I'd like to start by acknowledging the Darug and Eora peoples, the traditional owners of the Bankstown and Canterbury area. I pay my respects to their cultural heritage, beliefs, and relationship with the land.
- Your Excellency Dr Siswo Pramono, Indonesian Ambassador to Australia and Vanuatu
- Mr Andos Manggala Lumban Tobing, Acting Indonesian Consul-General in Sydney
- Mr Pat Hanna, President, Australia Indonesia Association
Distinguished guests
I am honoured to join you tonight, as we celebrate eighty years of the Australia Indonesia Association of New South Wales.
Australia looked a little different eighty years ago World War Two had ended in Europe and would soon end in the Pacific.
And despite the war we had experienced in our region, Australia tended to look further afield, to the Northern Hemisphere, for our security – and for our prosperity, influence, and culture.
It was in this environment, and still in wartime, that the inaugural meeting of the Australia Indonesia Association was held in Sydney in support of Indonesian independence.
Minutes from the first meeting enshrined the aims of the Association:
"To promote friendly relations with a region of which Australians have little knowledge, yet a region that will play an important part in Australia's sphere of foreign affairs in the post-war world."
Eighty years ago, this was a visionary mission.
And we have come a long way since then.
Today, Australia has an even greater appreciation of how important Indonesia is to the peace, stability and prosperity of our region.
A partner with whom we cooperate across multiple areas: trade and investment, regional security, defence, development, climate change, and culture. Our two-way trade has doubled since the ratification of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement five years ago.
And Indonesia is now our ninth largest trading partner. Under our Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, we will continue to unlock opportunities for economic cooperation and look for ways we can grow our economic resilience.
And we continue to work together to support and uphold the rules-based system regionally, and multilaterally, including through the historic Australia-Indonesia Defence Cooperation Agreement signed last year.
I mention all of this because in a lot of ways, our friendship now embodies the spirit of the Australia Indonesia Association's original mission.
This has been possible because of the efforts of people in both our countries, including the many Indonesian students who have studied in Australia since the Colombo Plan began in 1951, and the 20,000 or so Indonesian students who choose to study in Australia today;
The young Australians who choose placements in Indonesia under the New Colombo Plan;
Or the cohort of young Australian professionals who will undertake professional placements within Indonesian businesses in September 2025 under our Professional Placements and Internships Program.
We will continue to strengthen connections, across all aspects of the community and work to increase the level of understanding of Indonesia in our businesses, government, education and training services.
And we will continue to be there for each other in times of need.
Here in New South Wales, we remember the thirty-eight Indonesian military personnel, who came here to help our local firefighters battle the Black Summer bushfires in the Blue Mountains.
Just months later, it was Australia that stepped up to help Indonesia manage the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with a support package backing the Indonesian government's health response, expansion of social safety net programs, and economic recovery.
Both instances demonstrate the friendship we share.
To this end, I thank the Australia Indonesia Association, and your thousands of volunteers, for your work over the past eighty years uniting people, promoting cultural exchange, and championing the study of the Indonesian language and Indonesian culture in Australia.
It is an honour to join you here tonight as we recognise and celebrate some of the outstanding people who have made these contributions.
You are following in the footsteps of some great individuals.
Like Molly Bondan, a founding member of the Association, who many here tonight would know played a key role in fostering support for Indonesian independence in Australia.
She later worked as speechwriter and translator for President Sukarno, who often referred to her as his 'English voice'.
Or the late Harold Mitchell, who as Chair of the Australia-Indonesia Centre helped to grow relationships in the arts and culture sector that exist to this day – including between the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Yogyakarta Orchestra.
Or Ibu Koesmarihati Koesnowarso, who arrived in Tasmania under the Colombo Plan in 1961.
After graduating with an engineering degree in 1966, she worked for Telekom back in Indonesia and went on to become the first President of Telkomsel.
She was named the 2023 Alumni of the Year by our Embassy in Jakarta and at 83, continues to support women in the telecommunications sector, and promote engagement between Indonesians and Australians.
It is also my pleasure to present the trophy to our finalists in the Youth Category – as representatives of the future of our relationship.
I look forward to another eighty years of the Australia Indonesia Association promoting and strengthening Australia's relationship with Indonesia.
Thank you.