On World MS Day, I am so pleased to welcome you to Government House this morning.

On this day, the global MS community comes together to share stories, raise awareness and campaign with everyone affected by MS. 

With your mission to accelerate Australian MS research towards prevention, better treatments and cure for MS it is important that we spend this time with you.

As co-patron with Simon McKeon AO of MS Australia, this morning is an opportunity for me to hear and understand your stories. 
Because the stories of lived experience, of breakthroughs in advocacy and framing of research goals are part of our national story, and they all matter deeply.

I mentioned that I was in northwest Tasmania this week.

I joined the mayor from Burnie in a sunrise swim at the Bluff.

The waters of Bass Strait in May are bracingly cold, but I came away energised and uplifted, not just by the water temperature, but by the feeling of a community coming together in a shared activity and with a shared purpose. 

Things that are very much at the heart of MS Australia, with your singular goal to enable a world without MS.

My visit to Tasmania coincided with the first of two public seminars hosted by the MS Research Flagship in the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the Cradle Coast campus of the University of Tasmania, in Burnie.

Attended by many members of the public, we all listened intently to the conversation between members of the MS community and researchers including Professors Tracy Dickson, Bruce Taylor, Kaylene Young and Ingrid van der Mei.

The solidarity and commitment to collective action that shapes the Flagship’s goals was evident, and the global relationships it fosters with world-leading researchers, universities and institutes overseas were on show.

I know that the work in Tasmania is happening in partnership with MS Australia across the country – accelerating research, supporting global collaboration and bringing hope to the MS community, their families and friends, and all Australians.

When I became Governor-General in July last year, I undertook to place an unstinting focus on care, kindness and respect.

Care for each other, care for those who care for others, care for our natural environment, care for our civics and institutions, and care for the way we discuss the issues of our time, without anger, violence or judgment.

And I want to challenge the notion that care is something soft and yielding, lacking enterprise or genius.

Care has a harder, accountable edge that is measurable and rigorous.

It is the care we see in medical research and the search for cures, founded on care for all who live with MS.

MS Australia practices this form of care across the range of its activities on behalf of the more than 33,000 Australians who live with MS, and in ways that contribute to the wellbeing of the global community of close to 3 million people living with MS.

Resources, like the Living Well guidance we will launch today, fulfil your mission to assist, support and inform the MS community.

Advocacy and outreach bring to the fore the critical issues for people living with MS to the attention of those who need to know them, so that decisions and policy relevant to the MS community, especially around treatment and care, is appropriate and sustainable. Putting the lived experience of the centre of the work.

Research funding, through direct grants to MS research projects, and collaboration with the national and international scientific community sows the seed of hope for better diagnosis, more effective treatments and, ultimately, a longed-for cure.

In all your activities, MS Australia has a broad agenda.

And you fulfil it with so much care and compassion for the thousands of people and organisations you represent.

I am so proud to be patron of MS Australia, and honoured to be part of this community of shared purpose. 

I look forward to deepening my understanding of the issues that matter to all of you in the years ahead. And, this morning, to joining you for a session of shared yoga and a conversation about your future work.

Thank you.