A busy week in Canberra with two separate visits by Members of the House of Commons.
The Rt Hon Stephen O’Brien MP, the PM’s Special Representative for the Sahel, was in Australia in his capacity as envoy for the Roll Back Malaria campaign. He is a passionate advocate for the cause and believes there is an opportunity for the world to substantially eradicate Malaria in this generation. He had just come from Papua New Guinea where he had seen some impressive anti-malaria work by the private sector company Oil Search.
He called on a number of officials and experts in Canberra, and I accompanied him in a call on Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Australia shares our commitment to tackling this scourge of countries in the tropical zones. Julie Bishop was also very interested to discuss his experiences as a previous minister at the Department for International Development, as her own ministry is currently in the process of absorbing the former AusAID.
The Rt Hon John Spellar MP, Labour’s Shadow Deputy Foreign Minister, who held several ministerial positions in previous UK administrations, is a regular visitor to Australia and knows his way around Canberra well. Naturally he arranged most of his calls on a party basis with his Labor party contacts. But I accompanied him on a call on Julie Bishop and hosted a dinner for him to meet some of Australia’s top foreign policy thinkers, for a fascinating discussion on developments in the region.
Not surprisingly there was much interest in this political town in discussing the results of the recent European elections and the prospects for the Scottish referendum on 18 September. Most Australians of Scottish ancestry I meet here are – like the UK Government and the Labour Opposition – strongly of the view that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom.
Both MPs attended a reception I was hosting for a visiting group from the UK’s Royal College of Defence Studies. This is a prestigious year-long UK staff course for senior military and officials from Britain and overseas countries. Many course participants go on to become heads of their respective Services. The group were spending a week in Australia, visiting Canberra and Darwin in the Northern Territory, in an intensive programme put together by my Defence Adviser, Commodore Richard Powell and his team. It was a very international group with course members from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. They enjoyed meeting Australian politicians, officials and military.