UN General Assembly
2012

welcoming all the peoples, languages and religions of the world. We are a country of the Asia-Pacific, a neighbour to developing countries, with a perspective of both the North and South. We are a State with a decades-long tradition of capable and committed work in the United Nations. We contributed to the first United Nations peacekeeping force in 1947, and we lead contemporary peacebuilding in our own region. We support the development of new norms to enable the United Nations and its States Members to act to prevent atrocities and to make the perpetrators of the worst crimes accountable for them. We act as a first responder to humanitarian need, as a donor who stays the course and as a partner in rebuilding after conflict. Australia embraces the high ideals of the United Nations and takes a practical approach to achieving change. The work of the United Nations is a historic task in which Australia wholeheartedly joins.