Speeches
Friday, 27 March 2026
Reception for Federation of Food and Wine Societies Australia
Rod and I warmly welcome you to Government House, the oldest Government House in Australia.
We especially welcome those of you who have travelled from interstate to be here this afternoon.
As one of the great wine capitals of the world, Adelaide is a fitting location in which to gather for the Victor Gibson Commemorative Dinner and Weekend.
I do not need to explain to this audience that ‘great wine capital of the world’ is not merely a series of adjectives but signifies membership of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.
The network is an exclusive alliance of 11 of the world’s greatest wine cities, formed in 1999, which aims to encourage travel, education and business exchanges between its members.
South Australia is proud to be home to its current President, Jo Collins, Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.
As Governor and as a former diplomat, it’s been my pleasure to take every opportunity to promote Australian food and wine on the international stage throughout my professional life.
As it no doubt did for many of you, my love of food and wine began early.
While studying at the University of Adelaide, I worked at a cellar door in the Barossa Valley and at the Cork and Cleaver Restaurant - which sadly closed in 2021 - a restaurant which specialised in doing one thing - steak - exceptionally well.
It helped me to learn that the finest food and hospitality is defined not by complexity but by dedication to quality.
I once used my tips from waitressing to buy a bottle of Grange Hermitage, purchased for $14.99 at East End Cellars, which accompanied me, along with two dozen tasting glasses, when I moved to Canberra at the age of 23 to join the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade graduate program.
I then spent 36 years away from Adelaide as a diplomat, on what is sometimes slightingly described as the international cocktail circuit, but I can assure you that food and drink is an essential tool of the diplomat’s tradecraft.
Returning home to Adeliade to become Governor, it has been a distinct pleasure to discover that the wine cellar here at Government House is outstanding by any measure and indubitably the best of any Government House in the country!
Rod and I are professionally required to be parochial, but that is no burden when talking about South Australian wine.
South Australian wine, as we all know, holds its own on the world stage, which accounts for the fact that the state produces some 80% of Australia’s premium wine.
Wine is of course part of South Australia’s DNA.
This afternoon, I am proud to be wearing a brooch celebrating and reflecting that fact.
It was crafted in the 1860s by Charles Firnhaber, a local jeweller of German origin.
Made of Malachite from Burra, once the site of the world’s richest copper mine, the stone is encircled by a grapevine made from Barossa Valley gold.
I thank Dr Samantha Hamilton, the Director of the Museum, for generously agreeing to lend this beautiful item from the museum’s collection, in recognition of the importance of this afternoon’s gathering.
Friends
The Federation’s 43 member societies, the South Australian Wine and Food Society among them, celebrate a living tradition of connoisseurship, community, and care for the businesses that sustain our food and wine industries.
That tradition has an important impact on the food and wine culture of our nation.
I am particularly pleased that your program this weekend takes in the National Wine Centre as well as the Adelaide Hills, a region producing wines of remarkable character, and that the Victor Gibson Dinner will be graced by the orator David LeMire, whose contribution to our wine industry is outstanding.
I thank the South Australian Wine and Food Society, now 50 years young, for the dedication and care with which it has organised this national gathering, and for the spirit of hospitality that has brought so many of you so far.
I wish you a productive Annual General Meeting, a weekend of great pleasure, and conversations that deepen friendships old and new.
May every glass you raise this weekend be worthy of the company in which you raise it.