I’m still in London, making a series of calls on government officials, business representatives and others with links to Australia. Describing some of my meetings below will give you a flavour of the enormous diversity of UK/Australian interests we engage with.
I visited Ramsay Healthcare, a major Australia provider which operates around 40 hospitals and day procedure centres in the UK. I met British retail giant Arcadia who have recently launched their first flagship Top Shop in Melbourne and have great plans for Australia. This gave me plenty to talk about when I called on the CEO of UK Trade and Investment, the government’s export and investment promotion agency. He was delighted to hear that UK exports to Australia were up around 30% last year.
I called on Visit Britain, our national tourist agency, to discuss their big marketing initiative in Australia around the Olympic Games. Some of you may have seen their massive new billboards which have just gone up in Sydney and Melbourne. The million Australians who visit Britain each year already make a significant contribution to our invisibles account and with the current strength of the A$, we are hoping to see still more visitors this year.
I met Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who will be visiting Australia in March. British and Australian trade unions have very close links. At the House of Commons, I called on Dr Andrew Murrison MP, who has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for the World War I centenary commemorations. I know this is something that is attracting a lot of attention in Australia, as former Chief of the Defence Force, AVM Angus Houston, recently called on me in Canberra to brief me on Australia’s plans for Gallipoli and other ANZAC commemorations.
Later in the week I will be visiting the world famous Royal Academy of Arts at the beautiful Burlington House in Piccadilly, to meet the director and hear about his plans to mount a major retrospective of 200 years of Australian Art, in association with Australia’s National Gallery, in 2013.
And one of the personal highlights of my visit has been meeting Rolf Harris at Australia House on Australia Day. His sunny personality and musical and artistic talents were a regular feature of British Saturday night TV when I was growing up, and he was one of my first conscious introductions to Australia.