3rd September 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
British Environment Minister Richard Benyon described his attendance at the Pacific Islands Forum in Raratonga, the Cook Islands, as being on the frontline of climate change. In many meetings with ministers from the region, he heard about the vulnerability of low lying island states to sea level rise, and about how many Pacific islands are […]
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23rd August 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
At 135 million years, the Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest on earth. The Yalanji people have lived there for around 40,000 years. I was invited to visit the new indigenous eco-tourism development at Mossman Gorge, just north of Cairns, a week after it opened. Our local guide, Harold, was a mine of information as […]
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19th July 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Traditional manufacturing centres in Australia and Britain continue to evolve as global supply chains are transformed. Geelong, Victoria’s second city, is responding to challenges which would be familiar in many British cities. Employment has been declining in its historical large manufacturing sectors like car-making and aluminium-smelting, not helped by the strong Australian dollar. Ford announced some further […]
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25th June 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Nestling amidst the verdant farmlands of northern Tasmania, I saw British companies engaged in fascinating high tech businesses linked to agriculture. Around half the world’s legitimate opiates are produced in Tasmania, half of them by UK pharma giant GSK. They process poppies grown by some 400 farms around the island, which go on to become […]
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18th April 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Australia was one of the first places in the world to mark the “100 days to go” to the London Olympics. I joined some of the 400 Australian athletes who will be competing in London and Australian Olympic Committee representatives, for a colourful event at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre in Queensland. The media were […]
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22nd February 2012
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The senior leadership of the global Catholic Church has been in Rome over the last week to celebrate the latest Consistory of Cardinals, at which 22 new Cardinals were installed. These included the Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamalay of the Syr-Malabars, in Kerala in India, His Eminence George Alencherry. Our congratulations go out to him and […]
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21st October 2011
Windhoek, Namibia
Queen Elizabeth II has arrived in Australia for this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting. She will be joined by head of states from across the organisation’s diverse membership, including President Pohamba and a sizeable Namibian delegation, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Investment. A key focus of this year’s event […]
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22nd March 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It has been a hectic eight weeks since I took up my post as High Commissioner in Canberra. I was delighted to be coming to a great country which I had visited quite a few times and where I had family connections (two of my Mum’s sisters had emigrated here as “ten pound poms”). On […]
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