Speech to the Deaf Art Science Festival

Thank you very much. 

For Ryan too, I can tell you that the event at the Eureka Prizes at the Sydney Town Hall, Ryan's speech was a very good contribution on that evening, and going to the back of the Town Hall with all of the young people from here was a really important reminder for me to think hard about diversity in STEM and including all Australians in what is such important work before the country. 

I, of course, want to join in the Acknowledgements of Country and the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and pay respects to Elders, past and present. 

And also say I am really proud to be here with all of you in the deaf community, in the science community, and supporters of this wonderful establishment and this festival is such an extraordinary Australian achievement. 

Acknowledge my friend Sarah Witty, of course, the Member for Melbourne, Michael Wesley, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr. Jefferies, who we've spoken about before, Rose Hiscock, the Director of Museums and Collections, here. 

What a wonderful job that must be. 

Dr. Ramas McRae, Rebecca Adam, Chelle Destefano, everybody here, our friends and colleagues from the CFA and Emergency Response. 

Just delighted to see all of you here, part of this extraordinary event. 

I also met Peter and Ruth McMullin that evening, and I understand there is another Ruth, another supporter here too, Ruth Bunyan. 

This kind of philanthropic support for Australian institutions, and Peter and Ruth, and Ruth, finding their way through all of the options for philanthropic support to this - is making a difference and is going to make a difference for Australia. 

I think that's a real contribution, a really patriotic Australian contribution, and I want to say thank you to them here on the stage today and join in applause for that really important effort. 

When they announced their contribution in 2019, Peter and Ruth described it as an investment in Australia's next generation of scientific and creative trailblazers. 

And that reflects a simple but powerful idea. 

Australia is strongest when we draw on the full diversity of talent right across Australia, and science and innovation are often celebrated as products of individual brilliance. 

Individual brilliance matters, but the greatest achievements are almost always the result of brilliant individuals collaborating together in a team. 

It is at its best when it brings together people with different skills, experiences, and ideas to address Australian challenges. 

All of us, Australians together, nurturing all of our capacity, all of our ingenuity, all of our love of our country, all of our effort and our experiences, to make us stronger and more resilient. 

And the challenges that we face as a country are becoming increasingly complex and increasingly consequential. 

The challenge to modernisze our electricity and our energy system, to reindustrialise our economy, to make more things here, climate adaptation, food security and agriculture, critical technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum, making a stronger environment, and building our emergency response capabilities in technical terms and community terms. 

These are all great challenges, and they're all great scientific and innovation challenges. 

And our capacity to be able to develop an Australian response depends upon our capacity to engage all Australians in that effort, because different people ask different questions, they identify different risks, and they find together different opportunities. 

And I just say diversity in STEM is, of course, a question of fairness.

But it's not just a question of fairness. 

It's a source of strength and scientific innovation, and a core part of who we are as Australians. 

That's the social democratic core Australian proposition, right there.

We are stronger together. 

That no one held back, no one left behind, and that's why I'm so pleased to be here today. 

You have all built something together. 

That will not just be a reservoir of skill and capacity and innovation and scientific development, but something that will make Australia stronger in community terms and in scientific terms as well. 

That event at the Sydney Town Hall, where you received - it is a prestigious national prize, the Eureka Prize. 

It was an event 20 times as big as this. 

Everybody in tuxedos and black ties, all of the great and good of Sydney's and Australia's scientific and research community were all there, and what they saw was you with pride setting out your achievement and the task that lies in front of us. 

And this festival, and all of this institution, demonstrates the extraordinary contributions that deaf and hard of hearing Australians have made and will make to science and the arts and innovation and technology. 

It shows what's possible. 

Shows what's possible when we make sure that we take time to make room for all of us to work together. 

I could go on for hours about the relationship between science and the arts too, but I won't. 

But I won't. 

Suffice to say, I am just so proud. 

The Government is so pleased with the work that you have all done together. 

I said to Ryan on the way in, I have so much to learn about the institutions that have built us to this position, and all of the hard work that has happened in harder times with generations of Victorians working together. 

This is a precious thing. 

Nourish it, cherish it. 

You can look forward to our continued support. 

I'm really keen to get back down here again, maybe when I've got more than 90 minutes to spend with you. 

But most of all, the message I wanted to send today was more power to your arm, and thank you for your work, and I hope today goes really well. 

Thank you.

ENDS.