Podcasts about australian consul general

Former National Party MP for Gippsland, Australian Consul-General and current Senior Advisor at Bondi Partners, Peter McGaurin, joins Luke Grant to discuss the major issues of the week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 1: Benson Saulo   There are many ways to describe Benson Saulo. A descendant of the Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara Aboriginal nations of Western Victoria, and New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea. The first Indigenous person to be appointed an Australian Consul-General in Australia's history. A former Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner based in Houston. He's represented Australia on the global stage at the United Nations. Now he is the Liberal candidate for Macnamara in Melbourne ahead of the 2025 federal election. But it all started with his passion and belief in faith, family, finance and fairness, which have propelled him forward over his 30-something years to now. Dig deeper and you'll also find that Benson once sported a mohawk and wore a three-piece suit – not at the same time. Be inspired and humbled as you walk with Benson through this special conversation.    TWO AM I Listen Curiously CREDITS   Hosts: Jack Riewoldt and Shane McCurry   Thanks to our guest Benson Saulo   To learn more about Benson: Benson on LinkedIn Benson on Facebook Benson Saulo: Liberal candidate for Macnamara   Links from this episode: First Australians Capital Sobah non-alcoholic drinks Camino de Santiago The Way (movie)     Find TWO AM I on social media here: TWO AM I YouTube TWO AM I Instagram  TWO AM I Tik Tok TWO AM I LinkedIn TWO AM I LinktreeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former Australian consul-general for New Caledonia says a period of considerable instability in the territory is on the cards. Denise Fisher spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Grant Dooley is an experienced international funds manager and the CEO of Breakthrough Victoria, with prior roles at Hastings and heading ARA Infrastructure. Grant had a distinguished career as a Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic trade official for the Australian Government, including two years as the Australian Consul General in China and previously working in Indonesia. It's now time to explore your curiosity. If you're keen to discuss sponsorship and partnering with us, email us at vidit@thehighflyerspodcast.com today! ***

How should we reproduce the content we have designed for our talk?  Do we have to remember it exactly, memorise it so we can be faithful to our speech design and message? If it is a very short speech, you can try and memorise it, but these are usually very special occasions.  Japan is a very formal country, so if you are asked to speak at a friend or subordinate's wedding here, then there are established protocols and sentences you must use in Japanese.  If you greet the Emperor of Japan, then there are set things you must say in Japanese, the specific content will depend on the occasion.  Mick Jagger told me not to drop names, but I have done both and I did memorise the content.  These were short pieces, so I could can manage them without getting myself into trouble.   I did get myself into trouble though, trying to memorise a longer speech.  I was the Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps at the time and was asked to speak at the farewell party for China's Consul General Li, before he left Osaka for America.  I had studied Chinese at University and although pretty rusty, thought I could pull off a short speech.  Because I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese, having lived here in Japan for over thirty years, I had to memorise the content.  The plan was to memorise the first part in Chinese and then switch to Japanese, which is much easier for me.    As the Australian Consul General in Osaka at that time, I thought this would be a pretty deft piece of national branding, emphasising Australia's commitment to Asia.  It seemed like a good idea at the time!   This is where memorisation can get us into trouble, and this includes trying to do it in your native tongue.  Well I wasn't doing this in English, so it was a high risk strategy.  I was doing fine actually, until I got to a quote from the famous poem by Mao Zedong called “Reascending Jinggangshan”.  All of the Chinese guests in the audience immediately recognised it and started applauding enthusistically.  At this juncture I made a fatal error.    After having an internal debate with myself, I decided to wait for the applause to die down and then resume.  Because it was a memorised speech and not natural conversation, it was a forced exercise to remember the words.  Suddenly my mind went completely blank, a total whiteout.    I could not recall which line came next.  If you are ever up on a big stage, facing thousands of expectant faces and your mind goes blank, you will find that a solitary microphone stand is not much cover behind which to hide your embarrassment.  After about 20 seconds of stone motherless silence, which felt like an eternity, I was somehow miraculously able to pick up the next part and complete the speech, before switching into Japanese.  My conclusion is it is probably wiser to avoid memorising your speech.  

Amid sharpening strategic competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, the Biden administration has proposed the concept of ‘integrated deterrence' as a cornerstone for US defence strategy. By collaborating more closely with US allies and partners, and by more effectively combining military and non-military instruments of national power, Washington hopes this new approach will deter Beijing's use of coercion across a wide spectrum of competition. But what exactly does ‘integrated deterrence' mean? Is it really new? How does it intersect with ongoing efforts to increase interoperability among US allies and partners? And what role is there for the Australia-US alliance to bring integrated deterrence into being in the Indo-Pacific? To discuss these issues, the United States Studies Centre (USSC) and Pacific Forum hosted the launch of “Integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific: Advancing the Australia-United States alliance", a new policy brief by Jane Hardy, Visiting Senior Fellow with the USSC and a former Australian Consul-General in Hawaii. Joining her for this in-conversation webinar was Ashley Townshend, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at USSC, and David Santoro, President of Pacific Forum, both founding convenors and co-chairs of the Track 1.5 US-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue. This activity was supported by the Australian Government through a grant by the Australian Department of Defence. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian government or the Australian Department of Defence.

This episode of All About the G features Men's Basketball Forward, Kyle Bowen and Australian Consul-General of San Francisco, Nick Nichles. Listen as the two sat down with Alex Jensen to discuss all things Australia.

he Perth USAsia Centre and United States Studies Centre host a monthly web series in which our CEOs review the latest in US politics with a focus on the US election and US-Indo-Pacific relations. This month's distinguished guests Jeff Bleich, former US Ambassador to Australia and Chelsey Martin, former Australian Consul-General in Los Angeles discussed the US election results with USSC CEO Simon Jackman and Perth USAC CEO Gordon Flake.

After New Caledonia narrowly voted to remain with France, former Australian Consul-General in New Caledonia Denise Fisher explains what the independence referendum means for the wider region.

The Indo-Pacific has rapidly emerged as the world’s most strategically consequential region in the Asian century. But the regional order is straining under China’s assertive use of coercive statecraft and doubts about the United States’ capacity and willingness to uphold a favourable balance of power. These dynamics are deeply troubling for Australia’s strategic outlook and for the security and prosperity of US allies and partners across the region. A stable and rules-based regional order is, however, still achievable. As Abraham Denmark argues in his new book U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century: Empowering Allies and Partners, America’s Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships can – if properly harnessed and supported – enable Washington to underwrite long-term stability in the region and successfully navigate the challenges of intensifying strategic competition. To discuss these issues, the USSC hosted the Australian launch of U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century featuring its author Abraham Denmark, Director of the Asia Program and Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia; Ambassador Jane Hardy, Australian Consul-General in Honolulu; and Ashley Townshend, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre. Abraham M. Denmark is Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Senior Fellow at the Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Denmark previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia, and has held positions at the national Bureau of Asian Research, the Center for a New American Security, in the US Intelligence community. Ambassador Jane M. Hardy is the Consul-General of the Australian Consulate-General Honolulu, having previously served as the Assistant Secretary, Arms control and Counter-Proliferation Branch in the International Security Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Canberra. Prior to this role, Ambassador Hardy served as Australia's Ambassador to Spain, Andorra and Equatorial Guinea.

Today's podcast is with Michaela Browning Australian Consul General for Hong Kong and Macau. Ms Browning is a senior career public servant and was most recently Head of Investment, Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). She has held a range of senior positions including Head of Established Markets and Special Adviser to the CEO on Strategy and China (Austrade) and Senior Adviser to the then Defence and Foreign Ministers. Ms Browning was also a Trade Negotiator at the Doha Development Round and for the free trade agreements Australia negotiated with the USA and Singapore. She has previously served overseas in Thailand and Singapore. Ms Browning holds a Masters in Foreign Affairs & Trade and a Bachelor of Economics with Honours, both from Monash University.

Nervousness when presenting can make us do strange things.  Two of those are reading our speeches or trying to memorise them. Both are a potential disaster and best avoided.  We think we have to read it or memorise it, because we are not sure we will know what to say. We are killing our audience when we read it and we are jousting with a meltdown if we fail in our memorization. Today we will take a look at why these two techniques are a poor choice and look at what we can do instead.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market. Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Tokyo based venture company A.L.I Technologies aims to release a mass market flying motorcycle by twenty  twenty  two. Called a hover bike they plan to sell them in emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where there is poor road infrastructure.  The vehicle will use propeller power to hover centimeters above the ground.  It will stay at the desired altitude through technologies that use sensors to avoid obstacles.  The price will roughly match those of mini vehicles.  In other news, Seven Eleven has launched an experimental program by shortening business hours at some directly run outlets in order to consider whether to revise its policy of operating twenty four hours a day.  There are currently fifty eight thousand convenience stores in Japan, dominated by Seven Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson. Most convenience store chains require that they be run without a break. The labor shortage in japan however is driving this review.  Franchise store owners are finding it increasingly hard to hire staff. There may also be some greater effort toward using automation and artificial intelligence to run stores without staff to get around the staff shortage problems.  Finally, Suicide is the leading cause of death among children aged  ten  to  fourteen  in japan. It now accounts for  twenty  two  point nine  deaths in this age group.  Overall suicides peaked in  two  thousand and  three  at more than  thirty  two  thousand. In  two  thousand  and  seventeen it had dropped to  twenty  thousand  four  hundred and  sixty  five per  year. For children there has been noted surge in suicides after holidays such as the spring and summer vacations.  Last July the government adopted a suicide prevention plan, strengthening counseling on-line while also giving lectures to students on how to seek help when they have concerns. This is episode number seventy NINE and we are talking about  DON'T READ IT     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.The content was really great and the way the words were put together was quite clever.  Obviously a tremendous amount of work had gone into this piece.  The speaker had a previous professional journalistic background and the careful selection of just the right vocabulary and the descriptive flourishes were excellent. The speech however was a dud. It failed miserably because it was a written speech, read to us.  He could have emailed it to all of us and we could have read it for ourselves. If we read it for ourselves and struggled with some of the big clever journo style words, we could still break out our dictionaries and plumb the meaning. The next speaker just spoke. He wasn't such a fluent talker, sometimes stumbling over some of his words, occasionally stuttering, but he had everyone's attention because he was authentic.  He wasn't reading to us, he was looking at us and connecting with us. He had a slide deck, but he just used this as his navigation, to help draw us into his story. The issue here is how should we deliver the content we have designed.  Do we have to remember it exactly, memorise it so we can be faithful to our speech design and message?  Speakers get very hung up on their content.  They feel that they have to deliver the perfect coalition of words to get their message across.  Our first speaker couldn't memorise his speech because it was way too long. That is the case for just about all of us.   Usually the sheer effort required is not worth it.  His speech content was far superior in the construction of the content, compared to the second speaker.  But he failed as a communicator, because he read it to us. All of his effort went into the crafting the script and nothing into the delivery.  It was all about him and how clever he was and not about us in the audience. If it is a very short speech, you can try and memorise it, but these are usually very special occasions. Japan is a very formal country, so if you are asked to speak at a friend or subordinate's wedding here, then there are established protocols and sentences you must use in Japanese.  If you greet the Emperor of Japan, then there are set things you must say in Japanese, the specific content will depend on the occasion.  Mick Jagger told me not to drop names, but I have done both and I did memorise the content. These were short pieces, so I could manage them without getting myself into trouble. However I did get myself into serious trouble though, trying to memorise a longer speech.  I was the Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps at the time and was asked to speak at the farewell party for China's Consul General Li, before he left Osaka for America.  I had studied Chinese at University and although pretty rusty, thought I could pull off a short speech.  Because I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese, having lived here in Japan for thirty years, I had to memorise the content.  The plan was to memorise the first part in Chinese and then switch to Japanese, which was much easier for me.  As the Australian Consul General in Osaka at that time, I thought this would be a pretty deft piece of national branding, emphasising Australia's commitment to Asia.  As we say, it seemed like a good idea at the time! Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backLet me introduce a couple of coming opportunities to you.  On May 27th and July 8th we will run our One Day Successful Public Speaking Course. For two days on July 10thand 11thwe will run our High Impact Presentations course. Details are on our website at emjapan.dalecarnegie.com Back to where we left off. This is where memorisation can get us into trouble, and this includes trying to do it in your native tongue. Well I wasn't doing this in English, so it was a high risk strategy.  So off I went, with no safety net.  I was doing fine actually, until I got to a quote from the famous poem by Mao Zedong called “Reascending Jinggangshan”.  All of the Chinese guests in the audience immediately recognised it and started applauding enthusistically.  At this juncture I made a self inflicted, fatal error.  While they were applauding I was wondering what to do next.  After having a brief internal debate with myself, I decided to wait for the applause to die down and then resume my memorized speech.  Because it was a memorised speech and not natural conversation, it was a forced exercise to remember the words.  Disaster.  Suddenly my mind went completely blank, and I mean a total whiteout.  I could not recall what came next.  If you are ever up on a big stage, facing thousands of expectant faces and your mind goes blank, you will find that a solitary microphone stand is not much cover behind which to hide your embarrassment.  After about 20 seconds of stone motherless silence, which felt like an eternity, I was somehow miraculously able to pick up the next part and complete the speech, before switching into Japanese.  I learnt it is pobably wiser to avoid memorising your speech. Please don't read it to us either, if you can avoid it.  If it is a highly technical speech, something with gargantuan legal implications if you get it wrong, a life or death statement to the media or on behalf of your absent big boss, then you may have no choice. If so, then please use as much eye contact with your audience as possible.  You can study the text, such that you really know the content.   You can read the first part of the sentence, then voice the last section while looking at your audience and still remain perfectly faithful to the sacred text. You can read the words and add in gestures, to emphasis the message.  You can stand straight and tall and project confidence, reliability, credibility and trust rather than hunching down over the microphone stand.  You can have pauses, to allow the audience to digest the key points.  You can hit key words for emphasis and can use voice modulation to bring the text alive. Please, please, please do not have your head down, eyes glued to the text and cut yourself off from your audience.  Even better, read your audience not your text.  Observe if they are buying what you are saying, see if they are understanding the point.  You don't have to memorise your talk or read it to us or read the slides to us.  You can have speaking points and talk to those points. For the vast majority of speeches, a conversational tone of talking to key points will work extremely well. If it is severely formal and you have either memorise it or read it, well go ahead.  However if you don't have that type of caveat, then look at us, talk to us and engage with us.  We will forgive any sins of grammar, pronunciation or lack of speaking fluency in the delivery.  We will connect with you and we will receive your message. We will regard you highly as an authentic person who spoke from their heart.  And we will remember you thereafter in a positive vein. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my weekly podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts. In episode Eighty  we are talking about true north in sales. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Welcome to Trans-Tasman Tales, the free podcast by the Australian High Commission in New Zealand.In today's episode, Australian Consul General & Senior Trade Commissioner sits down with Markus Zusak, one of Australia's most well-known authors. Best known for The Book Thief, Markus and Craig talk about the challenges of writing and those thirteen years working on Bridge of Clay. Markus was in Auckland attending the Auckland Writer's Festival with support from the Australian High Commission in New Zealand. You can watch Markus at the Festival here.Keep up to date with the Australian High Commission in New Zealand by following us on social media: Find us on FacebookFind us on TwitterFind us on LinkedInVisit our website Music by Lee Rosevere

Is it time to say farewell to the Asia-Pacific? In recent years the idea of an ‘Indo-Pacific’ has swept through foreign policy circles all throughout our region. Yet despite its growing popularity in Canberra, Washington, New Delhi and Tokyo, the new mental map is not without its critics. On this special Policy Forum Pod, we play you a public lecture by Rory Medcalf on Indo-Pacific strategy and what the concept means for Australia. We then take the discussion further with David Brewster and Denise Fisher, where we dive into the wheres, whys and what-ifs of the Indo-Pacific. Rory Medcalf is the head of the National Security College at The Australian National University. His professional background involves more than two decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks and journalism. David Brewster is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Security College, Australian National University and a Distinguished Research Fellow with the Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne. He writes widely on Indian strategic affairs and maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. Denise Fisher is Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies. She is a former senior Australian diplomat who has served as Australian Consul General in Noumea, High Commissioner in Zimbabwe, and Political Counsellor in Washington. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Should I Memorise or Read My Presentation Content?   The content was really great and the way the words were put together was quite clever. Obviously a tremendous amount of work had gone into this piece. The speaker had a previous professional journalistic background and the careful selection of just the right vocabulary and the descriptive flourishes were excellent. The speech was a dud.   It failed miserably because it was a written speech, read to us. He could have emailed it to all of us and we could have read it for ourselves. If we read it for ourselves and struggled with some of the big clever journo style words, we could still break out our dictionaries and plumb the meaning.   The next speaker just spoke. He wasn't such a fluent talker, sometimes stumbling over some of his words, occasionally stuttering, but he had everyone's attention because he was authentic. He wasn't reading to us, he was looking at us and connecting with us. He had a slide deck, but he just used this as his navigation, to help draw us into his story.   The issue here is how should we reproduce the content we have designed. Do we have to remember it exactly, memorise it so we can be faithful to our speech design and message? Speakers get very hung up on their content. They feel that they have to deliver the perfect coalition of words to get their message across.   Our first speaker couldn't memorise his speech because it was too long. That is the case for all of us – usually the sheer effort required is not worth it. His speech content was far superior in the construction of the content, compared to the second speaker. But he failed as a communicator, because he read it to us. All of his effort went into the crafting the script and nothing into the delivery.   If it is a very short speech, you can try and memorise it, but these are usually very special occasions. Japan is a very formal country, so if you are asked to speak at a friend or subordinate's wedding here, then there are established protocols and sentences you must use in Japanese. If you greet the Emperor of Japan, then there are set things you must say in Japanese, the specific content will depend on the occasion. Mick Jagger told me not to drop names, but I have done both and I did memorise the content. These were short pieces, so I could can manage them without getting myself into trouble.   I did get myself into trouble though, trying to memorise a longer speech. I was the Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps at the time and was asked to speak at the farewell party for China's Consul General Li, before he left Osaka for America. I had studied Chinese at University and although pretty rusty, thought I could pull off a short speech. Because I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese, having lived here in Japan for thirty years, I had to memorise the content. The plan was to memorise the first part in Chinese and then switch to Japanese, which is much easier for me. As the Australian Consul General in Osaka at that time, I thought this would be a pretty deft piece of national branding, emphasising Australia's commitment to Asia. It seemed like a good idea at the time!   This is where memorisation can get us into trouble, and this includes trying to do it in your native tongue. Well I wasn't doing this in English, so it was a high risk strategy. I was doing fine actually, until I got to a quote from the famous poem by Mao Zedong called “Reascending Jinggangshan”. All of the Chinese guests in the audience immediately recognised it and started applauding enthusistically. At this juncture I made a fatal error.   After having an internal debate with myself, I decided to wait for the applause to die down and then resume. Because it was a memorised speech and not natural conversation, it was a forced exercise to remember the words. Suddenly my mind went completely blank, a total whiteout.   I could not recall what came next. If you are ever up on a big stage, facing thousands of expectant faces and your mind goes blank, you will find that a solitary microphone stand is not much cover behind which to hide your embarrassment. After about 20 seconds of stone motherless silence, which felt like an eternity, I was somehow miraculously able to pick up the next part and complete the speech, before switching into Japanese. Probably wiser to avoid memorising your speech.   Please don't read it to us either, if you can avoid it. If it is a highly technical speech, something with gargantuan legal implications if you get it wrong, a life or death statement to the media or on behalf of your absent big boss, then you may have no choice. If so, then please use as much eye contact with your audience as possible. You can study the text, such that you really know the content.   You can read the first part of the sentence, then voice the last section while looking at your audience and still remain perfectly faithful to the sacred text.   You can read the words and add in gestures, to emphasis the message. You can stand straight and tall and project confidence, reliability, credibility and trust rather than hunching down over the microphone stand. You can have pauses, to allow the audience to digest the key points. You can hit key words for emphasis and can use voice modulation to bring the text alive. Do not have your head down, eyes glued to the text and cut yourself off from your audience.   Even better, read your audience not your text. Observe if they are buying what you are saying, see if they are understanding the point. You don't have to memorise your talk or read it to us or read the slides to us. You can have speaking points and talk to those points.   For the vast majority of speeches, a conversational tone of talking to key points will work extremely well. If it is severely formal and you have either memorise it or read it, well go ahead. However if you don't have that type of caveat, then look at us, talk to us and engage with us. We will forgive any sins of grammar, pronunciation or lack of speaking fluency in the delivery.   We will connect with you and we will receive your message and we will regard you highly as an authentic person who spoke from their heart. And we will remember you in a positive vein.   Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com   If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.   About The Author Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.   A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, "THE Sales Japan series", THE Presentations Japan Series", he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.   Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.    

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping put forward the proposal to boost Eurasian economic integration and infrastructure building through its ambitious “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” initiatives. It is widely regarded as President Xi’s signature economic as well as foreign policy undertaking. The project could involve trillions of dollars of potential investment across many continents including Australia’s immediate neighbouring region: Southeast Asia. On 30 May the Lowy Institute’s Peter Cai spoke to one of Australia’s leading experts on Chinese infrastructure investment, Grant Dooley, the head of Hastings Infrastructure Fund Asia’s practice and the former Australian Consul-General in Guangzhou, China. The Lowy Institute is grateful for the support of our event partner, AMP.

We did it! We reached 100! And to celebrate here is panel of awesome guests - Wil Anderson, Kimberley Cooper, Maude Garrett and Tim Minchin - recorded live at The Parlor in West Hollywood. We catch up a little with each person to see what they’ve been up to since they were on the podcast - Wil’s three hour lunches with the Australian Consul General in Chicago, Maude’s nerd news, Kimberley’s foray into playwrighting and Tim’s ethical and moral dilemmas. Then a glorious chaos descends! Covering the necessity for nudity or (but not both) songs in theatre, Star Wars porn, bad Australian accents, Dave Hughes impressions and The Corrs. But if you take nothing else away from this podcast, please let it be that Tim Minchin REALLY loves dogs.