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Steve Roberton

Biography:

Steve Roberton is a RAAF fighter pilot with a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Management.

He has flown F/A-18s on exchange with the USMC; flew as the RAAF aerobatics display pilot; and saw operational service in the Middle East in 2003.

He and his family live in the Northern Territory and he is the Commanding Officer of the RAAF's Number 75 Squadron.

Statement:

Australia needs to remain the Lucky Country. We are lucky because the addition of new cultures has enriched and not diminished Australia's identity and strength. The challenge in the coming years is to continue to embrace new communities and develop our society in a direction that remains stable and secure. We want a society where all the cultures, religions and races share equal ownership and hope for the nation. This homogenous goal for our vastly heterogeneous society will be possible, if we remain secure, wealthy and develop our national identity.

Our national security should remain a prime focus of Government. The coming years will bring further threats to our borders and economy. Terrorism and potential internal threats will challenge our security; but we have opportunities to work within our region for peace and stability. Australia needs to maintain and develop our alliances to retain influence in regional and global forums.

The greatest challenge facing our internal security is to engender a sense of ownership in Australia by all Australians. The twentieth century realised enormous benefits through the influx of migrants to Australia. Our greatest opportunity exists within the marginalized groups - especially Islamic communities. We have the chance to embrace all racial and ethnic groups to be pro-Australian without dragging other worldly conflicts into our growing identity. A key to this security is remaining wealthy as a nation.

Australia's economic strength underpins our social stability. Our wealth allows provision for social services and this money must be targeted at key areas potentially leading to breakdowns in social stability. We mustn't risk losing our standing as a world leader in unemployment, health and education benefits. A further challenge will be the ageing population debt and maintaining economic opportunities in globalising markets. If we remain a rich country and ensure appropriate distribution of our wealth, we can look forward to building a strong national identity.

We should aim for all racial and ethnic groups to have the same sense of ownership in our country. If we could harness the same fervour for national identity that is shown in Australia's sporting arenas and translate that to all aspects of our community, then Australia would be truly strong. An opportunity to unify our future comes with the debate to form the Republic of Australia (not necessarily changing our flag). We have the chance to state what the nation stands for, acknowledge the good and bad of our past, and outline a direction for all new Australians to build our nation.

Australia must remain secure and economically strong to enable the social stability for our community. We face great opportunities to build our national identity - a nation embraced by all our representative communities and a nation deserving to remain the Lucky Country.