13th February 2014
The new Parliamentary year in Canberra
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop attended a reception I hosted last night to welcome new Members of Parliament to Canberra, at the start of the Parliamentary year following the long Christmas/Summer break. With huge British investments here (we’re the second largest foreign investor), 1.1 million Brits living in Australia, 600,000 visiting each year and a million Australians going to the UK, the chances are that many MPs will come across some aspect of Britain in their parliamentary or constituency lives.
In addition to Liberal and Labor members, the leaders of the Greens Party (Christine Milne) and the PUP (Clive Palmer) also attended, along with senior foreign policy and defence officials. In the previous hung parliament it was much harder for members to get away from the Parliament building during their spells in Canberra. In theory it should be rather easier now with the big Coalition majority, although a series of running votes in the lower chamber impacted somewhat on attendance at our event. But it was a good opportunity to introduce the parliamentarians to our High Commission team, our Consuls General in Sydney and Melbourne (in whose regions most MPs have their constituencies) and partners like the head of Visit Britain, our national tourist agency.
It’s been a busy couple of days at the Residence, as the previous day my wife Sarah hosted a lunch to introduce Margie Abbott and Lyn Truss (wives of the PM and DPM) to a selection of diplomatic spouses.