Vickie Dunne MLA

Speaker for the Legislative Assembly for the ACT

SPEAKER'S WELCOME - COMMONWEALTH DAY RECEPTION

18 MARCH 2014

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this reception to celebrate Commonwealth Day 2014.

I acknowledge His Excellency, Mr Molosiwa Selepeng, High Commissioner for the Republic of Botswana, who shortly will speak on behalf of the High Commissioners.

I acknowledge other High Commissioners, whom we are honoured to have with us this evening.

I acknowledge the Deputy Speaker, Ms Mary Porter MLA, and others of my Assembly colleagues who are attending this evening.

I acknowledge the Canberra Girls Grammar School Senior Council Chairperson Ms Phyllida Behm who shortly will read a message from Her Majesty the Queen.

I am also very pleased to welcome other school captains and principals, and parents of students. I welcome you all to your Assembly.

Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday in March every year.

The aim of Commonwealth Day is to celebrate the unity, diversity and linkages of the modern Commonwealth and foster greater understanding of the Commonwealth’s achievements and role.

It’s an opportunity, via the breadth and strength of the vast Commonwealth community, to promote understanding on global issues, international co-operation, and the work done to improve the lives of its two billion citizens.

This year’s theme for Commonwealth Day is team Commonwealth.

The 53 countries of the Commonwealth have joined together over the past week to celebrate the spirit of teamwork that helps us work together.

It has been an opportunity to celebrate the strong bonds, shared values, and principles that unite us.

The independent countries belonging to the Commonwealth span six continents and oceans from Africa to Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Australasia.

The Commonwealth represents 30 per cent of the world’s population and straddles wide ethnic and cultural differences.

Commonwealth member countries include some of the world’s largest and smallest, richest and poorest countries.

We acknowledge all faiths and ethnicities.

Over half of the Commonwealth’s people are aged 25 or under.

While member nations are diverse, we are all bound together by a common objective.

That objective is to help one another create just and peaceful societies, achieve sustainable and inclusive social progress, advance democracy, and build economic resilience with prosperity in which we can all share.

Her Majesty the Queen has acknowledged that experiences of life differ widely throughout the Commonwealth, and while we may make contributions from very different viewpoints, we are committed to the same goals.

We offer each other encouragement and draw strength from this mutual support. There’s an understanding that we belong together, and are able, through teamwork, to achieve far more than we could do alone.

Under the auspices of the Commonwealth, we work together towards solutions to shared problems through forums such as Commonwealth Heads of Government and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association of the Australian Region, of which it currently is my privilege to chair.

It’s the willingness and ability of member nations to take a team approach to these issues, and to address them at the local, national and international level, that I think is at the heart of, and gives strength to, this unique global community to which we belong.

In another demonstration of team work, the 20th Commonwealth Games, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in July and August this year, will provide a further occasion to showcase the healthy mix of co-operation and competition between member nations.

For the Legislative Assembly, Commonwealth Day allows us to reflect on a tried and true parliamentary system derived from Westminster.

Through the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association we have the opportunity to come together to share our ideas and experiences about this time-tested form of government.

The Assembly is also grateful to the CPA for our Mace, which was a gift to the Assembly from the Australian member branches of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in 2004.

At a more local level, the Assembly is keen to promote understanding about its democratic form of government, recognizing that a well-informed citizenry is vitally important to the health of democracy.

In a practical way, we do this through this Parliament’s twinning with the island nation of Kiribati.

Canberra’s historic links and close ties with the Commonwealth will be apparent during the upcoming visit on the 24th and 25th of April by Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along, of course, with their baby son, Prince George.

So, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for celebrating Commonwealth Day with us this evening. May our bonds be even stronger in the years to come.

It is my honour and pleasure, now, to invite His Excellency, Mr Molosiwa Selepeng, High Commissioner for the Republic of Botswana to come forward and respond on behalf of High Commissioners.

--- His Excellency speaks ---

And now I invite Phyllida Behm, Senior Council Chairperson of Canberra Girls Grammar School, to read Her Majesty the Queen’s Commonwealth Day message.

--- Phyllida Behm speaks ---

And finally, I ask you all to be upstanding, charge your glasses and drink a toast to Her Majesty and the Commonwealth.

Her Majesty the Queen and the Commonwealth.