Australia Day: A day to get behind the best place in the world

Scott Morrison speaks at the 2022 Australian of the Year finalists morning tea at the Lodge in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Today across Australia there will be thousands of gatherings where Australians will celebrate our country. There will be breakfasts, barbecues, picnics, surf carnivals, flag raisings and fireworks. Thousands of formal and informal gatherings celebrating our country and who we are as a people.

One of these events will be a small festival in Blacktown, where the local Sydney Yazidi community is celebrating becoming part of our Australian story. The Yazidis are one of our newest multicultural communities and are just a few thousand strong.

For most of the Yazidi community, their Australian story is a relatively young one, having fled the horrific, murderous acts of Islamic State. Together with then prime minister Tony Abbott, when I was serving as minister for immigration, he and I took the decision to bring these Iraqi Christians and Yazidis to Australia on special humanitarian visas.

They are now rebuilding their lives in Sydney, Wagga, Armidale and elsewhere. I admire their tenacity and their goodness, which stands as a beacon compared with their barbarous persecutors.

Like our young Yazidi community, I believe most Australians are feeling a deep sense of gratitude this Australia Day. While our journey has not been perfect, Australia is emerging from a once-in-a-century pandemic with one of the lowest death rates from Covid and one of the strongest advanced economies in the world. Combined with one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, Australia is well set up to secure our recovery.

We have faced the most difficult challenges in three-quarters of a century and worked together delivering what has been an extraordinary national achievement. Through this time there has also been a realisation of what is truly important – our health, our family, our jobs, our communities and our sovereignty as a free people.

There’s been a clarity as well, with a renewed understanding about what we can accomplish as a people. Australians have a quiet confidence. It’s a confidence to do what is right and a confidence in each other. We are not a nation of doubters. We are a nation of doers. Nor are we insecure or uncomfortable about who we are and our place in the world. On days like today we aren’t ashamed to admit that we love our country and think it’s the best place in the world. We know it’s not perfect, but we know each other, and believe the best in each other – and that we can all make a difference

We are grateful, hardworking, generous, optimistic and outgoing. We have a capacity not to take ourselves too seriously, and we see it in so many of our celebrations – from the Wiggles’ Top 100 cover hit to the thong throwing and sack races that will occur in so many places today.

The power of Australia Day lies in the themes set out by the Australia Day Council – to reflect, respect and celebrate. It is our reflection that brings us together, to better understand and respect each other, and make the progress we need. A good example of this is in the nation’s capital. Hundreds of thousands of Australians visit Canberra every year to get a better understanding of our national story and their place in it.

Old and new Parliament Houses speak of our democratic history; the High Court reminds us we are a country of laws; the National Gallery, the National Library and Questacon allow us to lift our eyes; and the Australian War Memorial tells the story of duty and sacrifice.

But it is a vista that is incomplete. For there has been no permanent place of honour to recognise 65,000 years of Indigenous history.

Several weeks ago, early in the new year, I announced we are establishing the Ngurra cultural precinct in the parliamentary triangle – between the hill and the water. Ngurra is a word in many Indigenous languages. It carries meanings of country, home and belonging. It will be at Ngurra that Australians will experience and see not only the story of the past two centuries or so but the story of 65,000 years of history, memory and spirit. It will be a place of reflection and recognition for Indigenous Australians, the oldest living culture in the world.

Ngurra marks another step in our national journey. On Monday we took a further step by completing negotiations to secure the transfer of the Aboriginal flag copyright to the commonwealth. This means the Aboriginal flag is now freely available for public use and will be managed in a respectful and similar way to the Australian national flag.

In a world that is increasingly loud and fractured, we are steadily growing together rather than apart. We are a proud multicultural and multi-faith nation; I believe we are the most successful on earth. Every Australia Day we affirm this great heritage. Today, in more than 400 locations, more than 16,000 people from more than 130 nations will become Australian citizens, adding their own talents, strengths and hopes to our shared national fabric.

On this Australia Day, I feel a deep sense of gratitude. For there is much to be thankful for in a history that spans 65,000 years; a continent of unmatched beauty and wonder; a democratic tradition that is the foundation of our freedom; and the kaleidoscope of multicultural and multi-faith communities that makes the most successful multicultural nation on earth.

Happy Australia Day.

Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister of Australia.