PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much Ridwaan and welcome everybody. Now relax, relax.
[Laughter]
Look, it’s wonderful to be here with you and I join Ridwaan in acknowledging that we are on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and we pay our respects to their elders past and present.
This is my first official event as part of the ASEAN–Australia Special Summit and as Ridwaan said it’s the first meeting that we’ve held - the first ASEAN-Australia Summit - that we’ve held in Australia.
So, it comes at a really historic point in our engagement with the region, with ASEAN and South East Asia. It’s a time when rapid change is creating new opportunities for Australia and ASEAN to work more closely than ever before. You are the way in which we are going to work, because it is you that are providing the energy and the entrepreneurship and very often the idealism, to make it all happen.
It’s a time which we might characterise by very rapid change. The most rapid change in human history, both in its scale and pace. It’s easy, I think, as we are carried along with all these technological advances, to overlook how rapid that change is. Think about the smartphone in your pocket. The first smartphone was 2007, that is not a very long time ago. A platform like Facebook, with a couple billion customers, started in 2005. Yet again, that’s not a very long time ago.
It’s a time that requires us to all be open to new ideas, to innovation, to mutually beneficial partnerships and, by doing so, secure greater prosperity and security for our nations, our communities, working together.
So I’m really pleased that my first stop at this Summit, is to talk to you; the young social entrepreneurs whose innovative work is a real inspiration.
We need you. We need your ideas, your foresight, your courage and skills.
We need your commitment to freedom and openness and of course the hard work.
We need your compassion, too.
Enterprise — free, open enterprise — is the source of jobs, growth and prosperity. It brings enormous rewards for individuals and their families. But as each of you have shown through your altruistic efforts, enterprise also benefits societies and makes communities stronger.
Look for instance at the example set by some of you here today. Our own Ashleigh Morris, who co-founded ‘The Circular Experiment’ and is working with small businesses to minimise waste through better planning.
Indonesia’s Samantha Agung, whose organisation ‘The Ketemu Project’ is developing projects to address social issues through artistic expression.
Malaysia’s Redza Shahid, founder of ‘Grub Cycle’, is making surplus food available at low costs in Kuala Lumpur.
Everyone here has a similarly impressive story and I want to congratulate you on your efforts.
So the Australia–ASEAN Emerging Leaders’ Program asks you to consider some of the region’s most challenging social and economic problems, including gender equality.
Australia has long recognised the value of partnering with the private sector to address global development challenges.
This was acknowledged most recently in our Foreign Policy White Paper, which I commend to you, and our aid program proudly supports many innovative social enterprises. I’ll give you a quick example. In Indonesia, an online marketplace called ‘iGrow’ is connecting underemployed farmers with underutilised land and capital, so they can produce high-quality organic food. To date, they have created work for 2,200 farmers, who as a result, have seen their income increase by 50 to 100 per cent. It’s a wonderful innovation and our aid program is currently supporting iGrow to update its platform. This will help it attract more farmers and investors, and train farmers in new technologies like using drones to manage their crops. It’s the type of initiative that with new leaders like yourselves emerging, I expect we’ll see more of in the years ahead.
When I meet leaders in the coming days, we’ll also discuss how Australia and ASEAN can work together to promote regional security and prosperity.
That includes how to cooperate more closely on countering terrorism and promoting deeper integration between our economies. I believe as your generation takes on the challenges of leadership, your way of working and your particular skills as social entrepreneurs, will be vital in addressing the complex challenges we face.
As I’ve said, these challenges will not, cannot, be solved by governments alone. The people are, without doubt, a nation’s greatest asset. They are the source of ideas and ingenuity and it’s through your enterprise and the enterprise of thousands of others like you - and willingness to work together - that we will secure greater prosperity for our families, our communities and our nations.
So, I am looking forward, very much, to now hearing from you.
Thank you.
[ENDS]