28th March 2011
Visiting Western Australia, with its vast natural resources
Last week I was away from Canberra travelling all week. That’s par for the course when you’re based in a continent-sized country. We hosted a large reception in Sydney to mark the milestone of “500 Days To Go” before the London 2012 Olympics. This attracted a lot of interest in a city which hosted one of the most successful Olympics ever, back in 2000. The 200 guests from the business and sporting worlds were fascinated to hear some famous Australian Olympians, such as swimmer Geoff Huegill speaking about their ambitions for London.
Then I flew two thousand (yes, thousand) miles to Perth in Western Australia. I had introductory meetings with the Premier, Governor and Lord Mayor, and a series of briefings with industry players in the resource sector which dominates the local economy. The state of Western Australia is vast: if it was a country, it would be the world’s 10th largest. Yet it contains only 2.3m people, three quarters of whom live in Perth. It has extraordinary resource wealth, including minerals (it produces 20% of the world’s iron ore and aluminium) and oil and gas. With only 10% of Australia’s population it provides nearly half of the country’s total exports. It is very focused on Asia, to where most of these exports flow. British companies are major investors in WA, and the massive expansion of the resource sector offers many opportunities for UK suppliers.
I picked up much excitement in Perth about the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which it will host in October. Leaders from 54 countries will gather in the city and local officials see this as a major opportunity to promote their state and city.
It was also good to meet the commercial and consular staff at our small Consular office in Perth. They are a key part of our network, but we all have to make an extra effort to keep in touch with colleagues who are three time zones away from the Capital city.
But the best part of being in Perth was that my wife Sarah was able to pop down from Singapore (our previous post) to join me for a few days. She’s had to stay there for six months while my son finishes off his A levels. The temporary separation is tough, but all part and parcel of the diplomatic life.