I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we’re all meeting.
In Canberra, those custodians are the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples. In Sydney, where I am, the custodians are the Gadigal people. I’d like to pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.
I also want to thank the ANU International Relations Society for this invitation.
It is an encouraging sign that young people are interested in IR to the point of turning up on a Saturday morning to hear from me!
I’d like to start by going back almost eighty years.
To a semi-chaotic conference room in San Francisco, in the middle of 1945, where a delegation of Australian politicians and officials was hard at work, lobbying and arguing with the delegations of other countries.
In the Australian delegation was a future prime minister, in Frank Forde.
And a future foreign affairs minister and governor-general, in Paul Hasluck.
And the trailblazer Jessie Street, who was the only female adviser on the Australian delegation, and one of only eight women among the conference’s 850 delegates.
Jessie made a remarkable contribution, leading efforts to secure the inclusion of ‘sex’ in the anti-discrimination clause of the UN Charter.
And there was also a man who, even though he wasn’t the leader of the delegation, was nonetheless the cause of much of the chaos in the conference room.
He was a brilliant man, a doctor of laws and a former justice of the High Court, who ever since his arrival at this conference had been working from early in the morning until late at night, searching for ways to cajole and persuade and shift others to his view.
He worked at such a pace, with such intensity and ferocity, that Hasluck would later wonder what ‘strange demon’ possessed him.
That man was H.V. Evatt, the ‘Doc’.
And he and this delegation had come to San Francisco to negotiate and settle the Charter of the new United Nations.
In its initial draft, the Charter gave considerable power to the great powers of the day, to the US, the USSR, the UK, France, and China.
Evatt wanted to change this.
His arguments, sustained over more than two months of debate and lobbying, were driven by the belief that a complete deferral by smaller countries to the larger and more powerful countries was unworkable.
That it was undemocratic.
That it was illiberal.
That it would exclude the small and medium powers like Australia from any influence in international affairs.
Now, as many of you will undoubtedly be aware, Evatt’s arguments didn’t completely carry the day.
He won changes on some points, lost on others.
But one victory proved particularly enduring. It reflected Australia’s vision of its place in the world.
Evatt’s defence of the rights of smaller and medium powers helped shape a lasting Australian tradition.
Today, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has renewed and expanded that tradition through what she calls 'amplified middle power diplomacy'.
It has become a defining feature of Australia's engagement with the world.
At its core is a simple proposition: Australia may not have the power to impose outcomes on others, but we do have the capacity to shape outcomes alongside others.
By strengthening our partnerships, building coalitions and supporting the rules that underpin stability and prosperity, we can help shape the world around us in ways that advance Australia's interests.
That’s because, at its core, amplified middle power diplomacy advances a claim about our identity, our values, and our interests.
And that begins with a recognition.
That while Australia is not a great power, able to impose outcomes on the world as a great power might…
We have nonetheless an influence and standing in the world that is derived from the causes we champion, the interests we advocate, and the interests we pursue.
That gives us a power to shape the world for the better.
We can work effectively in collaboration with partners and neighbours to do so.
And whether it’s through the sanctions that Australia helped enforce to bring about the end of apartheid in South Africa…
Or the peace that Australia helped bring about in Cambodia …
Or the commitment to environmental protection that Australia helped foster for the Antarctic…
History has shown that middle power diplomacy is effective.
And we practice it today.
The world right now is more fragmented, contested, and volatile.
Strategic competition is intensifying.
Economic and security interests are converging.
International rules and norms are being tested.
And conflict and instability are throwing into relief our interdependence.
We have to take this world for what it is and, as a middle power, use our standing and influence to shape it for the better.
In practice, that means focusing on our region, the Indo-Pacific.
Which we want to be peaceful, stable, and prosperous.
It’s why we devote more than 75 cents of every development dollar to the region, supporting long-term growth, prosperity, and stability.
It means strengthening our relationships and partnerships, both in our region and further abroad.
Developing more areas of co-operation and collaboration, so that we can solve problems and spread mutual benefits.
Hence our work boosting our relationships across the board: our upgraded strategic partnerships, our alliances and treaties, our free trade agreements, and more.
Australia’s partnerships across the Pacific have deepened significantly over the past year.
In June, Australia and Vanuatu signed the landmark Nakamal Agreement.
It’s a treaty named for the traditional meeting place where communities consult and make decisions with mutual respect.
The agreement formalises cooperation across security, humanitarian response, climate resilience and economic development.
It strengthens the foundations of our Pacific family, ensuring both our nations can better navigate shared challenges.
Our partnership with Papua New Guinea has also entered a new era with the Pukpuk Treaty.
The Australia–PNG Bilateral Security Treaty is our first‑ever mutual defence treaty, which officially came into force in July.
The treaty reflects decades of trust and cooperation.
It is a practical demonstration of Australia’s commitment to supporting PNG’s stability and sovereignty, and to working together as equal partners in the Pacific.
Likewise, our Ocean of Peace Alliance, with Fiji, expands our existing defence co-operation into a mutual defence treaty.
It is the first alliance of its kind for Fiji, and along with the Vuvale Union, which sets out ambitious commitments across the breadth of our relationship, gives practical effect to the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration.
The historic PNG and the Fiji mutual defence treaties both strengthen the capability and integration of our defence forces, including joint training, and coordinated responses to regional security challenges, ensuring that at times of crisis we can respond, quickly and effectively, together.
These agreements sit alongside Australia’s broader Pacific engagement, including recent leader‑level meetings with Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga.
Our partnership with Tuvalu was strengthened with the signing of the Falepili Union in 2023 and its entering into force the following year.
The Union reflects Tuvaluan values of care, protection and mutual responsibility, falepili.
It includes a landmark mobility pathway that ensures Tuvaluans affected by climate impacts have access to safe, legal migration options.
This partnership is a clear example of Australia working with Pacific nations on their priorities.
We’re listening to, and working with, a region that remains stable, resilient and secure.
Australia’s partnerships in Southeast Asia are just as critical to our regional diplomacy as our work in the Pacific.
At the centre of that engagement is ASEAN – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
It’s a grouping whose stability, cohesion and leadership are essential to a peaceful and prosperous Indo‑Pacific.
For more than fifty years, ASEAN has helped maintain a strategic equilibrium in our region.
Australia was the first country to become an ASEAN Dialogue Partner.
And today our cooperation spans security, economic integration, climate resilience, education, digital transformation and people‑to‑people ties.
That is why the Albanese Government has significantly deepened our engagement with Southeast Asia, including through the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Our partnerships with Indonesia – which I visited last month, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines – where I travelled in March this year – are broader and more ambitious than at any point in our history.
The Jakarta Treaty, signed earlier this year, is a clear example.
It’s a landmark agreement that strengthens cooperation with Indonesia across defence, economic engagement, climate action and people‑to‑people links.
It reflects the reality that Australia’s future is inseparable from the future of Southeast Asia.
To support that future, Australia has launched Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.
It’s the most comprehensive economic engagement plan we have ever developed for the region.
And it’s driving new partnerships, new commercial opportunities and new institutional cooperation.
Middle power diplomacy means being a practical and engaged supporter of the rules-based order that has underpinned global prosperity and stability.
Championing those rules which are working, reforming those rules which are not, and developing new and effective approaches to problems that the rules don’t address.
Hence why I went to the WTO’s ministerial conference this year, in Cameroon, working with sixty-six other countries to establish the world’s first global digital trade rules.
And, lastly, it means strengthening resilience across our region, to ensure that we and our partners and neighbours can ride out adversity, ensuring security and stability.
This is effective, middle power diplomacy in action.
Now, I will grant you that middle power diplomacy has its share of sceptics and naysayers.
In the current global environment, increasingly defined by the geostrategic rivalry between the United States and China, middle power diplomacy may sound unviable.
It may sound too difficult to co-ordinate among countries with different priorities and political systems, each grappling with their own problems.
And there is some truth to the argument that no middle power coalition can replicate the capabilities provided by the US, for example.
But I would suggest that these criticisms mistake the aims of middle power diplomacy.
Middle power diplomacy is not about replacing great powers.
It’s not about compensating for them or counterbalancing them.
Middle power diplomacy is, fundamentally, about exercising agency.
Shaping outcomes in specific domains, sometimes incrementally, sometimes decisively.
It’s about agenda setting and co-ordinating, about building common cause to make change.
It’s about working with partners to do things that we couldn’t do alone.
The WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference in Cameroon was an opportunity for Australia to continue working alongside sixty‑six other countries to advance practical reforms that strengthen the global trading system.
At that conference, members celebrated the entry into force of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
It’s a landmark reform designed to curb harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing and threaten the livelihoods of coastal communities, especially in the Pacific.
Australia strongly supported this agreement because sustainable fisheries are central to food security, economic resilience and long‑term stability across our region.
We also helped deliver the world’s first globally relevant digital trade rules through the new E‑Commerce Agreement, co‑sponsored with Singapore and Japan and now supported by dozens of WTO members.
These rules help reduce costs for businesses, improve productivity, and create more predictable digital trading conditions across all sectors.
For a country like Australia, where our economic future is tied to digital integration with the Indo‑Pacific, this agreement exemplifies how middle powers can set agendas and build coalitions to shape global norms.
It’s about effecting change in the international rules, making them fit-for-purpose shaping the world to be less volatile, so that disputes may be resolved peacefully, and countries of all sizes may pursue their interests and make their own choices, free of interference.
It’s about acting with purpose and aforethought.
Creating change together, for mutual benefit.
I started by speaking about Doc Evatt, so it’s fitting to finish with him.
The idealism with which Evatt championed small and medium powers was, on the face of it, outrageous.
At the time that conference was taking place in San Francisco, the Second World War was still going.
People were being killed in unprecedented numbers.
The full revelations of the Holocaust were shortly to emerge, and two atomic bombs were soon to be dropped on Japan.
And the international body that had been set up to stop conflicts, the League of Nations, had failed dismally.
In that moment, the idea that a new global multilateral could work, and that it should be made to work in the interests of the world, for all powers great and small, must have seemed far-fetched.
But I think that if Evatt could find sufficient idealism at that moment to lobby and cajole and agitate with such determination and resolve, then we can too.
The challenges that exist in this world are formidable.
But Australia’s tradition of middle power diplomacy shows us the way to surmount those challenges.
And bring about a future of prosperity, security, and stability.
Thank you.