We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands that we meet on today and we respect their spiritual relationship with their country.
We also acknowledge the traditional owners as the custodians of the Adelaide Hills region and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the living people today.
My thanks to the Australian Lutheran World Service for the invitation to join you today, and my congratulations to the organisers and all of you who are participating.
Walk My Way is a fundraising event. But it is much more than that. It is an expression of values.
Values that are shared by those here today.
Values shared by many Australians who contribute personally to international aid and development work.
And values deeply rooted in what makes us proud to be Australians a generous nation that helps others in times of need.
These are values which cause us to act and also to reflect.
Reflect on the experience of the German women whose trail you will take today.
Reflect on their hardship and their resilience.
Reflect on the experience of the 65 million people who have been forced from their home the highest levels of displacement in human history.
And reflect that this crisis goes beyond the tragedy that these displaced people confront at the personal level. It impacts on the security of communities and nations everywhere.
But reflection needs to turn to action.
Whether it is todays event, the 1.6 million Australians who donate $920 million to aid organisations each year, or our nations international development assistance, Australias contribution to improving the lives of people around the world is an expression of our values.
As Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Im also conscious of the way our values are reflected in being a constructive participant in international political and economic bodies that both establish and operate the international rules-based order.
This is what Gareth Evans, possibly Australias greatest Foreign Minister, called being a good international citizen. Our security and prosperity both rely on working with the other members of the community of nations to maintain security and to grow national prosperity.
That is why it is so disappointing that Australias performance as a generous and giving nation has fallen so dramatically over the past four years.
$11.3 billion has been taken from our aid Budget, abandoning Australias bipartisan commitment to development assistance as a proportion of GNI growth and overseeing a 24.2 per cent cut to the development budget since 2013.
These cuts come at a time when the world is experiencing humanitarian crises unprecedented in scale, with more than 20 million people facing starvation in East Africa and Yemen and tens of millions of people fleeing war and persecution in Syria.
There is an ongoing, desperate need for greater international effort to alleviate poverty and to stimulate economic development in the less fortunate nations of the world.
I look forward to a day when there is a greater agreement across our community and our Parliament for greater levels of international development assistance.
Put simply, we have an interest in confronting poverty and alleviating injustice. Doing so is consistent with our values, and it contributes to a safer and more secure and prosperous world.
The values shared and demonstrated today should also be applied to the way we conduct ourselves domestically.
One of Australias greatest strengths and one to which your community here in Hahndorf bears eloquent historical testimony is our multiculturalism.
Despite the occasional instance of bigotry or discrimination, we are an amazingly harmonious society, providing a living example of the values of respect, acceptance, inclusion and compassion that I think distinguish us as Australians.
We cannot, however, take that for granted.
We need to keep talking about our values, advocating them, practising them, and defending them whenever they are called into question or attacked.
That is why Walk my Way is such an important initiative, encouraging us to walk in the shoes of those who are oppressed, downtrodden, discriminated against, who live in poverty or are otherwise left feeling alienated in a world that has so much.
As you step out on todays walk, I hope that you take comfort from the fundamental truth that unites us as a community and as a country, and that inspires us to work for the alleviation of poverty and injustice wherever it occurs the fact that, before God and the law, we are all equal.
We are joined together in our common humanity, and that is what gives meaning and purpose to Walk my Way.