September 1, 2020

AUSTRALIA AND THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Address to the Policy Exchange, London E&OE How to deal with a potential pandemic was often on my mind during four years as health minister in the Australian government of John Howard.In those days, hundreds of people – nearly all in East Asia and living in close contact with poultry – contracted bird flu; and…

on September 1, 2020

Tony Abbott, PM: My speech at the launch of his latest book – Julian Leeser MP

Sir Robert Menzies once said that men of great talent who achieve posts of leadership and responsibility ‘will frequently be over-praised by their friends and over-attacked by their opponents.’Over the course of his 25-year Parliamentary career, Tony Abbott has certainly been over-attacked by his opponents and perhaps, like Menzies, insufficiently praised by his friends.The launch...
on March 8, 2020

Australia is cheering on Britain’s exciting new freedom from the EU

Britain’s departure from the EU is a historical watershed. As a big moment in geopolitics, it ranks with the fall of the Soviet Union. For decades, it had been assumed that the nation state would decrease in importance and that supra-national bodies, such as the EU and the UN, would become ever more relevant; just...
on February 1, 2020

Trump, the View from the Outside: Address to the Heritage Foundation

Back in November of 2014, when Australia hosted the annual meeting of the G20, it was by far the most important gathering of leaders ever held in my country; and it should have been a diplomatic triumph - but for President Barack Obama choosing to give a speech at the University of Queensland that was...
on January 21, 2020