Speech delivered on Fridat 15 May 2026 at Government House

I want to start by acknowledging that, of course, we are on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people. I want to pay my respects to elders past and present and acknowledge any First Nations people here tonight.

I also want to acknowledge a number of people, because this is an important gathering, and we have some distinguished guests. Her Excellency Mr Waddiba Ladisi, Ambassador of Afghanistan — Your Excellency, it's wonderful to have you back. We see each other quite a lot through the diplomatic corps here in Canberra, and welcome back to Government House.

Mr Leonetto Mantilo, Counsellor, representing the Ambassador of Timor-Leste. There you are, very interested to see you, and wonderful to know Timor-Leste is represented here tonight.

Heather Tom, Chair, and Mr Paul Thomas, Deputy Chair of Rotary Australia World Community Service. Mahir Momand, CEO, RAWCS. You were last year, my guest, for another 60th birthday reception, when we gathered to celebrate six decades of ACFID, the Australian Council for International Development. I'm so pleased to see you back here in your capacity at RAWCS, one of ACFID's most important member organisations.

Welcome back, Jennifer Scott, Director of Rotary International. Dennis Shaw, Trustee of the Rotary Foundation.  

In addition to those guests I've mentioned, of course, you are all distinguished guests — very distinguished guests — Australian Rotarians, especially the 10 Rotarians who will receive very special awards this evening. Everyone in this room for us are distinguished guests, and in many cases, you are old friends of mine or of Government House. So welcome to Government House if it's your first time, and welcome back if you have been here before.

We do like to say that Government House is a place of peace and belonging, where I hope that you will feel, during the time here and as you come back many times, that your story or your organisation's stories are represented here in some way — in the art on the walls, the books on the shelves, the artefacts that we have out that tell us about where we’ve visited and who visits us, and in particular the stories that we tell here and the events that we host, just like tonight, as Steph has said.

And we have a very broad agenda for this evening, as is your wish as an organisation. We're doing a number of things. We're celebrating 60 years of RAWCS. We're launching the magnificent digital book 60 years, 60 stories, and importantly, we will be presenting distinguished service and humanitarian service awards to Rotarians and members of partner organisations.

Tonight, I think, reflects the extraordinary scope of Rotary's ambition and the projects that RAWCS has delivered for 60 extraordinary years in health and education, providing vital infrastructure, habitat preservation, and protection of endangered species, and so much more. Your program is almost limitless. It's reflecting the skills, the energy, the commitment and compassion of your members — Rotarians.

RAWCS's model enables local energy to be harnessed to address human need, no matter where it is found in the world, connecting people to people, just like the Rotary Club of Coleambally, for this project to donate and fit hearing aids for children in Samoa, as an example. And you have the capacity to coordinate local energy and transform it into expansive global impact, like the life‑changing Australian Rotarians Against Malaria program, which has remarkably eliminated malaria in Timor-Leste, and continues to work to control malaria in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. What an extraordinary accomplishment here in Australia.

RAWCS projects continue to have a huge impact on the ground, delivering assistance in rural, regional and metropolitan areas through drought relief — and don't we need a lot of that — compassionate grants and crisis response. In my role, I travel all over the country, and I see places and people in recovery everywhere, and I know that you are busy as Rotarians, helping in every way you can in those recovery programs.

Now, RAWCS's first official project in 1967 was to build a wharf at Wasu Village in Papua New Guinea. Working together with the locals on construction, the project left behind much needed infrastructure and skills, and of course did the most important thing: it forged deep friendships between Rotarians and the people of Wasu.

Half a billion dollars and thousands of projects later, improving the lives of millions of people in scores of countries around the world, and importantly here at home, RAWCS continues to make a powerful and positive impact on communities in need, and you just enable global good.

As you write in 60 years, 60 stories, Jennifer says this work reminds us of what can happen when we choose to work together and put service before self. I think that sums you all up — you put service before self.

Now, I was lucky to grow up in a family of service — my father's military career over almost 40 years, and my parents' absolute commitment to community work wherever we were, particularly in the disability community, meant that by the time I quite surprisingly came to be your Governor-General — not expected in my world — I promised to put care, kindness and respect at the centre of everything I do.

And that's care for each other, care for those who do the caring of others, care for our continent — and it's the environmental reach that's an extraordinary, extraordinary reach that’s given us — otherwise known as care for country, care for civics and institutions.

Probably no greater time in our history are we given to care about our civics in this country, and again, importantly, care for the way we discuss the issues of our time without violence, anger or judgment, always with respect for those that we disagree with. Wrestle the idea absolutely, but not the person.

And I think we need to recover that great Australian skill — being able to argue well, debate well, walk away from a debate still liking the person, knowing that we have a difference of opinion, and we can work together and find compromise. And I think we see from all parts of the world, and sometimes here in Australia, we need to focus on that form of care.

And so one of the greatest joys in my role is to celebrate care when I find it in the organisations, people and communities that I get to meet, and to share those stories wherever I go, and with those who need to hear them, including pretty important people who do have their hands on the reins of government — and the running of the country.

What I see in you, in Rotarians, is the embodiment of all those aspects of care. You embody all of it — some in stronger areas than others — but you are always there caring. You're always showing kindness, and you show deep respect in every community in which we find you.

I will certainly be sharing your stories, particularly as a patron, because it will give me great joy to be able to share your stories and be so proud of what we can do when we do show care in the way that Rotarians have always done.

Tonight, through the insights that you'll be sharing and the things we'll be talking about — the 60 unique and inspiring individual chapters in the beautiful celebratory book — and the personal records of achievement that we'll be recognising shortly in the awards, you represent so vividly why care, kindness and respect, in my mind, are at the core of Australian life. We take that value all over the world, and you've given me all those great stories to share.

I want to share with you why I wear my lovely wattle pin. This brooch was gifted to me by the President of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar last year when we visited on a state visit, and the reason I wear it is that when the President gave it to me, he thanked me for Australia over the last 30 years for the Australia Awards, which have been in place since — I think — as we trained and taught serving people around the world who now are the leaders of those nations. And half of the Cabinet of Mongolia were trained in Australian universities.

The Bhutanese Ambassador told me that three‑quarters of the Bhutanese Cabinet were trained in some way in Australia, including masters here at ANU. The reason I share that with you is he wanted me to know that it mattered to the people of Mongolia who had come here, that we as a democracy care about the contribution that we make in the rest of the world.

And we're reflecting on that today because I was thinking about all of you when I finished my remarks, reflecting on my most recent undertakings — the Rotary New Dawn project in south eastern Ukraine, which has distributed more than $350,000 in humanitarian aid to establish medical centres and upgrade schools, including, tragically, to fund the materials to build a bomb shelter at a school that had no safe place for children to go to when the bombs fell.

A Rotarian in Ukraine described Rotary's work like this: first and foremost, about maintaining our unity, giving everyone a chance to survive and find the strength for a decent life. Good deeds do not go unnoticed. They shine like beacons to those who need help.

Rotary's motto, Service Above Self, is the beacon that shines in all of your extraordinary work, and the work we celebrate this evening, and that the awardees represent so strongly tonight.

I want to thank every one of you in this room for your compassionate work to harness one of our nation's richest resources — care, kindness and respect. They say so much about our national life and, I think, our national character, and they continue to show up in such compassionate ways.

You do it — you provide this urgently to achieve a just and sustainable world, and right now we need that more than ever.