30 July 2025 Published in The Australian St John’s Anglican Church, Ashfield E&OE —— With John Stone, whom we honour and mourn, it’s hard to find any sphere in which he did not excel. He was a brilliant student. He was outstanding at sport. He was the 1951 West Australian Rhodes Scholar. He swiftly rose…
Speech notes from the address to the ACETCA Gala Dinner 27 June 2025 E&OE —— It’s good to be here, marking ten years since the Abbott government finalised the landmark trade deal between Australia and China, thanks to the prodigious work of Andrew Robb, our best ever trade minister. And also to celebrate the contribution…
21 April 2025 Published in the Australian Speech notes for the address to the Conservative Breakfast Club in Brisbane —— I used to think that 1975 was the most consequential election in our history because Whitlam’s was our worst-ever government and because voters had to ratify the governor-general’s decision to dismiss him. But this election…
28 February 2025 Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi E&OE —— Events like this, that bring thinkers and leaders together from different perspectives, are vital because the world is more fraught than in many years. The Ukraine war might soon end with Russian aggression rewarded. The Gaza war could soon peter out with Hamas intact. And China…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… I’m speaking tonight, not just as fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs, but as patron of Worldwide Support for Development, that’s sponsoring this event. That’s one of the many charities, of Dr Haruhisa Handa, one of the world’s serious philanthropists, whom you might know better, as the founding sponsor of the Handa Opera…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… One of the upsides of being a recovering politician, indeed a former PM, is that you can say what needs to be said in ways that incumbents sometimes can’t. The AUKUS submarine deal, to provide Australia with British or American nuclear-powered subs, is the biggest decision any Australian government has made in decades. It…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Originally published in the Spectator Normally, if the response to a speech of mine was that it had been a ‘despicable and insane performance’ from a ‘failed and pitiful politician’, I’d question what went wrong. But since the comments came from Chinese communists about an address I’d made in Taiwan, it’s hard not to…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Two years back I hesitated to attend this conference lest that provoke China. But since then, Beijing has torn-up the “one country, two systems” treaty on Hong Kong; put upwards of a million Uighurs into concentration camps; boosted cyber spying on its own citizens; cancelled popular personalities in favour of a cult of the…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Your Foreign Minister has this week spoken frankly with the Australian people about the prospect of invasion so I will do my best to speak with equal candour. For a retired free world politician, there maybe no more telling place to be right now, because this is where liberty and tyranny are most at…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… There’s nothing like some serious pressure to test whether our actions really-do-match our beliefs, and this pandemic has certainly dispelled any notion, that at least for a rich country, you can always get what you need, when you need it, from a globalised economy. Like so many, Australia discovered early on just how dependent…