By Hon Dr Sharman Stone, Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls Financial inclusion gives women greater choice and control over their financial lives. I know this after sitting with village savings clubs and microfinance groups in Vietnam, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Sitting among them, I witnessed a new generation of financially empowered women […]
By Dr Heather Smith PSM, Secretary of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Australia is home to some of the world’s best researchers, research institutions and research infrastructure, as well as entrepreneurs, innovators and businesses. Across a range of industry growth sectors (such as: advanced manufacturing; cyber security; food and agri-business; medical technology and […]
In the 1960s young Papua New Guineans training for positions as senior public servants at the Administrative College talked about the future of an independent country. The informal discussion group, known as the ‘Bully Beef Club’, comprised an exceptional group of Papua New Guinea’s future independence leaders, including the first Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare.
In 2015, thousands of fishermen from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos were found on islands in Maluku province in Indonesia. These men had been trafficked into servitude, worked in inhumane conditions on fishing boats, and were then left stranded, without the means to care for themselves or return home.
Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu on how it can be very busy and challenging being an Ambassador. But it is always rewarding.
It is clear that international cooperation will be key to combatting the world drug problem, and Australia is well-positioned to take a leadership role in this important global issue.
If my four years in Singapore, on top of more than three decades in the wider Australian foreign service, has convinced me of one thing, it is this: that the rise of the economies of Asia is the dynamic of our time. Australia stands to secure great benefit from these dynamics – if we play it right.
