Order of Australia Association (Queensland) 2025 Secondary School Citizenship Awards

Member for Ferny Grove, the Honourable Mark Furner MP; and any of your other Parliamentary colleagues; Chair, The Order of Australia Association, Queensland Branch, Mrs Ronda Nix OAM; Awards Sponsor and judging panellist Mrs Gina Fairfax AC and fellow panel members; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen; educators and students, from all over Queensland.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here this afternoon.

I was delighted to receive the invitation from the Queensland branch of the Order of Australia Association to be with you today for this year’s Secondary School Citizenship Awards. It is an honour to be asked to present the winning students with their commemorative plaques.

It will also be lovely to see the recipients of the Certificates of Community Service, to be presented by Mrs Gina Fairfax AC. I thank Mrs Fairfax for supporting this year’s awards and for the decade of generous support she and her husband, Tim, have given as award sponsors.

My predecessors as Governor have also supported these awards for many years. And, like me, they have done so because they recognise what a vital catalyst these awards are in the process of building strong, cohesive communities, promoting a just and inclusive society, and supporting the fundamental values of democracy.

The awards are also enormously important at a personal level. They encourage responsibility and help build character, and I take this opportunity to congratulate each of today’s winners on your achievement and thank you for the positive example you have set for your peers and the community at large.

When we consider that there are approximately 58,000 Year 12 students enrolled in Queensland schools this year and that every one of them is potentially a nominee for these awards, the plaques and certificates you have received today are far from an insignificant achievement.

To reach this point, your nomination has gone through a very long and careful process. First, your teachers have selected you as a candidate worthy of nomination because of your social service activities, community engagement, leadership qualities, and overall character. Then, your school principal has prepared and submitted an application for consideration by a panel of judges from the Order of Australia Association here in Queensland. Finally, after careful deliberation, those judges have chosen each of you as one of the 12 recipients of a commemorative plaque, or 14 recipients of a certificate.

Such a process involves commitment by many people and, as Governor, I commend and thank the teachers and school principals, the families of the winners, the members of the judging panel, and the volunteers from the Queensland branch of the Order of Australia Association for supporting and mentoring the students through the nomination process and for ensuring that today’s ceremony would be truly memorable.

The 2025 winners have joined the unique fellowship of over 300 students who have received these awards since 1999. Those students have come from more than 130 Queensland schools in centres ranging from densely populated urban areas like Brisbane, Townsville, and the Gold Coast, to regional and remote communities like Emerald, St George and Weipa.

Through their efforts, these awardees have already made a significant investment in their communities, and together, they demonstrate clearly that this rising generation of young Queensland citizens has the combination of ideals, aspiration, imagination, and energy to ensure a bright future for us all.

Thank you.