Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that travelling and living overseas has been a rite of passage for young Australians for many years and has raised awareness of and respect for foreign cultures;

(2) acknowledges that the New Colombo Plan (NCP) is an innovative scholarship scheme that supports and encourages Australian students to undertake study and internships in the Indo-Pacific region;

(3) recognises the success of the NCP's pilot year in 2014, in which 40 scholars and 1,300 mobility students were supported to live, study and undertake work placements in the four pilot locations of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore;

(4) notes that in 2015 the NCP has been substantially expanded to offer support to 68 scholars and 3,100 mobility students in more than 32 host locations across the region; and

(5) acknowledges the Government's ongoing commitment of $100 million over five years to the NCP.

I congratulate the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, on this initiative, which is administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with the Commonwealth government committing $100 million over five years to the program.

The concept is straightforward. The New Colombo Plan supports and encourages Australian students to undertake study and internships with many of our near neighbours in the Indo-Pacific. Traditionally, Australian students who have sought study opportunities overseas have tended to study in Europe and North America. The New Colombo Plan seeks to reverse that trend by making it more attractive to study in nations closer to home. It takes its name from the original Colombo Plan of the 1950s, in which the most promising students in the region were offered scholarships to study in Australia. They took with them not just degrees but a better understanding of Australia and links with our nation that served us well in the decades that followed.

But this straightforward concept belies a more complex purpose. At a base level, participating students will have the opportunity to gain knowledge towards their degrees or work experience in a different cultural environment. However, the value of the New Colombo Plan is even much greater than that, because this plan is as much about diplomacy as it is about vocational and higher education. The strength of a nation is not just measured by the size of its economy or the might of its military. Nor is diplomacy only the domain of politicians and diplomats. Strength lies in knowledge, knowledge informs diplomacy and diplomacy takes place everywhere: in boardrooms, at universities, at tourism sites—wherever we interact with people from other nations. The New Colombo Plan recognises that future generations of Australians, thought leaders across all disciplines, need to have a greater understanding of the cultural and linguistic sensibilities of our near neighbours. The world has changed in recent decades and Australia's place in it has changed.

At the turn of the 20th century the US and UK combined to account for around 75 per cent of the value of Australian international trade; however, by 2014 that figure had fallen to just 12 per cent. These days our top 10 Indo-Pacific trading partners account for 60 per cent of the value of Australian trade. This proportion is continuing to grow on the back of our new trade agreements. That is why the New Colombo Plan is so important to Australia's future. It is an investment in the knowledge that our future leaders will need in order to interact with their counterparts in nations in our region. It is an opportunity for them to gain an enhanced understanding of our near neighbours and forge networks and friendships that will last a lifetime and serve our country in the decades to come.

Madam Deputy Speaker, 2015 is a milestone year for the New Colombo Plan. Following a successful pilot in 2014, this year has been expanded from four to 35 locations—expanding from eastern Pacific Islands states to Pakistan in the west—with more than 4,600 students currently participating. It has recently been announced that a further 5,450 students will participate in the 2016 round, bringing the total number of participating students to more than 10,000 in the first three years of the program. Two weeks ago Minister Bishop was in Malaysia launching their involvement in the plan. This year 150 Australian students will travel to Malaysia to undertake part of their study as well as gain practical experience through internships, mentoring or work placements. It is pleasing that one of our nearest neighbours, Indonesia, is proving to be a particularly popular destination for students under the New Colombo Plan. This month the foreign minister announced that around 1,000 students studied in Indonesia last year, with a similar number expected for next year.

As I said earlier, the New Colombo Plan comes at a cost of $100 million over five years, but any cost is outweighed by the benefits of the deeper relationships that will be forged with nations in our region, which Australia will continue to profit from for many decades to come. It is a visionary and transformational program and I commend Minister Bishop for her foresight in making it a foreign policy priority of this government. I commend the motion to the House.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Indonesia's newly elected President Joko Widodo unveiled Retno Marsudi as his choice for foreign affairs minister, the reaction of Australia was broadly positive. Apart from being our neighbour's first female minister for foreign affairs, Minister Marsudi had already spent a significant period of time in Australia serving as information secretary from 1990 to 1994. We hoped that this familiarity would see the continuation of generally warm relations with the Indonesian government that would allow us to reap the benefits of a foreign minister who would embrace working with Australia, another Indonesian whom we assumed would want to work with Australia as a starting point, rather than taking a more Realpolitik view of the relationship. We thought that there would be a natural continuation of pro-Australian politicians in Indonesia regardless of the departure of our country's great friend, President Yudhoyono. However, it soon emerged that Minister Marsudi's time in Australia was not as enjoyable as we would have liked. In 1991, her car was vandalised during protests. She is also old enough to remember the Indonesian flag, highly regarded by Indonesians, being burned on Australian streets. We are lucky that despite some of Minister Marsudi's experiences in Australia, she sees Australia as a friend and a partner. We did our best to dissuade her 20 years ago. Thankfully, times have changed in Australia and we would not expect similar things to occur today, but in the future we cannot just rely on luck to go our way in the international arena.

If we are to reap the benefits of the Asian century, Australians have to engage differently with our regional neighbours than we have in the past. As the epicentre of world economic growth is moving further east towards the Indo-Pacific, our region is growing at an unprecedented rate. We all know that the rise of China has been a huge benefit to Australia, but the rise of the Indo-Pacific expands much further than just one country. In 2050 our region will be home to 10 of the world's 25 biggest economies. In a few short decades Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia will become some of the biggest economies in the world. To make the most of this incredible opportunity we must be open to our region, engage with our region, communicate with our region and participate with our region.

Michael Wesley, a former director of the Lowy Institute, once said:

… no longer can Australians leave international affairs to the diplomats.

While government-to-government diplomacy will always have its place—and Michael Wesley is right—engagement in our region must be more than just diplomats socialising at cocktail events. One of the major aspects of this new engagement must be a focus on person-to-person contacts for a ramping up of exchange, and particularly educational exchange. We should send young Australians abroad to study to learn about our region, and welcome students from abroad to learn and study in Australia. Hundreds of leaders of our region have passed through Australia's university system. Not only do we need that to continue, but we must expand these opportunities. Offering scholarships to students in our region not only brings the best minds to Australia, it creates an environment for those personal relationships and common bonds to flourish, much to the national advantage. The Colombo Plan has enabled cultural and educational exchange in our region for decades, something that Australia and the region has benefited from immensely. Australians also need similar experiences. We should be encouraging all university students to go on exchange or do an internship abroad.

These kinds of experiences enable us to better understand other cultures, as well as to learn how other countries do business and practice politics. We should be getting as many young people as possible to experience life overseas and to see the countries in our region as more than just resorts and beaches. The Erasmus Program, in Europe, saw 270,000 students travel to another city in the Euro region in 2012-13 alone. If we are serious about engaging and integrating into our region, Australia needs a program of a similar size. The program should be open not just to international relations and development students, or foreign affairs students, but to our business, law, science and medicine students as well.

Australia already hosts a range of valuable youth dialogues such as the Australia-India Youth Dialogue and the Australia-China Youth Dialogue, and we should encourage and foster new regional connections through these forums. We should in particular encourage the formation of alumni networks from these youth dialogues and international study programs. Through these initiatives we can strengthen and broaden our connections in the region. Leveraging language, personal relationships and cultural capabilities will provide the basis for deep, long-term engagement in the region. Indeed, it is not just language alone that we need to develop proficiency in in our nation. Cultural proficiency of our region is equally important for developing these long-term personal connections and relationships that you rely on in order to advance Australia's interests in the Asian century. This level of engagement will return social, economic and political benefits to Australia and the broader region, and will enable Australia to take full advantage of the possibilities of the Asian century for many centuries to come.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure I rise to speak today about the government's New Colombo Plan. For many years students have come from across the shores to study at our wonderful universities and institutions across our nation. Now, under the New Colombo Plan, $100 million over five years is being provided to help Australia's best and brightest undergraduates to live, study and gain work abroad in the Indo-Pacific region. It is a signature initiative of the Coalition government that offers a prestigious scholarship program. In addition to studying a wide range of disciplines, including language, culture, law, business, engineering and natural sciences, students build new relationships, develop valuable people-to-people links, and are exposed to many new experiences.

The foundation of the New Colombo Plan is intended to be transformational, deepening Australia's relationships in the region, both at the individual level and through expanding university, business and other stakeholder links. It will deepen Australia's people-to-people and institutional relationships with the region through the engagement of students, universities, businesses and other stakeholders' networks in the program.

The success of the pilot program for 2014, which supported 40 scholars, and more than 1,300 mobility students, internships or mentorships, has seen more universities and institutions participating, more undergraduates supported, and more countries being offered as part of the study experience. Since coming to government, the coalition government has provided for 4,500 Australian undergraduate students to study in and gain practical experience in more than 35 countries. By 2016, the New Colombo Plan will provide further funding to 38 universities to support 5,400 students undertaking semester-length, short-term study internships and work-based placements in the region.

Already, 186 Australian undergraduate students from the University of Western Sydney have been supported to live, study and work in our region. These are young, bright and dedicated students, who contribute to Australia's future engagement. This includes six students who have received prestigious, year-long New Colombo Plan scholarships. Timothy Mann, a 2014 scholarship recipient from the electorate of Macquarie, is currently studying biological and molecular biological sciences at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Timothy will intern at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute.

The remaining 180 students have benefited from the New Colombo Plan mobility grants that support short- and longer term study, internships and practicums in the region. In 2015, 69 Australian undergraduate students will receive prestigious New Colombo Plan scholarships to live, study and work in the region for up to one year across 17 locations in the Indo-Pacific. The University of Western Sydney will send 10 students to India to undertake a four-week study program at the Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, University of Calcutta. This project supports the Indian government's Connect to India initiative. Twenty nursing students will travel to Thailand to study healthcare delivery in the remote districts. Fifteen social science, community development, planning and tourism students will travel to rural communities in Vietnam to examine issues relating to poverty and climate change. Among these 69 is Ms Charlee Law from the electorate of Macquarie, a student of the University of Western Sydney—or Western Sydney University, as it is now known—who is studying natural and physical science at the National University of Singapore. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Law here at Parliament House in December 2014—a delightful young woman who was well deserving of her scholarship. Ms Law said to me at the time, 'I'm humbled by the opportunity to be part of the 2015 New Colombo Plan and would like to sincerely thank the Australian government for supporting such a wonderful initiative.' She went on to say, 'The New Colombo Plan scholarship will allow me to gain a rich perspective and firsthand experience of the achievements Singapore has had in this area.' Also at the event at the University of Western Sydney was Lakshmi Logathassan, who is to study political science and law at the National University of Singapore.

The New Colombo Plan offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help equip students with the skills and experience needed to engage the dynamic Indo-Pacific region. I thank all universities and institutions that participate in this wonderful program, particularly—from the electorate of Macquarie—Professor Barney Glover from Western Sydney University. I also specifically acknowledge Foreign Minister Bishop for having the fortitude and the courage to see this program through to fruition, built on her own experience. I also acknowledge her strong work in building and strengthening our relationship with Indonesia. She is an excellent ambassador for this nation of Australia.

Debate adjourned.