transcript: CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY AND PRO PATRIA CENTRE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING SIGNING CEREMONY, 3 OCTOBER 2024
E&OE
STARTS: 10:25am
ENDS: 10:30am
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Thank you, David. At the outset, I will acknowledge the Carmelite Nuns, even though they are not here today, I can imagine they are here and certainly here in spirit every time that we meet on this land.
On this land we should pay tribute to the Carmelite Nuns and what they did – those brave Sisters, for this place and Pro Patria.
I see my good mate Jason Frost there; he is at every Pro Patria event, as you can imagine he would be.
And it is for people such as Jason that we are making every effort—every concerted effort—as a Defence city, as a garrison town, to be the best for our Veterans—it is so, so important.
I would like to acknowledge Derek (Aranha) from the Air Force Squadron Leader of the Royal Australian Air Force and my good mate Tim Stone.
I said at what I think was the last Anzac Day march that Colonel Stone has the toughest job in the Australian Defence Force, with all due respect to the Navy and RAAF – we are very, very proud to have them in our midst in our city.
The recruiting of Army soldiers is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities that our city has. To be the leader of the base, a base which has a history back to the 1940s – the Air Force has been here since the 1930s – it is one of the greatest things our city has.
When there was a little bit of conjecture about the actual rank of the Colonel of the Kapooka Base I very much went into bat and said to the then Defence Minister, “If you in any way, shape or form downgrade that position, and I’ll tell you what, you won’t see what is coming, not just from me but from our city”.
Because it is the most challenging role in the Army, and we need the best of the best and we have had in Tim Stone the very best.
I am so glad that he is going to Canberra, and he is going to continue in recruiting – I am not glad he is going to Canberra, but I am glad he is going to continue to be in recruiting.
When you mention Wagga Wagga, no matter who you speak to people always say, “Oh that is a great sporting city”, people start rattling off all the great sporting names.
Mayor Dallas Tout will tell you we are also a very multicultural city – and we are. He will go on ad-nauseam that we are a very cultural city, and we are, we have the National Art Glass Gallery, and we are very proud of that.
But we are also very much a training centre and when it comes to pilots, we have the Australian Airline Pilot Academy, down near the airport.
We have got fantastic schools and of course, our Defence bases and we have Charles Sturt University – and we are very proud of Charles Sturt University it has been there as a university since 1989.
The coming together, as Colonel Stone says of two great establishments, CSU and Pro Patria, is very special and we should very much reflect on what we are seeing with this merger today between those two great entities.
Charles Sturt University produces the best and the brightest – it does.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has shown us those 122 recommendations.
That report that took years of blood, sweat and many, many tears has shown us that we need to do better, and we can do better through Charles Sturt University, and we will do better through Charles Sturt University, and we must do better through Charles Sturt University having that forged link between Pro Patria and the academia of Wagga Wagga.
I can think of no finer marriage, no finer coming together today for the future than those two great organisations.
Pro Patria is a great organisation, I thank Jacqui (Van de Velde) and I thank the board, I thank the trustees – Angelo (Strano) and Gordon (Saggers), Dallas (Tout) included and others who worked hard to try and get some good housing outcomes. That is not lost on anybody in the community that we do provide more and better housing for our Veterans.
We owe it to our Veterans, whilst they train them at Kapooka, they train them at Air Force, they train them at Navy Wagga Wagga, we send them out to do the job that the Parliament that people have asked them to do – and when they come back some of them are broken, not all.
We need to mend them; we need to fix them, and we need to be the best whether they transition back into society or whether they are finding the struggle to do so.
And now Charles Sturt University is going to do it in a very organised framework, and I think that is fantastic.
Thank you to Charles Sturt and thank you to Pro Patria for continuing to do what you do – not only for our city, not for our Veterans, but for Australia.
Thank you for doing that.
I look forward to supporting this cause, and to supporting David (Bardos) – I know David wears a couple of caps in this regard. Anything that I can do to make sure this marriage, this network, this arrangement works, I am happy to do.
Thank you.