Good evening, all. Graeme and I are delighted you could join us for dinner this evening and welcome you all to Government House.
I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here tonight.
While tonight I am wearing my Vice-Regal hat, I will always be a medical professional—and someone who very much understands and appreciates the responsibilities and vital importance of our state’s Medical Administrators in our hospitals and institutions.
This evening is my way of thanking each of you—on behalf of the people of Queensland—for your efforts to ensure that our medical and healthcare services are delivered effectively, with excellence, and with the wellbeing of patients at their core.
Together with your extensive and impressive credentials in specialised disciplines within medicine and public health, you have each forged outstanding careers in diverse areas as leaders, bringing with you substantial, high-level experience, which is helping to improve and shape our systems.
You have needed to be strategists, planners, managers—guiding teams across all areas of medical administration and governance. But you are also visionaries, using your skills and knowledge to help equip our health offerings for the future, by filling in the gaps, and harnessing the benefits of innovation and research.
I know that many of you also contribute to professional bodies and educational institutions as advisors and coaches, and by sharing your expertise and knowledge more widely, and offering your recommendations and opinions, you are helping to build a stronger, more connected healthcare system, right across our State.
I know these roles are challenging, and that whether you are currently working, or have worked, in the public or private sectors, or within our armed forces or research institutions, there are unique and complex demands—often unexpected—that require a level head and acute insight to develop solutions.
The leadership you provide is therefore not only admirable, but fundamentally necessary—as we saw, so clearly, during the COVID pandemic.
And so, I commend you for looking after Queenslanders with such determination and courage, and for ensuring top-quality care reaches those who need it.
And for those of you who have recently retired from “active service”, I acknowledge, with gratitude, the outstanding influence you have had on our state.
I also take this opportunity to recognise the mighty contributions of your loved ones, who give you valuable support and encouragement.
With a field as multi-faceted and unwieldy as health, I know that all the clinical expertise and caring intentions in the world, would not be able to be delivered without the efforts of our State’s dedicated Medical Administrators, and their teams.
Thank you once again for ensuring our medical institutions run smoothly, and for providing inspirational leadership where it is most needed.
Graeme and I are looking forward to sharing the evening with you.
