High Commissioner: Opening Remarks for Diplosphere Event

HOM Opening Remarks for Diplosphere Event

The Wellington Club

4 November 2024

It is a pleasure to be here this evening, and to join such an impressive panel of diplomats.

We are asked this evening to consider how we might think, or behave, differently to prepare for the challenges of the future – the challenges our grandchildren will face. Both as an international relations professional and as a recent grandparent, I find myself thinking about this more and more.

Challenging times and crises call on us to be more focused and purposeful in our actions. This principle applies to foreign policy as much as to any other field.

We know that we face a more complex and contested world. And we can’t do everything or be everywhere at once. We have to prioritise. We have to focus.

So tonight, I’d like to sketch out just three of the areas where Australia is focusing our foreign policy effort to respond to this changing global environment.

First, we are deepening our diplomacy with our relationships closest to home.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Pacific. We are focused on actively listening to our Pacific partners and to elevating their priorities.

To do this well, we know the first step is to be present. Since 2018 we have established an Australian post in every Pacific Islands Forum country.

[Our Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited every Pacific Island Forum country at least once (and some more than once) in her first year as Minister.]

We work together with other members to support the Pacific Islands Forum as the central institution in the region.

We listen to our Pacific partners when they tell us that climate change is their biggest security challenge.

In response, we’re making large investments to support climate mitigation and adaptation across the region. For example, we are contributing $350 million in climate-resilient infrastructure in the Pacific, and $100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility.

We also know that to be credible partners for the Pacific, we need to invest in reducing our own emissions at home. So we have set legislated targets to reduce our emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

To achieve this, we are transforming our energy system to achieve 82 per cent renewable generation by 2030.

But our focus on our region doesn’t only apply to the Pacific. In Southeast Asia we are working across the board to deepen our engagement.

We have agreed to formal upgrades of our relationships with Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam and fully implemented the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership[1].

In March this year, we announced over $500 million in new initiatives at the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

And we appointed a Special Envoy to Southeast Asia, Mr Nicholas Moore, who has led work to develop a pioneering Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.

Since the Strategy was released last year we have set up a $2 billion Southeast Asia investment financing facility. Our Export Finance agency is developing a pipeline of projects to boost Australian investment in Southeast Asia – particularly in clean energy and infrastructure.

The second area where we are bringing more focus to our foreign policy is in strengthening our security.

There is no more important and consequential task for government than protecting the security, interests and livelihoods of its people[2]. For all of us, security and prosperity are inextricably linked.

This is particularly important in the face of disruptions we now face such as war, geostrategic competition and the accelerating technology revolution.

So Australia is investing in strengthening its cyber defences and in protecting critical infrastructure that supports our economy.

Importantly, Australia’s 2024 National Defence Strategy creates a stronger focus on deterrence and on our immediate region. It commits to investing in the Australian Defence Force’s capacity to:

defend Australia and our immediate region,
deter potential adversaries,
protect our economic connection with the world; and
contribute with partners to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific and to maintaining the global rules-based order.

For Australia, keeping our country and region safe and prosperous is a whole-of-nation effort.

But it is also a goal that we know we cannot achieve on our own.

So – and this brings me to my third point – we are looking at our international partnerships with fresh eyes.

While the UN system remains the essential forum for the world to come together to agree and uphold standards and rules, the system requires reform if it is to represent the world as it is in the 21^st century.

But we cannot achieve all our goals through multilateral institutions alone.

In recent years, Australia has expanded our networks of relationships with an increasingly wide range of partners in small groups and coalitions, to help us address specific issues or to cooperate among countries in our region.

There are many examples of this – including the G20 on global economic issues, the Quad in the Indo-Pacific, and a wide range of trilateral groupings and meetings in ‘2+2’ formats.

The point is, in an insecure world, friends and partners matter.

And among our most important partners is New Zealand.

There is no other country in the world with which Australia has so much in common. We have similar worldviews and a unique relationship built on trust. In an insecure world, that trust is a strategic asset.

And that is why we are bringing new focus to the Australia-New Zealand relationship, through the recently-announced Trans-Tasman Roadmap to 2035.

Together, we are turning our shared trust and common outlook into an active partnership across the board, especially when it comes to the way we work with our Pacific partners and our security cooperation.

Conclusion

These are only three of a number of ways that Australia is working to strengthen our foreign policy to put our country and our region in the best place to meet future challenges.

The key to our approach is about building trust through openness and transparency, to build confidence through partnerships and cooperation, and to keep our focus on those things that matter.

In all this, diplomacy is central. For me, and I’m sure for my co-panellists, there is perhaps no more interesting or rewarding time to be a diplomat than right now.

Thank you for your attention. I very much look forward to hearing from my fellow panellists, and to the discussion to come.

Thank you

[1] $154m in Aus4ASEAN Initiatives – 100 scholarships to study in Aust; joint projects Futures Initiative – climate change, health security, transnational crime, energy transition; and Digital Transformation & Future Skills – 350 TVET scholarships, policy dialogue

[2] ‘National Defence’ Defence Strategic Review, Australian Government 2023; page 5

High Commissioner: Opening Remarks for Diplosphere Event

HOM Opening Remarks for Diplosphere Event

The Wellington Club

4 November 2024

It is a pleasure to be here this evening, and to join such an impressive panel of diplomats.

We are asked this evening to consider how we might think, or behave, differently to prepare for the challenges of the future – the challenges our grandchildren will face. Both as an international relations professional and as a recent grandparent, I find myself thinking about this more and more.

Challenging times and crises call on us to be more focused and purposeful in our actions. This principle applies to foreign policy as much as to any other field.

We know that we face a more complex and contested world. And we can’t do everything or be everywhere at once. We have to prioritise. We have to focus.

So tonight, I’d like to sketch out just three of the areas where Australia is focusing our foreign policy effort to respond to this changing global environment.

First, we are deepening our diplomacy with our relationships closest to home.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Pacific. We are focused on actively listening to our Pacific partners and to elevating their priorities.

To do this well, we know the first step is to be present. Since 2018 we have established an Australian post in every Pacific Islands Forum country.

[Our Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited every Pacific Island Forum country at least once (and some more than once) in her first year as Minister.]

We work together with other members to support the Pacific Islands Forum as the central institution in the region.

We listen to our Pacific partners when they tell us that climate change is their biggest security challenge.

In response, we’re making large investments to support climate mitigation and adaptation across the region. For example, we are contributing $350 million in climate-resilient infrastructure in the Pacific, and $100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility.

We also know that to be credible partners for the Pacific, we need to invest in reducing our own emissions at home. So we have set legislated targets to reduce our emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

To achieve this, we are transforming our energy system to achieve 82 per cent renewable generation by 2030.

But our focus on our region doesn’t only apply to the Pacific. In Southeast Asia we are working across the board to deepen our engagement.

We have agreed to formal upgrades of our relationships with Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam and fully implemented the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership[1].

In March this year, we announced over $500 million in new initiatives at the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit.

And we appointed a Special Envoy to Southeast Asia, Mr Nicholas Moore, who has led work to develop a pioneering Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.

Since the Strategy was released last year we have set up a $2 billion Southeast Asia investment financing facility. Our Export Finance agency is developing a pipeline of projects to boost Australian investment in Southeast Asia – particularly in clean energy and infrastructure.

The second area where we are bringing more focus to our foreign policy is in strengthening our security.

There is no more important and consequential task for government than protecting the security, interests and livelihoods of its people[2]. For all of us, security and prosperity are inextricably linked.

This is particularly important in the face of disruptions we now face such as war, geostrategic competition and the accelerating technology revolution.

So Australia is investing in strengthening its cyber defences and in protecting critical infrastructure that supports our economy.

Importantly, Australia’s 2024 National Defence Strategy creates a stronger focus on deterrence and on our immediate region. It commits to investing in the Australian Defence Force’s capacity to:

defend Australia and our immediate region,

deter potential adversaries,

protect our economic connection with the world; and

contribute with partners to the collective security of the Indo-Pacific and to maintaining the global rules-based order.

For Australia, keeping our country and region safe and prosperous is a whole-of-nation effort.

But it is also a goal that we know we cannot achieve on our own.

So – and this brings me to my third point – we are looking at our international partnerships with fresh eyes.

While the UN system remains the essential forum for the world to come together to agree and uphold standards and rules, the system requires reform if it is to represent the world as it is in the 21st century.

But we cannot achieve all our goals through multilateral institutions alone.

In recent years, Australia has expanded our networks of relationships with an increasingly wide range of partners in small groups and coalitions, to help us address specific issues or to cooperate among countries in our region.

There are many examples of this – including the G20 on global economic issues, the Quad in the Indo-Pacific, and a wide range of trilateral groupings and meetings in ‘2+2’ formats.

The point is, in an insecure world, friends and partners matter.

And among our most important partners is New Zealand.

There is no other country in the world with which Australia has so much in common. We have similar worldviews and a unique relationship built on trust. In an insecure world, that trust is a strategic asset.

And that is why we are bringing new focus to the Australia-New Zealand relationship, through the recently-announced Trans-Tasman Roadmap to 2035.

Together, we are turning our shared trust and common outlook into an active partnership across the board, especially when it comes to the way we work with our Pacific partners and our security cooperation.

Conclusion

These are only three of a number of ways that Australia is working to strengthen our foreign policy to put our country and our region in the best place to meet future challenges.

The key to our approach is about building trust through openness and transparency, to build confidence through partnerships and cooperation, and to keep our focus on those things that matter.

In all this, diplomacy is central. For me, and I’m sure for my co-panellists, there is perhaps no more interesting or rewarding time to be a diplomat than right now.

Thank you for your attention. I very much look forward to hearing from my fellow panellists, and to the discussion to come.

Thank you

[1] $154m in Aus4ASEAN Initiatives – 100 scholarships to study in Aust; joint projects Futures Initiative – climate change, health security, transnational crime, energy transition; and Digital Transformation & Future Skills – 350 TVET scholarships, policy dialogue

[2] ‘National Defence’ Defence Strategic Review, Australian Government 2023; page 5

While the UN system remains the essential forum for the world to come together to agree and uphold standards and rules, the system requires reform if it is to represent the world as it is in the 21^st century.