King Charles addressed the Australian Parliament during his first tour as ruling monarch.
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00:00I now invite His Majesty King Charles III to deliver his address.
00:07Majesty.
00:19Governors and Administrator, Prime Minister and Miss Hayden,
00:25President of the Senate and Mr. Lambert,
00:28Speaker of the House of Representatives, High Commissioners and Ambassador,
00:34Leader of the Opposition and Mrs. Dutton,
00:38Honorable Members,
00:41Aunty Violet, on behalf of the Nunavut people and the Wiradjuri Echoes,
00:50Ladies and Gentlemen,
00:54I really am enormously touched by those very kind welcomes and by your invitation, Prime Minister,
01:01to say a few words here in Parliament House,
01:05the national home of Australia's strong and vibrant democratic tradition.
01:11Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning's moving Welcome to Country ceremony,
01:18which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands
01:26on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people and all First Nations peoples
01:32who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years.
01:40In my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope
01:45that have guided the nation's long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation.
01:53Throughout my life, Australia's First Nations peoples have done me the great honour
01:59of sharing so generously their stories and cultures.
02:04I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.
02:14Today, I am proud to follow in the footsteps of my late mother, Queen Elizabeth II,
02:20who spoke of the warmth she received from her first visit in 1954.
02:28This was a feeling which I know she returned in equal measure.
02:35My own first visit came in 1966, as Prime Minister, you mentioned,
02:43when I had indeed the life-shaping and life-affirming opportunity
02:49to continue part of my education in Victoria.
02:55And, ladies and gentlemen, what an education it was.
03:01I had thought that the school I had been attending in Scotland was remote and testing enough,
03:08but nothing had quite prepared me for the realities of the bush country around Mount Buller.
03:15All I can say is that I arrived as an adolescent and left as a more rounded,
03:20if not even somewhat chiseled, character once I had contended with brown snakes,
03:28leeches, funnel-web spiders and bull ants.
03:33And bearing in mind this was very nearly 60 years ago,
03:38being given certain unmentionable parts of a bull calf to eat from a branding fire in Outback Queensland.
03:46So it was, therefore, that my own bond with Australia was formed early on.
03:53Every time I return to the sunburnt country,
03:57I am always moved by the hauntingly evocative cries of the kookaburra,
04:03the screeching of the galah and the warbling of the magpie.
04:09Over the six decades since my first visit, I have, of course, witnessed both continuity and great change.
04:18It is worth reflecting that Australia's unique character has endured and also evolved,
04:26and that Australia has become a stronger nation as a result of becoming one of the most multicultural on earth.
04:35Today, with all due recognition of the impacts of the global cost-of-living crisis,
04:43Australia's economic growth has been remarkable,
04:47and this is a country which, for all its size and diversity, never remits to look outward.
04:56Australia has offered, and continues to offer, so much to the world.
05:03The character of this country and its people is hardly more vivid than when both are tested by disaster.
05:12The black summer of 2019 and 2020, the relentless floods of 2022 and 2023,
05:21tropical cyclones Jasper and Kirilly in 2023 and 2024, and, of course, so many more.
05:30I cannot tell you how much I have felt the grief and shock of what you have gone through,
05:38having visited many of those communities myself over all these years.
05:45Amid such overwhelming challenges, I have always been deeply impressed by the extraordinary bravery and resilience
05:56of those who look up, look out, and, in that most Australian way, battle on.
06:04The way, for instance, in which firefighters, police, emergency services, defence personnel,
06:11and many thousands of volunteers risk their lives to stand by their mates, neighbours, and strangers,
06:20not to mention livestock and property, represents to me the essence of the Australian character.
06:29The disasters were not in themselves new at all.
06:36Life here has always entailed these extremities of survival and endurance.
06:43Yet in their magnitude and ferocity, as well as their frequency, they are new.
06:52The regular role of unprecedented events is an unmistakable sign of climate change,
06:58for which Australia is so particularly vulnerable.
07:02This is why Australia's international leadership on global initiatives to protect our climate and biodiversity
07:10is of such absolute and critical importance.
07:14Indeed, the world's first Global Nature Positive Summit was held in Sydney in the past fortnight.
07:22The private sector's involvement in the summit demonstrates that environmental challenges are not just problems.
07:31The transition to restoring the balance of nature on our planet offers immense opportunities,
07:38and I am increasingly encouraged by the private sector's efforts to help turn the tide.
07:45Australia has all the natural ingredients to create a more sustainable, regenerative way of living.
07:52By harnessing the power with which nature has endowed the nation, whether it be wind or its famous sunshine,
08:00Australia is tracking the path towards a better and safer future.
08:07It is in all our interests to be good stewards of the world and good ancestors to those who come after us,
08:17because we are all connected, both as a global community and with all that sustains life.
08:25That is the timeless wisdom of Indigenous people throughout the entire world, from which each one of us can benefit.
08:37With the COVID-19 pandemic barely behind us, the impacts of climate change deepening,
08:44and the horrors of war, death and needless destruction all too visible,
08:49this moment in our history requires both ancient and new thinking.
08:56It requires more of our minds, our hearts and our hands.
09:02It also requires us to come together with courage, care and compassion.
09:09The challenges we now face call us to show not only constancy and valour,
09:15but also humanity, empathy and generosity of spirit.
09:22Looking out across the global Commonwealth of Nations, I see a family of some 2.5 billion people
09:32striving for peace, justice and mutual respect.
09:37The Commonwealth spans six continents, and as a group has the size and influence
09:43to play a significant role on the global stage, while being small enough to nurture personal relationships.
09:52It has the diversity to understand the world's problems,
09:57and the sheer brainpower and resolve to formulate practical solutions.
10:04I need hardly say that I am looking forward to joining leaders in Appia shortly to support their work.
10:12Here in Australia, meanwhile, my wife and I will have the great privilege of meeting remarkable scientists,
10:18entrepreneurs and community leaders who are paving the way in environmental management or healthcare,
10:27addressing domestic and family violence, promoting literacy and literature
10:33and helping young Indigenous Australians to realise their full potential.
10:40I cannot begin to express how pleased we are to be here again,
10:46nor how sad I am that it has to be so short on this occasion.
10:52When we turn our steps homeward, we will carry memories of friendships renewed,
10:59of new ones forged, and of the characteristic warmth and inimitable humour of Australians
11:08which you share with those who are fortunate enough to know you.
11:15Ladies and gentlemen.