Breakfast to Support Vice-Regal Patronages with Ties to the United Kingdom

Ladies and gentlemen, Kaye and I are delighted you could join us for this morning’s significant occasion.

We are immensely proud to be Patrons of some 160 Queensland organisations.

Aside from lending the imprimatur of this Office to worthy endeavour, Patronage enables Kaye and me to readily engage with networks of community-minded people.

Although they take on their own distinctly Queensland complexion, so many Patronage groups proudly draw on the rich history and heritage of their related British organisations.

And so today I acknowledge, with gratitude, representatives of our Patronage organisations with a link to or presence here in the United Kingdom.

Wherever we travel throughout Queensland – from remote communities to the major cities of the East Coast – we rank as enduring impressions the universal warmth and friendliness of the people.

Their spirit of community dedication is often supported and fed by the work of groups represented here today.

The spirit of your organisations has also left a beneficial imprint in our State character.

In 2016, Kaye and I visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Longreach, Central West Queensland.

In November 2012, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales dedicated a Beechcraft Kingair 200C to the Longreach base. The plane was purchased thanks to the fundraising efforts of the ‘RFDS – Friends of the UK’.

The Queensland iteration of the British Red Cross are currently coordinating an appeal to support Queenslanders afflicted by bushfires – critical work as more than 65 fires burn across the State.

These are but a few examples of the spirit of generosity and mutual support which all organisations represented here today seek to foster. 

Please, enjoy this morning’s occasion, as we go about creating new and reaffirm existing relationships of mutual benefit to the people of Queensland and the United Kingdom.