Keynote address to the 2024 Australia-China Youth Dialogue

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, the Kaurna people, and I pay my respect to their Elders, past and present.

I also acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here with us today.

Thank you to the Australia China Youth Dialogue for the invitation to speak.

This is a full circle moment for me.

In 2015, I was a delegate to the ACYD standing where you are today.

So I know firsthand how valuable this dialogue can be as a platform for engagement and mutual understanding.

My ACYD year was held in Brisbane, which gave delegates an opportunity to head to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast for some traditional Koala diplomacy.

It was almost as much fun as the evening we spent together in a Brisbane karaoke bar stretching the limits of Australian delegates’ Mandarin by working through a catalogue of Mando-pop hits.

But there’s a serious side to this engagement too.

As Australia’s Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, I’ve seen firsthand how people to people connections matter in a bilateral relationship.

I’ve seen how the engagement you have with your peers during the ACYD matter.

The relationships you build in ACYD have the potential to influence and shape the future of the relationship between our countries.

I speak from experience when I say that young leaders in the bilateral relationship often become senior leaders in the relationship!

I met Peter Cai during my time as an ACYD delegate, when he attended as an alumni speaker.

Nearly a decade on we had the opportunity to work together – myself as Assistant Minister, and Peter as the then CEO of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations.

The relationships you form today, last.

Take this opportunity to really get to know your fellow delegates during the ACYD.

Listen carefully to each other.

Foster mutual understanding and then keep in touch – you never know where you’ll all end up!

With ACYD well into its second decade of existence, it now has great alumni who have gone on to build and then reinvest their China experience in a range of consequential ways.

Alumni like Will Glasgow, the Australian’s North Asia correspondent who we are pleased to see returned to China as a working journalist this year, and Sally Sitou, a great friend and colleague of mine in the Australian Parliament.

Needless to say, a lot has happened in the Australia-China relationship since I was a delegate nearly a decade ago.

Since the last election, our Government has worked to stabilise the Australia-China relationship.

We’ve done that through working hard to re-establish dialogue, without compromising the national interest.

There is much on which we can cooperate to the benefit of both countries, such as education, climate change, trade and economic issues, and culture and the arts.

China is our largest trading partner.

Our economies are highly complementary.

It is unquestionably in our national interest to have a stable and constructive relationship, across a whole range of sectors and industries.

Like education, of course – which is so important, as you’re going to be reminded tomorrow when this program moves to Adelaide University.

But I also want to mention climate change and energy, because the work we are all doing to decarbonise our economies and transition away from fossil fuels is critical to global wellbeing in the future.

From Australia’s perspective, we have worked to keep our engagement calm, patient, calibrated and deliberate but dialogue goes both ways.

As the Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, both countries have to choose to work positively towards a more stable and constructive relationship.

Like any two countries, our interests will differ at times.

There will be issues on which we continue to disagree.

But our engagement will mean that we have more avenues to navigate differences wisely and to advocate for our national interest.

It will help us find mutual and respectful resolutions of differences, ways in which we can work together to build trust.

Prime Minister Albanese met with President Xi in the margins of the G20 Summit in Rio just earlier this week.

Premier Li visited Australia earlier this year, the first visit by a Chinese Premier to Australia in seven years.

I’m pleased that an Australian Parliamentary delegation recently visited China – the first Australian delegation to do so in five years.

I was particularly pleased that one delegate, Sam Lim MP, the Member for Tangney, used copies of my book, The Golden Country, translated into Mandarin by respected translator and Australia studies scholar Li Yao, as a thank you gift along the way.

It was another small example of the role that personal ties and people to people links can play in connecting our countries.

They are at the heart of any relationship.

Political leader engagements, students and tourists, cultural and sporting exchanges, these links all enrich both our countries.

Engagement and understanding, at all levels, matters.

Today, as delegates, you have become part of the people to people ties that connect our two countries, part of that important engagement.

Thank you for taking on this responsibility.

I look forward to seeing what important roles you will play in our shared future.

Who knows which of you could be staring back at your successors in a few years time, just like I am today?

Thanks again for having me.