"The Australian Rural Leadership Foundation is a great Australian organisation. For 30 years the Foundation has been investing in Australia’s future, designing and mplementing leadership programs to help Australians achieve better outcomes in our rural, regional and remote areas. These programs help strengthen our communities and local economies. Behind the success of any organisation is its people. I congratulate the Foundation’s board and the staff, participants, partners, alumni and associates whose passion and dedication to rural leadership is at the heart of the Foundation’s extraordinary impact."

"As this vital Australian Leadership Foundation celebrates 30 years of success in identifying and developing leaders from all over rural Australia, it’s important to dwell on the impact these leaders continue to have on their communities in the ‘beating heart’ of our nation – the bush! As an alumni group their network is incredibly strong – I have seen this at first hand from my earliest participation in the ARLF’s work, when I was Governor General. I am proud of them all and delighted to continue my association with the ARLF programs."

Great leadership deserves celebration and recognition. This reflection on the impact of 30 years of leadership development by the ARLF celebrates the remarkable changemakers, our emerging rural leaders, who are building a better future across regional Australia. Instilled in the ARLF is the firm belief in the transformation power of strong leadership – the capacity of individuals to better our world through their own imagination, courage and resolve, and, in turn, through their capacity to empower others. The ARLF teaches our future rural and regional leaders how this is done by consistently communicating their vision and values, with their own words and deeds, and, as a consequence bringing others to do the same.

My passion for rural, regional and remote Australia has led me to have a long association with the ARLF, beginning in 1999 as a board member. Since that time, I have come across many alumni, including Tim Fairfax.Family Foundation scholarship recipients. I am always gratified by the transformation of graduates and the role they are playing to make rural and regional Australia a vibrant and exciting place to live and work. One of the greatest legacies of the ARLF is the networks that have been established, whereby past graduates can share their knowledge, challenges and rewards, which in the long term will build a better rural and regional Australia.