It is a thrill to be here in Mumbai. It’s great to be back in India after 33 years, but the three months that I spent in India 33 years ago was, as Andrew has just suggested, quite a formative time in my life.
Back then, as Andrew reminded us, here in Mumbai there were nuclear power plants that were being supplied by means of bullock carts. Well, there aren’t too many bullock carts any more, but by gee, there are nuclear power plants, and not just nuclear power plants, because this country – India – has become one of the IT and technological powerhouses of the world in the 30 years since that time.
Since that trip, I have always thought that this country – India – had enormous potential – enormous potential – and it has been very encouraging watching, from afar, to see India increasingly grasping that potential over the last three decades.
A lot of countries have come a long way over the last three decades. China – obviously – Korea – obviously – Indonesia – increasingly, but perhaps no country has gone as far and as fast as India, surprisingly unnoticed until quite recently in Australia. If there is one thing that I would like to do on this visit to India is remind my fellow Australians back home of just how far and how fast India has come over the last 30 years and just how much potential it has for our country as well as for its own citizens and the wider world.
Yes, India is the second most populous country in the world. In purchasing power terms it is the world’s third largest economy already. As I have said repeatedly in recent times, India is the world’s emerging democratic superpower. And, there is so much which India is doing economically that we need to be more conscious of in Australia. The Adani mine, should it go ahead as I hope it will, will be the largest single coal mine Australia has ever seen. The Tata Company has vast interests in Australia and apart from anything else, Tata has finally delivered to the world a reliable Jaguar motorcar – whoever would have thought that you could get into a Jaguar, turn the ignition and find that it goes? Well it does now, thanks to an Indian organisation and Indian know-how!
So, there is so much that India can offer the world and Australia and I am confident that with a new Prime Minister, with a renewed sense of optimism and potential, India is once more on the verge of another economic leap forward.
I think there is considerable potential for partnership between Australia and India. As some of you might recall, on election night in September last year, I said that Australia was under new management and, once more, open for business. I was delighted to see that shortly after his election, Prime Minister Modi said to the wider world, “Come, make in India”. So, I think there is a very similar spirit with the Government of India and the Government of Australia. Both governments want to unleash the creativity and the potential of their people.
Certainly, over the last 12 months – I say this for the benefit of our Indian friends today – substantial progress has been made. The carbon tax is gone. The mining tax is gone. New projects to the value of $800 billion have received environmental approval. We have substantially achieved a situation of a one-stop shop for environmental approvals of major new projects in Australia. A free trade agreement has been concluded with Korea, another with Japan. I gave Andrew Robb a third big task and that was to finalise the free trade agreement with China. He’s well on the way to doing that. But, I now give you a fourth task, Andrew: finish the free trade agreement with India, please! It would be well worth the investment because whenever Australians and Indians get together, we instantly feel comfortable in each other’s company.
There is much history – much history which sadly has been forgotten. Not too many Australians remember that more than half a million horses for the Indian army between the 1860s and the 1930s came from Australia. They were known as ‘walers’ because they left our country from New South Wales. Not many Australians remember that there were thousands of Indians at Gallipoli. In fact, the donkey which Simpson used was supplied to him by an Indian unit serving on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There were more Indians who passed into captivity at the fall of Singapore than there were Australians. Indians served with Australia in the Middle East in both World Wars.
So, there is this abundance of history. There is a similar commitment to democracy, to the rule of law. There is a heritage of language and sport that we can build on. The pity is that for too long India was off to one side; our attention was elsewhere. Now, I’m thrilled that Australia has been focused for a long time on North Asia because strong friendships, strong economic partnerships, have been built as a result of that focus. But as I keep saying, you don’t win new friends by losing old ones. Likewise, it is possible to keep your old friends while building strong and deep new friendships and between Australia and India, it’s not so much a new friendship, as a friendship rediscovered, a friendship rekindled, a friendship revitalised. That’s what I wish to do on this trip.
Now, as Andrew has been reminding people all morning, two-way trade at the present time between Australia and India is about $15 billion a year – a substantial amount. India is our fifth largest merchandise export market, our fifth largest export market for goods. It’s a substantial market, but compared to two-way trade between Australia and China of $150 billion, it’s comparatively tiny. And yet we’ve been focused on the China market for the best part of three decades. Just think what could be achieved between Australia and India if there had been the same focus here as there has been there.
Now, I’m not saying for a moment that we should take our eye off that ball, but I do think there is another opportunity that we have at long last woken up to, and my hope is that this visit will well and truly awaken Australians and Indians to the potential that each of us offer the other. That’s my hope, because I know that when Australians and Indians sit down to talk to each other the conversation flows easily, the jokes are well-understood, the stories and the parallels are all there, we get each other, and if we get each other, we can work with each other, and if we work with each other, our countries will be vastly the better off and the world will be a better and happier place.
So, it is a real thrill to be here. I apologise to our Indian friends today that it’s taken me 33 years to come back from that three month trip all those years ago. This is more like a three day trip than a three month trip, but I hope in its own way it will have just as much impact.
Thank you so much.
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