United Nations Association of Australia (Queensland) Community Awards 2014

By His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia: Kaye and I welcome you all to Government House today for what is my first opportunity to participate, as Governor, in these annual Community Awards presentations.

It is fitting that today’s UNAA event is taking place as an eventful two years for Australia’s role in and engagement with the United Nations draws to a close.

It has been a source of pride to see Australia’s representatives so visibly at the heart of the UN Security Council’s deliberations over the past two years.  

Today, however, is not about these high-level deliberations and decisions, important as they are. Today is about how the principles and values enshrined in the UN Charter are given life and meaning in our own communities in Queensland.

The UN Charter speaks of solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian challenges through cooperation, and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Today’s awardees have shown, by their actions in the community, that they are committed to causes and values that underpin the Charter - peace, social justice, and human rights among them.

As you will hear when the presentations are made, they have done this in a number of different ways, all of them admirable, all deserving of recognition.

This may be helping children with birth defects, and their families, or supporting a hospital through volunteer work and fundraising.

It might be an active commitment to promoting peace or to giving women a strong voice in our communities, or devoting time and energy to organisations that give a helping hand to the disadvantaged and the vulnerable.

Or it might be demonstrating a long-term commitment to promoting the profile in Queensland of the work and values of the United Nations. 

I thank the executive and members of the Association for once again honouring Queenslanders and Queensland-based organisations in this way. I congratulate the Association, in advance, on the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations in 2015.

I congratulate and thank the 2014 award winners for their dedication and for the marvellous work they do in our communities.

It is with great pleasure that I now present the 2014 United Nations Association of Australia – Queensland – Community Awards.  Thank you.