Reception in support of Queensland’s Business Community

It is a great pleasure for Kaye and me to welcome representatives of Queensland’s business community to Government House this evening. I at once acknowledge our Premier, the Treasurer, Minister Jones and indeed all of you, our distinguished guests.

A brief “CV” of businesses in Queensland might include entries like this: they employ more than two million people; they generate billions of dollars in revenue; they are highly diversified in scale and in the vast array of goods and services they provide to the community.   

And many are generous supporters of a myriad of community causes, from junior sport to the support of Queenslanders who need a helping hand.  

In a highly interconnected global economy, running a successful business is a continuous challenge. But it is also true that business people are successful because they have the capacity, and the drive, to meet and overcome such challenges.

The successes of our business community here in Queensland are not confined to our State or indeed Australia.  

Several times already in this term I have been privileged to travel overseas, most recently in Hong Kong and Korea, to advocate for and highlight our State’s strengths as a trade and investment partner and as a destination for tourism and education. 

We Queenslanders have a compelling story to tell in the international arena.  That is because the State’s exporters have sprung from a home-grown business community generating a competitive and diversified portfolio of products.  

Queensland business people have been active in our State practically from the moment Queensland was opened to free settlers around 1840.

Among them were Johann Heussler, who built the first house on this site 150 years ago this year, and John Stevenson, who doubled it in size in the 1880s.

Their example suggests that one more entry must be added to the CV I spoke of earlier – the business community’s crucial role in the history and development of Queensland.

On that score, Kaye and I thank you and the hundreds of thousands of Queensland business you represent for your enormous contributions to this State.  

Governments regularly and rightly identify the economy – national, State, local – as their key concern: a healthy progressing economy goes a long way to ensuring a healthy progressive populace, especially through maximum worthwhile employment.

As Governor, I express gratitude for your own marvellous efforts in that direction, and the support of my government is I know assured, as we see through one very important circumstance tonight, the presence of both the Premier and the Treasurer, and Minister Jones. 

We were most recently together, at the same event, on Sunday evening in Sydney.  The result electrified North and Far North Queensland, and I am sure all Queensland.  It generated optimism.  We depend on you to generate the long term optimism on which our economy, thence the advancement of our people, depend…  And I am hoping, by the way, that that little memento sitting on the lid of the piano will shortly be sent north to take on a number of autographs.

We wish you all, from the one-person businesses to the largest companies, every success in the future.  Thank you for doing your best to benefit all Queenslanders, and for joining us here this evening.