One of the quiet achievements of Australian public policy during the past decade has been our skilled migration program. Under successive governments it has become focused on delivering the skills Australia needs when it needs them.
The debate on immigration is at cross purposes. Australia should be proud of its skilled migration program. It should also champion the development, training and employment of its own people as an overarching priority. Both policies fit together. Any assertion otherwise, or muddying of the waters to the contrary, is wrong.
David Coe had a multitude of interests, activities and lives as entrepreneur, investor, investment banker, business strategist, family man, art collector, sports lover. He co-founded, led and lost one of Australia’s most significant investment outfits, Allco.
Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher, Speaker Vicki Dunne, other Assemby Members, Mayor Tim Overall, Gai Brodtman, ACT Member of the House of Representatives, Senator Gary Humphries, other MPs, distinguished guests, Chief Executive Mark Sullivan, former ACTEW Chair Jim Service, former Director Ted Mathews, Board members, fellow ACTEW workers, our alliance partners, friends
Michael O’Sullivan was leader of the Federated Clerks Union, a superannuation pioneer and a corporate governance advocate. He was the chair of the $7 billion CareSuper fund (a director from 1996 to 2012) and president for a decade to 2011 of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.
One of the surprises of Australian political history is that a government derided, traduced, and trounced in a smashing electoral defeat has over the passage of time come to be regarded as more substantial and worthy. A just account of the Whitlam government (1972-1975), however, requires acknowledgement of both certain grandeur and certain incompetence.
Michael Maher was greatly admired across the political spectrum as a diligent, local MP who saw the vocation of politics as serving the people.