I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

It is a pleasure to be back at the BCA’s Annual Dinner and to be joined by so many of my colleagues.

We take pride in the fact that we are a Cabinet Government – and that is reflected in the way we engage with the business community, across portfolios.

Thank you to Geoff Culbert and to Bran Black for hosting us this evening.

I am pleased to announce I intend to recommend to the Governor-General that she appoint Mr Matt Yannopoulos PSM as Secretary of the Department of Finance.

Mr Yannopoulos returns to the Department of Finance, after serving as the Associate Secretary of the Department of Defence since October 2021.

Prior to joining the Department of Defence, Mr Yannopoulos was Deputy Secretary Budget and Financial Reporting at the Department of Finance. In this position, he provided policy and financial advice to the Australian Government on expenditure and non-taxation revenue policy issues.

I acknowledge all our distinguished guests, including Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales and former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

It is a pleasure to be here with you to celebrate the work and the success of the people who make up Street Side Medics.

The volunteer doctors, nurses and social workers – the heartbeat of this great organisation.

I’d also like to acknowledge my remarkable friend, Dr Daniel Nour.

As a young man he had a vision to make a difference for people experiencing homelessness.

It’s a great pleasure to join you tonight and to welcome our distinguished Kiwi guests to our national capital.

This forum has always been defined by a spirit of mutual respect and shared affection. 

It draws its enduring strength from the fact that the friendship between Australia and New Zealand feels so natural, and so comfortable.

That is true right across our parliaments, our business communities and our people.

One of the reasons so many of our citizens go across the Tasman and vice versa is because on either side of the ditch we feel at home.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning everyone. I am absolutely delighted to be joined here by Professor Richard Scolyer and Gail O'Brien, and today I am pleased to announce that my Government will build on Professor Richards Scolyer's contribution to brain cancer research and advocacy. We will invest $5.9 million to establish the Richard Scolyer Chair in Brain Cancer Research at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney.

Professor Richard Scolyer’s contribution to brain cancer research and advocacy will be continued and further celebrated with a new position named in his honour at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse.

The Albanese Government is committing $5.9 million to establish the Richard Scolyer Chair in Brain Cancer Research.

The funding will be used to support the salaries of the Professorial Chair, as well as Postdoctoral Fellows, Research Assistants and PhD Scholarships, along with research costs.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: After the massive rallies this weekend and a big debate about what they mean, the Prime Minister is my guest this afternoon. Prime Minister, welcome.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, Patricia.

KARVELAS: Do you think there were good people with legitimate concerns at these anti-immigration rallies this weekend?

STEVE MARTIN, HOST: Anthony Albanese is in town for the Herald Sun Bush Summit. And at the Bush Summit he's going to make the official announcement of some further drought relief for farmers worth about a billion dollars. It's low interest loans. And I have just been speaking with the Prime Minister while AM was on this morning and asked him about that announcement and some other bits and pieces. So, that's going to be one of the big announcements that comes out of the Prime Minister's talk at the Bush Summit a little bit later on this morning.

Well, thank you very much for that warm Ballarat welcome.

And I do want to begin though on a sad note. Of course, here in Victoria, Victorians are mourning the loss of Detective Thompson and Senior Constable De Waart.

This is a tragedy that has impacted particularly people in, in the local community, but it's also, of course, impacted people in the police family as well.

The Albanese Labor Government is supporting the growth, resilience and sustainability of Australia’s agricultural sector, with an additional $1 billion in new loan funding through the Regional Investment Corporation (RIC).

RIC administers support for farmers facing hardship with concessional loans for farm businesses and drought-affected farm-related small businesses.