4th July 2013
London’s Royal Academy will host the largest exhibition of Australian art ever to leave this country from 21 September to 8 December. It includes many of Australia’s finest historic and current works from the leading public institutions. I attended the media launch at the National Gallery in Canberra last week, and gave an interview to […]
2nd July 2013
Last week Shadow Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, visited Australia as a guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Australian government arranged the programme for him, but we gave him an in-depth briefing at the High Commission, and I hosted a dinner to discuss foreign policy with MPs, officials […]
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26th June 2013
Last week our Trade and Investment teams from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in Sydney for their annual conference. It’s a big part of what we do: they comprise around 1/3 of my Australia staff. All but three are locally hired. Last year the trade team assisted over 1200 companies, introduced 387 companies to […]
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24th June 2013
“Li-ons, Li-ons!” The chant reverberated around the cauldron of Brisbane’s Suncorp stadium, drowning out the PA system playing Men At Work’s “Down Under”. After three weeks of touring, the first test finally arrived last Saturday. The nice thing about the camaraderie of rugby is that the reds and golds were scattered evenly through the 52,000 […]
20th June 2013
Hard hat, heavy boots, pre-dawn start. That’s what a visit to an Australian resources site entails. I’m getting used to it. Australia is a gas superpower, on its way to overtaking Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter by the end of the decade. British companies are big players in developing the industry, offshore in […]
12th June 2013
Honorary Consuls from Australia, New Zealand and Samoa gathered in Brisbane for their annual conference and briefing on latest developments in our consular policy. I gave them an update on the current state of bilateral relations. These are local residents in cities where we do not have a consular office, who volunteer to help support […]
3rd June 2013
Thus concluded an editorial in Saturday’s Geelong Advertiser (the “Addie”). It referred to the opening of a new stand at Geelong Cats’ Simonds Stadium in Kardinia Park together with four spectacular lighting towers which will enable night matches to be played for the first time. It was a big deal for club and city, attended […]
24th May 2013
Australia is a very long way from Britain – 23 hours flying time. That can sometimes put small businesses off exploring the big opportunities in this important market. But many companies are exporting very successfully to Australia without leaving home, thanks to booming e-commerce sales. 15.7 million Australians are active online and Australia’s online retail […]
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23rd May 2013
I was familiar with Adelaide’s origins as a planned city of free settlers, but I did not know about its links with London’s famous Reform Club (the starting point for Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days”) until I attended a fascinating event there organised by the Australia Britain Society while I was back […]
9th May 2013
Australian sports minister, Senator Kate Lundy, must be a glutton for punishment. She’s already had to pay a forfeit over her bet with UK sports minister Hugh Robertson about the results at the London Olympics. Now she’s signed up for further wagers with him over the forthcoming Ashes and the Lions’ tour. It was all […]
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