africa day HOMs function

Address by the Australian High Commissioner, HE Ann Harrap
To the African HOMs reception to celebrate Africa Day
Tuesday 26 May


Good evening excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, friends

Thank you very much for joining John and I this evening to celebrate Africa Day which was formally commemorated yesterday on 25 May.

You might have wondered when you received your invitation why the Australian High Commissioner was inviting African HOMs to celebrate Africa Day at the Australian Residence.

A few years ago I would have understood your surprise.

But today I think, L& G, things are different. In Australia, under Prime Minister Rudd we have a government that has indicated publicly and privately its desire to enhance Australia’s engagement with Africa.

In January this year we saw the Australian Foreign Minister Mr Smith attend the AU summit in Addis Ababa – the first Australian Foreign Minister ever to do so. While there he met over 30 African foreign ministers and addressed the Executive Council of the AU.

His visit was followed up a month later by that of the Australian Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, who went to Addis to discuss African peace and security and future Australian defence cooperation. Australia will be co-hosting a peacekeeping conference in Africa with the AU and the United Nations later in the year.

Then in March this year, the Australian Governor-General (our head of state) visited 10 countries in Africa – the first visit by an Australian Head of State to Africa in over 30 years.

In the next 6 months, we have 5 African Foreign Ministers visiting Australia as guests of the Australian Government.

In other words, the political level contact between the Australian and African continents is the best it has been for a long time.

But while part of Australia’s enhanced engagement with Africa is about increasing the political and diplomatic level contact, it is also about putting real substance into the relationships that we have with Africa as a whole, through the African Union, and that we have at the bilateral level.

In my view we’ve made real strides in doing that:

We have recently established diplomatic relations with Burkina Faso, Liberia, Republic of Congo and Niger.

We have announced that scholarships will increase from 100 to 1000 in the next 3 years.

Our development assistance has grown from $116m in 2008/9 to $163m in 2009/10 and the government has reiterated its commitment to increasing our spending on ODI to .5% of GNI by 2015.

We have USD20 bn of investment in current and potential projects in the resources sector in Africa and more than 300 Australian mining, oil and gas companies active throughout Africa. And despite the global economic crisis the majority of Australian companies have indicated their willingness to stay the distance in Africa through the tough times.

We have Australians and Africans travelling between our respective countries ever day as the strength of our people-to-people links – through sport, through education, through business and through culture – continue to grow.

And we work cooperatively in multilateral forums where our collective voices on global issues like climate change and food security are all the stronger because they are raised together.

Australia’s commitment to multilateralism is a key pillar of our foreign policy and we are determined to ensure that multilateral institutions and processes – including the UN Security council – can and do play a central role in meeting those global challenges.

So Ladies and Gentlemen – you can see why I am proud to be an Australian High Commissioner in Africa at this time – as our bonds grow ever stronger and our relationships become more substantive.

I’ve spoken to you about Australia’s enhanced engagement at the broad level but Ladies and Gentlemen tonight is really about Australia’s enhanced engagement strategy at the micro level – its about getting to know each other and making friends.

Thank you for joining us tonight and I propose a toast to Africa and Australia.