Thank you Graham, distinguished guests, staff of the Royal Australian Mint.
Ladies and Gentlemen these medals are a gift from the people of Australia to the people of the world.
The gold comes from our land , the silver from our industry and the bronze comes from all Australians.
The Royal Australian Mint and The Perth Mint are in partnership producing these victory medals. The Perth Mint is producing the gold medals, using special blanks provided by the Royal Australian Mint. The gold for the medals has been supplied by the Ophir Gold 2000 Project from the mines of Western NSW.
The silver is supplied by BHP to SOCOG, and includes an ingot of silver donated by the people of Broken Hill.
And something which I found to be very poignant, is the use in the Bronze Medals of coinage bronze from 1c and 2c pieces which have been touched by millions of Australians over the years. In fact its fair to say that every Australian has touched an Olympic medal.
Turning Wojciech Pietranik's superb designs into such objects of beauty has been a substantial challenge, involving hundreds of hours of work by the technical staff of the Mint.
The Royal Australian Mint is striking the silver and the bronze medals here in Canberra and as a major contribution to the Sydney 2000 Games, the two Mints are producing the Olympic Victory Medals free of charge to SOCOG.
The reason why this event is taking place today is to mark the '100 days to go' milestone in the count-down to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
In the context of the entire Olympic Games history, it is hard to believe that we are all standing here today in the year 2000 to commemorate an event that claims its earliest documentation in 824 BC.
It is nearly 3000 years later, and the original ethos which led to the conception of the Ancient Games still applies: 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' or to the English-speakers 'Faster, Higher, Braver'.
As a nation, we have many reasons to boast about our achievements. Australia has competed at every Modern Olympic Games since the revival of the ancient Games in Athens in 1896.
With Greece, we are one of only two nations to make this proud claim. As a young nation, we have already earned 293 Olympic Victory Medals I can't wait to see that figure soar in September, when Australia's largest team ever comprising about 650 athletes will put on a fantastic show of skill, determination and excellence.
As proud as we are of our athletes, there are many people and organisations that have also contributed to the Sydney 2000 Games. Prominent among these are the Royal Australian Mint and The Perth Mint which as partners in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program have joined forces to produce the Olympic Victory Medals.
I should note in passing that this is only one of the contributions being made by the two Mints to the Olympics.
Over $8 million has so far been contributed to the Olympic movement in the form of royalties from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Coin Program, unquestionably the biggest and most successful program of its type the world has ever seen.
I congratulate the Mints on their success, and wonder if they themselves should perhaps receive a medal!
Let us now strike the Olympic victory medals on behalf of the Australian people as a gift to the world.