Speeches
Chief Minister’s launching Strategy Report and Blueprint.
Speaking notes for Jon Stanhope MLA
Launch of Centenary of Canberra Task Force Report & Interim Strategy, and announcement of Centenary Patron and winners of the Ideas and Logo Design Competitions
Bradman Pavilion, Manuka Oval
9.30am, Friday 10 March 2006
Acknowledge:
- Sir William and Lady Deane
- Former Chief Ministers — Rosemary Follett, Trevor Kaine, Senator Gary Humphries – Kate Carnell apologises that she cannot be here today but extends best wishes for this ceremony
- Federal Member for Canberra, Annette Ellis and Senator Kate Lundy
- Bishop George Browning
- My Assembly colleagues Simon Corbell
- Leader of the Opposition, Brendan Smyth
- Ms Mary Porter, Mr Mick Gentleman, Mr Richard Mulcahy, Ms Vicki Dunne
- Fellow Canberrans
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands we are meeting on, the Ngunnawal people, whose links stretch back thousands of years before federation, thousands of years before the need indeed for a national capital. I respect their continuing culture and welcome the ongoing contribution they make to the life of Canberra and the Canberra region.
Ladies and gentlemen, today is an important marker in our journey towards Canberra’s centenary in 2013. We have spent two months asking Canberrans how they would like to celebrate the centenary, and their answers are before us today. The Canberra Centenary Task Force is pleased to be able to present its report and interim strategy alongside its “blueprint” for the celebrations. And today I also have the pleasure to announce the official centenary patron — a man whose standing and stature will lend lustre to our efforts and help make this a truly national celebration.
Canberra’s centenary is an opportunity to look back at the decades that have passed since the momentous ceremony at which the capital was named — and further back, at the communities and cultures that flourished on this site for thousands of years.
It’s a chance to share our pride in this place with the rest of the world. And it’s a chance to enjoy ourselves – to celebrate the city that belongs not only to the 325,000 people who call Canberra home, but to all Australians.
The reports published today reflect the depth of enthusiasm for Canberra and its centenary. Among the ideas to come out of this process are a World Indigenous Corroborree, an International Youth Conference, a time capsule, a wave pool and a first-ever cricket test hopefully between Australia and India here at Manuka Oval. There are also plans for a major “legacy” projects, to stand for generations to come.
We have seven years to get all of Australia – and members of the international community – involved. The countdown has begun, but these are early days. There are ideas here that will certainly take root and grow. There are no doubt others that will not. There will be some for which funding partners will be readily found, and others which may be more difficult to turn into reality.
The scale of the celebrations will of course depend on who we can persuade to be a part of this great adventure and the partnerships we are able to forge.
The documents being released today are not a firm agenda. They are not set in stone. They are a starting point for a long conversation. But they are a fantastic starting point.
Every great idea starts somewhere. Sometimes, indeed, the start is more of a stop-start.
One morning in 1902, John Christian Watson – a future Prime Minister of Australia – slept in.
Watson wasn’t the only one. He and a group of fellow parliamentarians, evidently sapped by the rigours of visiting so many possible sites for the national capital, all missed the scheduled visit to the Canberra valley.
Five years later, after Dalgety had been chosen and then withdrawn as a site for the future capital, Watson recounted his mistake. He said that had he seen Canberra on that first tour, he would never have chosen any site other than Canberra for Australia’s capital.
Canberra is a unique place – a very deliberate city. Every street, every suburb – the very orientation of the place – has been planned. Where other Australian cities sprang up around waterways, encroaching on the surrounding landscape, Canberra was placed carefully among the hills and mountains. It is, as Walter Burley Griffin envisioned it to be, a truly democratic city, and a symbol of the nation that grew, without bloodshed, out of the federation movement of the 19th century.
Today, we are still planning — this time as we all know for a year-long celebration in 2013. A little later this morning, we will find out the names of those who have won our ideas and logo competitions.
I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge everyone who has worked on this progress that we have achieved to date – people like Lincoln Hawkins and his team, and the competition sponsors — ActewAGL, TransACT, the Canberra Centre, Privileges Card, the Credit Union of Canberra and the CPS Credit Union. And of course I thank each of my fellow task force members who, as former Chief Ministers of the Australian Capital Territory, share my love for and commitment to our city.
I would especially like to thank the many, many Canberrans who put forward their ideas for celebrating our centenary. The depth of interest in the ideas - over 1,600 were received - and logo competition is a great vote of confidence in the pool of talent, and the great love of place, in this city.
Of course we’re still open to new ideas. These reports which we release today should be a catalyst for new inspiration, as well as a focusing of existing proposals. We want a truly memorable centenary – a centenary which celebrates the best of Canberra, and the best of Australia. A centenary which celebrates our democracy, which recognises Canberra’s place at the very heart of a modern, progressive Australia.
And we will be helped in our endeavours by a most eminent Australian – a person whose long career in public life has won him widespread respect and affection, a man who could have found a welcome in any city or community in this country, but who has made Canberra his home. The man who will be the Centenary of Canberra patron has been a spokesman for the very worthiest of Australian attributes and values – compassion, understanding, respect and diligence. As a Canberra resident as well as a prominent figure on the national, and international, stage, he will embody one of this city’s great strengths – the combination of vibrant local neighbourhoods and a pervasive sense of playing an essential role in the unfolding of the wider Australian story.
I am pleased that the Federal Government, and the Minister for Territories, Jim Lloyd, with whom I am working closely on Centenary preparations, have heartily endorsed the ACT’s decision to announce that Sir William Deane, former Governor-General of Australia, will be patron of Canberra’s centenary.
Sir William, we would be pleased and honoured if you would address us.
Thank you
