ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED

To launch the 2025 Red Shield Appeal here in Canberra is particularly special, because I might be your 28th Governor General, the second woman to hold this position, after Dame Quentin Bryce, but I am your first Canberra-born Governor-General. I have very strong memories of door knocking for this appeal in our suburb of Curtin.

When I was a primary school student and a high school student, my father was one of the local coordinators. My parents were inveterate volunteers for everything that we could do to help the community. My dad was in the army, so we moved a fair bit before we came back to Canberra, but it was always about community and playing a role and helping others. 

Wandering around with the calico bag collecting coins from people – that's where I started to learn about the importance of the enduring presence of the Salvos. Decades and decades and decades of compassion, fortitude, kindness and care. The Red Shield is something that every Australian knows and trusts, wherever they find you as Salvos, particularly your crisp uniforms, the banners and buckets are as familiar in the Australian landscape of our cities, our suburbs, our shops, our towns, outside the pub, outside the local shopping center, as any other iconic logo or loved institution. It's testament to those decades of compassion, and something that I take very seriously as your patron, and with so many disasters and recoveries unfolding across the country today, as there are most days, I'm particularly mindful of the work you do in emergency services. You are wherever you are needed in those emergencies. It's also emergency services where more Australians volunteer than in any other sector. 

And while that flooding has continued to have its impact across the Central and North Coast region of New South Wales, and other parts of the country are recovering from floods or cyclone or dealing with devastating droughts, Victoria and South Australia, it's so vital that the Salvos are there to help, and Australians trust you. You show up in a completely non-judgmental way. You meet the needs of those who seek your support, and then you stay. You don't go away. You don't leave people without hope. You’ve been doing this work of care and compassion since the 19th century, and of course, you continue to adapt and evolve from those very early days. 

I know that reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is now a major focus of your work. That you've grown in your support for mental health, a commitment to inclusion, and they're all now integral to how you help all Australians. So much about your work has remained constant for over a century and a half. 

The numbers are staggering: more than 140,000 people last year were fed by the Salvos; almost 30,000 job seekers and over a million nights of accommodation, helping over 15,000 people with addictions last year and their recovery and over 12,000 people living with violence. And back in 2023 and 2024, you provided more than $6 million to those affected by the natural disasters that were unfolding at that time. 

Now, the Red Shield Appeal has been around for a long time – a long, long time. The very first door knock took place in 1965 – the year I was born. 

We are both turning 60 this year. Now, as I've already said to you, door knocking and volunteering were very much a part of my childhood and early adulthood. The Salvos and the Heart Foundation were the two organizations we were always supporting, and it taught me a lot from a very young age about working together and about working for something greater than ourselves. It also taught me how wonderfully generous Australians can be when you give them a way to participate. 

Then I've seen it in every one of my corporate jobs: those who have the least to give, give the most. Those who looked like they didn't have much to give, would always come up with notes. The fancy houses always came up with coins.

Now, last week, it was wonderful to celebrate National Volunteer Week. That was a time when we celebrate the millions of Australians who volunteer. It's currently one in five. Before COVID, it was one in four. We've got about a million missing volunteers because of the tough times post-COVID, and we've got to find a way to retrieve those million volunteers, get them back into volunteering. And there's been quite a lot of that work and advocacy for Australians to volunteer. And last week, the theme was Connecting Communities. And I said to a group that came to Government House, connection and community are the themes of every act of volunteering and in every place where volunteers touch our lives. That's why volunteers, for me, embody the values of care, kindness and respect. And on my first day as your Governor General, first of July last year, I promised to make the focus of my term as Governor-General, care, kindness and respect. 

When I think about care, I think about care for each other, caring for those who care for others, care for our wonderful country, its natural environment, the beauties and riches it's given us; care for civics and institutions – like the institution that is the Salvation Army, alongside all the other institutions that hold up this country; care for the way we discuss big issues of our time. Some of them involve issues happening around the world. Some of them very local and personal. I grew up in a time when you could have a very good debate and still be mates. So I've been talking a lot about how we put care and kindness at the centre of how we have our conversations and discussions.

I also promised to lift up the stories of those who do all the embedding of care in a way they encounter the world around them, which is what volunteers do. But of course, today, that is what Salvos do every day, and have always done. It's something I recognize more and more. What I think is that care is never a soft option. It might be wrapped in compassion and soft things, but care is not easy. It's not simple. And I'm sure, as every officer in the Salvation Army can attest, care is demanding. It's rigorous, it's challenging, and it's accountable and measurable. 

Your Social Justice Stocktake for 2025 speaks to that accountability. Your report contains rigorous data, together with the voices and experiences of real people like Leonie, it finds that across the country, the issues people are most concerned about right now are mental health, housing and homelessness, financial hardship and inclusion, access to health care, drug and alcohol issues, climate change, discrimination, disadvantage, isolation and inequality. And it's clear that people who are not personally affected by these issues also feel sufficiently connected to their communities that they list them as their highest priorities, too. So it's felt by all of us who have privilege as well. 

I think that looks like a pretty tough picture, but I'm encouraged by what I see in response to it, because in spite of those difficulties, and maybe even because of them, sometimes connection and care are still very present in the Australian community, and I have the great privilege of seeing them. On your behalf, I've travelled to every state and territory at least twice in this first year. I try to go to places where Governors-General have not gone before. Just this week, I’ve come back from a trip to the northwest of Tasmania, that beautiful part of the coast, one of the most disadvantaged parts of the country. Part of those communities have the highest levels of domestic violence and homelessness. 

I was welcomed yesterday in Devonport to Loaves and Fishes. In Devonport, they are providing food and nourishment to school groups, to anyone who needs it, and they're growing steadily. I thought of you when I saw what was going on there. 

In making these visits around the country, I also get to meet the Salvos. They might not know when I see them. Sometimes I'm not the Governor-General, I'm just me, and I show up and just have a chat and hear what's going on. But I see you in every part of this country, from the remote areas and regional towns to the bustling streets of our biggest cities, and here in Canberra, and everyone in this room knows that what the Salvos do matters enormously. It is community in action. It's care at its most powerful and acute. When your army of volunteers head out for the Red Shield Appeal this year, every one of those volunteers and all the Salvos are demonstrating that care is something that you do, but you're inviting every one of us to be part of that great story. You're helping us to stay connected as a community and to help one another. You're reminding us about how we exercise that muscle of care as a nation. 

I want to thank the Salvos for everything that they do, and everyone who supports the Salvos. I want to thank you for your energy, your kindness, your care, your respect. I cannot imagine a modern Australia without the Salvos, and I hope that this 2025 Red Shield Appeal is your most successful yet, and that will only happen if we all dig deep, and we all show up and we meet the care that the Salvos give us with the care back to our community. I'm really delighted to launch the 2025 Red Shield Appeal for the Salvation Army.