I commend the Prime Minister for continuing with these prizes at a time of austerity. And I commend the Prime Minister for lending the event here tonight the authority of his office simply by being here. These are not small things, but large symbols of what a civilised society should be – one in which culture is not understood as an economic utility, or a political embarassment, but as the necessary nub of who we are.

As the ideas of our country grow vaporous, as some young Australians find more in common with murderous fantasies in far off lands than the society in which they live, we need that culture more than ever to remind us of all that we share, for our security ever lies not in our capacity to exclude some, but to include all.

Tony Abbott hands Richard Flanagan the Prime Minister's Literary Award for fiction. Credit:Josh Robenstone

It is often said that politics shouldn't be about symbols, but acts. But in the end acts are symbols, and symbols are powerful acts. We find in symbols our meaning to live, and that meaning can be wicked, or it can be a source of hope. We choose what we wish to celebrate for reasons bad or good: a beheading – or a book.

This book would not be what it is without my publishing company, Random House, nor my publisher of near 20 years, an editor of genius, Nikki Christer, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart.