Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House

(1) acknowledges the success of the New Colombo Plan (Plan);

(2) recognises that the Plan will have supported more than 30,000 Australian undergraduates to live, study and undertake internships in the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2018;

(3) welcomes the establishment of the Plan’s alumni ambassadors program, which will support the Plan’s alumnus from across the country to promote the value of engaging with the Indo-Pacific region;

(4) notes that numerous prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers of the lndo-Pacific region have lauded the Plan as evidence of Australia’s commitment to building enduring relationships across the region; and

(5) recognises that the Plan is enhancing Asian literacy amongst Australian undergraduates, deepening Australia’s engagement in the region and strengthening Australia’s international education sector, which is one of our largest services export industries.

I am delighted to move this motion today to recognise the extraordinary success of the New Colombo Plan. I would like to start by paying tribute to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who devised and implemented the plan. Not only does the plan partner with our neighbours in the region; it provides incredible educational and life experiences for our university students and builds relationships in countries from India to Indonesia, Bangladesh to Burma and Pakistan to Papua New Guinea.

Now, more than ever, our nation must strengthen its relationships with our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific. The emerging prominence of these economies and their growing middle class demands that Australia builds a thorough understanding of our region. This knowledge must permeate all of our institutions, from government to business and throughout the public. The New Colombo Plan, devised and executed by our foreign minister, is a signature and forward-thinking initiative of the coalition government that works towards these aims and, while doing so, provides life-changing educational experiences for some of our best and brightest young minds.

The immense success of the plan can be seen in its uptake among students. By the end of 2018 the New Colombo Plan will have supported more than 30,000 students from around Australia to undertake experiences in 40 locations across the Indo-Pacific. In just four years, by the end of 2018, the New Colombo Plan will have supported 770 students from Flinders University, which is in the heart of my electorate and from where, I'm proud to say, I graduated. Sadly, we didn't have the New Colombo Plan when I was going through. In this time, across South Australia, the plan will have supported more than 2,327 students, giving each of them a unique and highly useful understanding of their host nations, which will no doubt be of use in their professional life but also to us as a nation overall.

The New Colombo Plan also boasts significant private sector engagement, with 19 champions and over 240 registered businesses as part of the plan's internship and mentoring network. Again, the substantial private sector interest is testament to the plan's potential over the long term, as our regional neighbours continue to reach new economic milestones.

On Friday, 6 October I was delighted to join the foreign minister as she launched another important aspect of the New Colombo Plan, the South Australian alumni program. At the launch we heard from two incredibly inspirational young students who have participated in the plan: Charlie Hamra from the University of Adelaide and Michelle Howie from the University of South Australia. Michelle studied engineering and Korean at Chung Ang University in Seoul and undertook a research work placement at KAIST, a public research university in Daejon, and she interned at Telstra in Hong Kong. Charlie studied Indian politics and culture at Jamia Millia Islamia and interned at the Centre for Escalation of Peace in New Delhi, where he organised a second-track dialogue between India and Bhutan.

I met Farwaaz Karim from Flinders University. He is Flinders' alumni ambassador and is undertaking bachelor's degrees in law, accounting and economics. In 2015 he undertook a commerce exchange program in Singapore through a New Colombo Plan mobility grant. Since the completion of his exchange he has worked with Spire Research and Consulting, Infrastructure Finance Australia, BankSA and, most recently, the government of South Australia. It's a very impressive list of experiences, which I'm sure were in part inspired by what he learnt overseas.

The mobility grants are an important part of the NCP—the plan—and Flinders uni has made good use of them. At the alumni launch I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Sebastian Raneskold, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International). We heard that Flinders University had sent students to Malaysia and Hong Kong and that 12 nursing and midwifery students will undertake a four-week clinical placement in hospital and community health services in 2018 in Indonesia, our largest and closest neighbour.

In closing, I'd like to remark on two factors that stood out for me at the alumni launch. First was the diplomatic value of the New Colombo Plan and what it delivers for Australia. The foreign minister shared with us the genuine goodwill the plan generates with leaders across our region, from presidents to prime ministers to foreign ministers. Second was the energy and enthusiasm our Australian students now have for the country in which they've studied, the culture they've learnt so much about and the new friendships they've formed. This is a truly great program for Australians and our neighbours alike and I can't wait to see us achieve over 30,000 New Colombo Plan graduates by the end of 2018.

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