Anniversaries should be times of both celebration and reflection.
A 101-year anniversary is something else again – proof of resilience, of survival against the odds, and the ability to evolve through changing times.
Our party has an enormous amount to be proud of, and much of that has been discussed during this conference.
And yet this Federal Conference occurs at a time when our Parliament – the central democratic institution of our nation – has hit a pretty low ebb.
As someone who has been self-employed, employed a lot of people and have been in charge of divisions of companies, I’ve always described Parliament House as the strangest place I’ve ever worked in.
But that is not a reason for allowing things to remain the same.
We owe it to you, to our nation to do a lot better.
We cannot accept the unacceptable.
We have to work to a higher standard of personal responsibility than other places.