transcript: ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 18TH SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS AT THE WAGGA WAGGA RSL CLUB, 16 JULY 2024

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Thank you, (RAS Foundation Manager) Cecilia Logan, I very much appreciate that and to (RAS Foundation Director) David Davidson and to Robert Hamilton, the President of the Wagga Wagga Show Society and Mayor Councillor Dallas Tout.

To probably the most important people in the room and that is the young recipients themselves and their families. Thank you for coming to Wagga Wagga on what is a beautiful day. U2 write a song about it. And it is a beautiful day and so many people say, “Oh, it's so cold, it's dreary, it's awful, it's miserable.” No – there is money in mud. Anybody who comes from a rural and regional area knows that a day where you have drizzling saturating, soaking rain, knows that it is a good day. You can always put an extra layer of clothing on. But I tell you what, it's much better than the alternative and the alternative is drought. So we exalt these days, we celebrate these days, and these days are the best days that a farmer can have. For somebody in a rural and regional area, apart from when your grain cheque comes in or your stock cheque comes in. So today's a great day.

It is a great night because the RAS Foundation is handing out scholarships to worthy recipients. Now, I know that there's a regionality focus on these and there's also an agricultural component – I get all that. To that end, I do want to pay special tribute to someone in this room who has blazed a trail for students and young students particularly, but some not so young at Charles Sturt University and elsewhere, but certainly in the agricultural field.

And he's sitting right from me and that is Professor Jim Pratley and I want you to put your hands together for Jim. I know I am going to embarrass him but Wagga Wagga and the Riverina, regional New South Wales, Regional Australia is lucky that we have this fellow in our midst. Because he has done more for tillage, for soil, for weed eradication, for Glyphosate, for canola than anybody, combined, in Australia.

And when I was growing up and I was talking to David a little bit earlier about when I was growing up and I grew up on the land when I was driven to school on the school bus and you looked out into the paddocks, there was nothing but red cattle and wheat growing. These days it's black cattle and yellow canola.

And the reason for that is because of marketing, the reason for that is the research that has been done at our university. The reason for that is many and varied, but one of the great reasons why canola is such a great crop, and such a versatile crop is because of the research that Professor Jim Pratley has done into that.

And let me tell you, it has laid the foundation for many farmers, for many people who would otherwise have gone broke and backwards fast. But for the research that Jim Pratley has put in. Jim, thank you on behalf of a grateful city, a grateful region and a grateful country and I do mean that earnestly and honestly. The work you've done and the research that you've done is second to none.

But tonight is the night of celebration, and you all should be very, very proud of yourselves for making it thus far. You've put in an application, your application has been successful because of the words that you put in, now is the time to prove by those words that you're going to put it into action, and by that, you're going to become part of a very important alumni.

And that alumni is the RAS foundation, in its $2 million or thereabouts that has been distributed to worthy recipients such as yourselves. You are the best of the best because you are getting rewarded tonight. But I just ask for a couple of things, make some contacts tonight amongst your peers and keep those contacts, because there will be times in the weeks and months and years ahead when things aren't so easy, when you're not being praised and having your photograph taken and a cheque handed to you.

Studying is hard, research is difficult, but you are being acknowledged and recognised because you've obviously got a lot of talent in your field. So make sure that you make some good contacts for when those times are tough. Also keep in touch with the donors of the prizes in your individual category and field, because those are people making sure that they pay a downpayment on your success.

And it's not just your success, it's regional Australia's success. There's no requirement to come back to regional Australia, but this is about regionalism. This is about making our regions the best they can be. And we all know during COVID that period of time should not be ever mentioned again. But it was regional Australia that carried this nation.

It put the food and fibre on the plates, on the backs of people over and over again, and not just our country, but other nations besides. It made sure that the balance of payments was to right through mining, through agriculture, and through all the other endeavours. I mean, every one of those city types was pulling the doonas out of their heads and feeling sorry for themselves. We were out there working, we were out there doing, we were out there delivering and achieving. And it's you young people who are going to be doing that in the future, through your work, through your endeavours, through your research.

And I say thank you to each and every one of you for getting here thus far. But the work begins tonight. Congratulations, a big congratulations and a thank you for what you're going to do in the future. Thank you very much.