Alumni

It is a delight to work with the Perth USAsia Centre. It’s an extraordinarily busy program and its strong regional outreach gives an international dimension to our city in a way that has not been replicated historically.

We are now at the centre of some interesting new thinking in the Australian national security debate. This will only strengthen as the reputation of the Centre’s events and publications deepens.

Returning from the United States to live here left me with some fears that we would still be in a backwater in global discussion. We are not and the Centre plays a large part in this.

Global citizenship means taking responsibility for the prosperity, health, security and stability of our common ambitions and needs.

Not for some time has the global situation appeared so threatening, so dark in prospects and so leaderless. Retreating into a shell is not possible for us, as our prosperity and security is as globally linked as anybody’s.

The Western philosophical underpinning of a Liberal order, politically and economically, is heavily challenged; and the new US Administration, indifferent to it. If we think these values important and the globe to be a community and not a bull pit arena, then we have work to do.

When I was Ambassador to the United States, part of my remit from the Australian Government was to support its initiatives for global free trade. The value of that is now under challenge more heavily than at any time I was in DC. Free trade means jobs for Australians, protectionism means suboptimal life outcomes. A nation of 24 million does not have the market that permits autarchy.

To support protectionism as an Australian objective is to impoverish our people, depriving young people, in particular, of job opportunities. It might be an option for the United States and Europe, even for China and India. It is not an option for us. Nobody is going to invest in a market of 24 million cut off from the rest of the world.