It is important to register, by coming to the University, the great respect that I have for the work that is done here at Charles Sturt. This is a University which has done some quite remarkable things. It is an institution which has characteristics that you would never predict by looking at the general statistics about regional universities.

Charles Sturt is an outstanding provider of international education offshore. That is quite a remarkable achievement and it is a model and example to other universities in Australia. It is a University which is also showing, in the opening of this building, a very clear sighted view of where it can develop further in the future, because it is a University which has deeply committed itself to the interests of the regions in which is operates. It's a University which has established itself a sense of direction which regional universities very much need to do to be part of their region, a driver in the regions in which they operate. A driver not just in economic terms, but in cultural and social terms as well. Charles Sturt has shown itself to be an institution with that kind of leadership which has marked out for the University a very great future.

It's a particular pleasure to be here to open a building named after Professor James Hagan, who has operated in fields which are not that dissimilar to some in which I've operated, and who has a great reputation in Labour history. He's a very distinguished academic, and clearly a man who has established an enormous reputation in this University, as he has nationally.

So we should honour our great academics and it's great to see a building named after one. There are all too few of them. So this is another very important step for Charles Sturt to have taken.

Australia faces enormous challenges at the moment internationally and within this country in making sure that we offer access to education to all those who are qualified for it and to make sure that we get the best out of the researchers that this country brings forward. This has required the Government to look very hard at the White Paper on Higher Education Research on how we go about doing that and to make sure as a nation we fund excellence, wherever it is.

We have a remarkable international reputation but we know as a government that very much lies in encouraging ideas, good ideas, ideas that are tested in the fire of excellent, competitive research, and ideas which are brought forward to create new enterprises and new jobs in Australia. That is the research strategy that is being pursued.

I'm very pleased to be here only a short time after the Prime Minister announced Backing Australia's Ability strategy which will channel an additional almost $3 billion over the next five years into bringing Australian ideas through to completion and development and within that statement $583 million for university infrastructure in the research area.

There are some 21 000 additional fully-funded university places that will be coming through over the next five years. Interestingly enough, these places are particularly focused on areas where Charles Sturt has already marked itself out. It is a world - certainly an Australian leader - and in many ways probably a world leader - in online education, another remarkable feature of a University of regional Australia. We certainly see that education which takes advantage of the IT revolution is education which is moving in the way the world is moving and that our society is moving and this University has been a pioneer in that regard. What will be done here in this building, the James Hagan Court, is certainly going to continue to push this area in the future direction that will be an enormous benefit to the University and the region and Australia.