dreams for our country.

This is an event that I had imagined in the conversations that I had with some of you in the terrible aftermath of what occurred in Bondi on the 14th of December. We talked at that time of the potential for breaking bread as an act of solidarity, coming out of a time of unspeakable terror and hate that were so not part of the country that that we all know and the faiths and communities that you all represent.

I would start by saying how terribly sorry I am that it was such a terrible antisemitic attack, a terror attack on the Jewish community, the Jewish community of Bondi, or more broadly, the Jewish community of Australia. And I have refrained from using the term ‘unimaginable,’ but I do talk about it as being unspeakable and a violent attack on the Jewish people, but also on all Australian values and the way in which we have tried to build a community that builds on that First Nations story, builds on those that came here – the British – and set up our arrangements that see me in this house, in an Admiralty House, in a vice-regal role, and in the last 50, 60, 70 years of the most remarkable migration and refugees who come to this country that make us the successful nation we are today.  

And I think for those of us not of the Jewish faith, on that evening of December 14, we didn't only feel the attack as an antisemitic attack, though it was that. I think we felt an attack on what it is we've been trying to do as a country, which is a sense of unity, where everybody belongs, where hate has no place, that all are supported and are taken care of and that we live in great harmony as part of the success of this country.  

When I was sworn in as your Governor-General in July of 2024, 18 months ago, I feel proud that when Simeon and I were thinking about what we would use to define my term in office. We searched for many things. I met all the former living governors-general, to ask them their advice and counsel about what was required in this role, and then to think about it. Simeon and I talked about it. We met many communities around the country in the lead up to my swearing-in, and we asked, what is modern Australia? What would modern Australia require of the representative of The King that you have representing the head of state at this time? And back in July 2024 there were many things already that were telling us that there were a few things that were missing in the national dialogue. And so in the Senate, when I was sworn in, I committed the entirety of my term to care, kindness and respect, and I said that everything I do in the five years, if I'm allowed to serve the four or five years, would be absolutely grounded in care, kindness and respect.

I believe that they are an essential set of values that we aspire to as Australians, no matter where we started in the world, no matter what our faith might be, that those three things would help us bond together for a successful future. I find it wherever I travel around the country. The word that resonates most strongly, that I can use most often, is kindness. People absolutely agree with care, kindness, respect. As a country, we need kindness, and so I feel that when the conversation started immediately after the horror of the Bondi attack, that those three words were coming into their own, and that what we had already started 18 months ago will continue to define the way in which I would show up and our team would show up on behalf of all Australians, firstly, to show a deep respect for the Jewish community and to be quite clear and uncompromising about the words we used, that antisemitism has no place in this country. Racism has no place, but antisemitism has no place, and we abhor all forms that it takes and has taken in this country. And from then, I took great advice from the Jewish community – many of you who are here tonight – as to what I should do, what my office should do, and it was simply to show up. And so I hope you know, for those of you who represent the Jewish community, that is what we aim to do, is be guided by you to show up. We decided early on that one of the most important things we could do was offer this place, Admiralty House, where governors-general have stayed in Sydney, as an act of peace. Because this place is a very peaceful place. It has the most glorious outlook, as you've seen, but here we have no politics, we have no policies. I have no money to grant. But what we do have is a place that you can trust and feel safe in, where everybody belongs and where that sense of care, kindness and respect is at the forefront, but where peace prevails, and we can do things in this place and on this land here that might not be capable of being done in other parts of the country or other places.  

I'm very proud that on the Tuesday night, after the horror of that day, the Jewish community came together here, their brother rabbis, for the third night to make prayers and have the lighting of the menorah in this room, which I'm so pleased we're able to do so soon after that terrible event. I was delighted that you could come so soon after all of those terrible events. It's also been a place where we've had some of those affected directly here on the evening of New Year, and to join us and to sit on the grounds, to enjoy New Year with families. And I was so delighted, in the midst of deep grief, that many families did come and spend time.  

And so when I first reached out, I was told that the people to speak to were Murray and Michael at Better Balanced Futures, and to the New South Wales Faith Council, and to say, what can we do that builds on this idea of care and kindness?  

And I can't thank enough, Michael and Murray and Joseph La Posta, I said we would offer to host, and because I don't have any politics or policies, I would hand over the convening to others, and we would simply provide a safe, peaceful space with beautiful food, bread to break, and an opportunity to hear what it is like for all of you, coming here from very different faiths, from very different communities all over the state and the country, and very different backgrounds, but united in a sense of what we need for this country right now, a sense of peace, a plan for the future, a plan of unity.  

I'm so thrilled that through the extraordinary work of Michael, Murray and Joseph, together with my team, that we find this day to bring you all together. It's important, I think, that we're here today to reflect not only all of your work, but also this was a day when the Australian community heard from the House of Representatives the condolence motions that were read into the Hansard of our nation, a deepening experience, I'm sure, for those of you that were there, what a very important day that was.  

But Thursday will be a National Day of Mourning, and there will be the wonderful commemoration and celebration of those lives that were so cruelly stolen at the Opera House in the evening, and we will commemorate again. I'm so delighted that so many of you could say yes and come here in a spirit of peace and belonging. Just before I hand to Michael, who will facilitate this evening, a few people I just wanted to, just to indicate we do have the very patient, the very far away face at the end of the table joining us. And it is, of course, Reverend Bill Crews.  

Bill wanted to be here, but he's joining us from overseas at the moment, and I'm so delighted we can actually join us at the table. I hope you can hear us. We have Aftab Malik here, the Special Envoy to combat Islamophobia. I also wanted to pass on the apologies of Jillian Segal AO, Special Envoy to combat Antisemitism. She sends her apologies.  

I want to acknowledge Michelle Goldman, representing both the Jewish Board of Deputies and representing on the Faith Council, but she's also one of the coordinator-generals of the Bondi community response. So it's wonderful that you'll hear both those capacities carrying those dual roles. So you are all here in various capacities, but I wanted to welcome you all to Admiralty house. You are our guests here. I hope you can see the care that has been taken in welcoming you.  

It is now my great pleasure to hand the microphone on to Rt Reverend Dr Michael Stead, who is going to be the facilitator for this evening's very important conversation.

Closing remarks

Active listening is listening into the eyes, taking to the heart, and not just waiting to talk, not forming the view of a response in that moment, but just letting those words sit. I'm certainly letting all of the words that I've heard tonight sit, including those about compromise and about the wisdom of reflecting and finding a pathway through. I'm conscious that is particularly what we would like to see in the class of people that I don't represent, and I can't talk about. They're the politicians. Others have mentioned them. They have important work to do in Parliament at the moment, and I hope many of them are listening actively and prepared to do compromise and find ways through so that the confusion that our public is feeling, the confusion, the uncertainty might be met with our politicians finding a way through this and finding a way to show the country that they have listened and learned from this horror, this horrifying event, but also listening to all of you who have been speaking to them about a pathway through.  

I think it is also extraordinary that we meet days before Australia Day. So, in less than a week you'll see a lot of me around Australia Day. It's a big day for the Governor General. I spend the day in Canberra with a big ceremony on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, and we do a citizenship ceremony on that day. It's very important that we start that day with a citizenship ceremony. And it goes to the remarks that were made by all of you about, well, particularly surrender, about what it means to have Australian values, and what has happened when people come to this country, the comments that were made about leaving politics of countries behind and caring about things happening here, it is one of the most extraordinary privileges that I have. I share it with mayors and others who have the power to officiate at citizenship ceremonies. When I do that and I look at the people coming forward to receive their certificate, with their families that generally had long, long journeys to come to this country and have made a specific and determined journey to get here for peace and for all the values that you so beautifully reminded us of, and that everyone who becomes a citizen, must learn and must know about. I've taken the view that many who were not born here know more about our values than those of us that were born here and had never done the test.  

This year is the 125th anniversary of the Federation of this nation. It's a time which we can start to build some stories, I think, of the kind we're hearing tonight that says one of the reasons we are such a glorious, successful, mighty nation are our values about unity and about finding pathways to respect one another. As you have all said, I think about that in relation to the 1 millionth refugee who arrived in this country at the end of November, alongside the 8 million migrants who come to this country. We don't know quite who that person was, but we know they arrived, and I hope they will be settled well. It sent me back to think about those that came as Holocaust Survivors so many decades ago, and I wanted to share with you that in this very room in March of last year, we welcomed 25 of those Holocaust Survivors. They were joined by Michelle. Michelle, you helped bring them in from the Jewish Museum, and most of them were the volunteer guides who told their stories of the Holocaust. They left messages in our Visitors’ Book, which I'll be sharing with many people in the weeks ahead, the words they wrote about not forgetting history and have shown love and compassion and unity in frail writing, but big writing, in our Visitors Book, they left us a message that was quite clear about paying attention. The average age was about 100 the 95 to about 103 or 4. Some of those people are no longer alive. Some have passed since that meeting. But they sat here and told us what it meant to come to this country and to survive the Holocaust and to find success and love and peace and raise families here and commit to the Australian project. I find it horrifying that one of the gentlemen whose lives was taken survived the Holocaust to find his life ended by the bullet of a terrorist. It seemed so wrong and seemed to say everything about what was wrong about that moment, but I reflected on the fact that those survivors that were here were telling us to pay attention to history and to love one another. Care came up a lot, care and kindness. 

When I first started talking about care and kindness and respect, from July 2024, I had many people saying, ‘we don't like this’. This is very feminine, very soft. I think some probably looked at the generals, and the title Governor-General, and possibly wanted generals again. All my predecessors in this office have all been genuinely caring people, and might turn up in different shapes and sizes and different backgrounds. They have all cared, but I've chosen to articulate it in a way, and I am only the second woman out of 28 governors-general. So, a woman talking about care, I think at the time was seen as somewhat of a soft option. I started talking in all my speeches about the fact that care consistently delivered. People showing up, keeping up with the care project is the hardest thing to do for care to be accountable, to be measurable, for us to rely on. It is hard. It's an act that we love to offer, but it's more than the words. It's more than the deeds. It's the constant showing up. It's the constancy of care, and it is hard to do well. And so the formulation I use of care, which I've used for 18 months, and I'll continue to use, goes something like this, that as a nation, we must care for each other, show care for those that do the caring of others, care for our continent and the extraordinary beauty and richness it has brought us, care for our civics and our institutions – and within that I would put the faith institutions that we rely on that give us a sense of purpose and bind us, and finally, care for the way in which we conduct ourselves in the most difficult conversations, without rancor, anger or violence or hate, but always with care and always with curiosity and respect for the other.  

I've been talking about that a lot because I think that's the hardest one to do of all. But for those of you around the table, all of you leaders to carry this in your communities, these are hard conversations, talking about things that are hard, listening to others who have a different perspective, who may not be as generous in their response. It is hard work, caring for the way we conduct ourselves, but I know we can do it, because that is what I see around the country, most of those communities are managing diversity, faith, religions, people from somewhere else, very well in their communities. At a local level, we don't tell ourselves those stories very often. The front pages of our paper are full of stories of division and of our social cohesion having been lost. 

There is no doubt that our social cohesion is under challenge, is under pressure, no more so than a month ago. But I think it's testing us and the reinvigoration of what we believe social cohesion can do. And what I've listened to tonight, actively listened to, is the project of the mitzvahs, the 15 mitzvahs for the 15 and a commitment to education. So I want to give you my assurance that I'm with you, that the Office of the Governor-General is with all of you, that I will be promoting the mitzvahs. I will choose many of the mitzvahs and talk about them in all my speeches. 

I now have the Jewish Book of knowledge, which is already on display, and it will sit here proudly for those who come through, particularly I'll take it to Canberra, to Government House. 25,000 students a year come through Government House to hear the story of our nation, and I want that to sit up proudly as part of that story. So I will, I will share the stories of the mitzvahs. I will talk about education where I can in the conversations I have with ministers and the Prime Minister. I will reflect on tonight, it is part of my duty to encourage the Prime Minister. That's part of my job. It's under the conventions of the Governor-General. He can't tell me what to do, other than to direct me under the executive, Federal Executive Council, and I can't tell him what to do. But there's a very special relationship between the executive and the Office of the Governor General, which involves influence and conversation and reflecting what Sir Zelman Cowan said, the second Jewish Governor-General of this country. The first was Sir Isaac Isaacs, who was the first Australian-born Governor-General, a Jewish man, the second Jewish man Sir Zelman Cowen. Both were peacemakers, particularly Sir Zelman Cowen and Sir Zelman said the job of the Governor-General is to reflect the light and shade of the country back to the country, and help the country understand itself, to interpret itself, and to always share both the light and shade. 

I believe, really, in a time where we've seen a collision of light and shade simultaneously, the light that is emanating from the darkness of the events of December 14 is providing a path that can illuminate, I think, this country. To retain social cohesion and reinvigorate the great project of our Federation in its 125th year. So I just want to say thank you for being so generous and so trusting. Thank you, too, to our wonderful conveners, as I don't convene things, I simply like to host and offer a place of peace. 

But to Michael, to Joseph, to Murray, to everyone who has spoken, all of your words have landed deeply and profoundly. I'm sure there are many that would like to speak as well. And I have committed to many of you to come and visit your faith communities, and I will do that during the course of the year, but I want to wish you the very happiest of Australia Days that will come up after we have the memorial day on Thursday and we reflect on what has happened here tonight. I wish this wasn't historic. I wish this was just normal. But perhaps we can make this normal and set this as a prescription for the country to always come together like this and to listen to one another, actively listen, and to provide a path to a peaceful, successful future where we can do these things very, very well. 

So thank you for coming tonight. You don't need to rush off. Do have some dessert. Wander around the ground floor or pop outside. You will always be very welcome. You're in a place of peace. And thank you for bringing peace here, and for us to share that tonight.