E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… For years knowledgeable friends had been urging me to visit Dubai. When I arrived here for the first time, in 2010, it was night – and I left before dawn – but even in the dark, the scale of what was happening was obvious. What had been, just 40 years earlier, a sleepy, dusty…
Anglicare started here in PNG in order to help people with HIV/AIDS in the days when it wasn’t just a deadly illness but a devastating stigma too. Thanks to Anglicare, people who could easily have become “untouchable” – suffering not just from disease, but from ostracism – are both better treated and better understood. I…
E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………………………… First a confession; I was one of the many luminaries to warn Britons against Brexit. Unlike most of them, though, my argument was not that Britain needed Europe but that Europe needed Britain. And unlike most, I’m not sulking because Britons failed to take my advice. Now that it’s happened, I’m quietly thrilled that…
E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The fear haunting the world right now is that history might repeat itself. People see a globally- dominant liberal democracy challenged by an authoritarian rising power; and they ponder the parallel between Britain and Germany a century ago and America and China now. Economic self-interest, political convergence and the obvious downside of conflict eventually…
17 September 2016 E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………………………. These are fraught times for Europe. Our job is to make them better. As we meet, Britain gears up to exit the formal structures of the EU, on Europe’s borders, hundreds of thousands of people demand admission. In Europe’s cities, Islamist fanatics plot carnage. And in Europe’s east, Russia actively subverts…
I am delighted to inform the Federation Chamber that there are lots of good things happening in Warringah right now. Planning is underway for the Brookvale Oval upgrade, thanks in part to the $12½ million federal commitment to this important local project. Bear Cottage, the only hospice in New South Wales for children with life…
Published in The Australian, 9 September 2016 For the past two months, all working age welfare recipients in Kununurra have been given a Visa debit card rather than cash from Centrelink. That’s about 1200 mostly indigenous people in a remote town who have been buying their groceries and paying their rent on their debit card…
E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………………………. It’s good to be with the Master Builders of Victoria. Back in 2001, you and I worked well together to set up the Cole Royal Commission. That led to the establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and a $7 billion a year boost to our economy. You have been rock solid supporters…
My first task tonight is to congratulate the Samuel Griffith Society for its unflinching commitment to upholding our constitution and to safeguarding our legal traditions. You are, if I may say so, a thoroughly conservative body – not in any partisan sense but in your respect for what has shaped us and in your determination…
Published in the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July 2016 Australians didn’t need reminding about the Gallipoli campaign but we do need to learn from all the other theatres of the Great War in which we fought. Although Gallipoli was our “baptism of fire” as a nation, it was a sideshow compared to our involvement on…
